The Global Game Jam has passed into the realms of history, and the crash from the 48-hour caffeine buzz has just about worn off. It was a brilliant weekend, even better than 2009 if I may say so!

This year I teamed up with Matthew Simmons, Chris O’Donovan and Martyn Poole in Team FAIL HARDER (Team FAIL from last year, plus two) to produce the Global Game Jam Game Jam Boat Game. I spent my weekend up to my eyeballs in PHP, C# and pizza and made it through training alive.

Training for what, you say?

The X48 Microsoft XNA GameCamp will be at Birmingham City University next Friday-Saturday (19th-20th Feb) and Matthew Simmons, Martyn Poole, Jason Thomas and I will be there!

Over the weekend, we will have roughly 24 hours to produce a game using Microsoft’s XNA Framework, so it’s all the work in about half the time! Last year in Derby, my team produced Bellis Perennis which made 3rd place, so we have something to live up to this time!

Some interesting stats from last year’s X48 event - in 48 hours, we went through:

• 264 chocolate bars,
• 90 pints of milk,
• 80 Freddo bars,
• 100 assorted pizzas, and
• 315 assorted cans of energy drink

(More stats available at daytum.com/x48)

I’ll be tweeting from the event (as usual) via my Twitter page, and if you’re going I’ll see you there! The Inside Xbox video from last year’s event can be found below if you’re still wondering what it’s all about (look out for me at the back of my team at 1:35):

Developing a game in less than 48 hours is hard. It’s hard to stop your brain from melting, and hard to produce anything near useable code when you’re blood is 98% supermarket own-brand carbonated caffiene drink substitute at 4 in the morning. With less than a week to go until Global Game Jam 2010, I thought I’d share my top tips for surviving a quick-fire game development event…

1. Don’t limit your ideas

Given such a short time, you may be panicking about just what is possible in the time. Don’t. At least, don’t in the ideas stage. Take 15 minutes at the start for everyone in your team to come up with ideas, no matter how ambitious or stupid-sounding. Discuss them together - someone’s failed idea could spark the next big thing from someone else’s brain!

2. Don’t try to be a robot

You’ll perform much better if you take time out to sleep. Ok, you’ll lose a few hours of development time, but the vastly increased productivity of a fresh team will more than make up for it. Don’t rely on energy drinks to get you through.

3. K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple (and) Stupid. If there’s an easy way of doing something, do it! You don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. Just be wary of any copyright or rules restrictions on the competition you’re in.

4. A good mix

There’s no point in having a team of 8 people, entirely made up of programmers who’ve only ever made one game in their life between them. Get a mixture of game artists and programmers and don’t make the team too large - Otherwise it’ll be a nightmare at the end when you’ve got to tie everyone’s stuff together and find half of it doesn’t work. In my experience, 2 artists and 2 programmers are plenty without going over-the-top.

5. Play to your strengths

Don’t make your amazing 2D artist struggle around with 3D modelling software; likewise don’t throw a Source engine specialist in at the deep end with the Unreal Development Kit. It’ll end up like porridge in a blender - a big sticky mess spread all over the kitchen.

6. An army marches on it’s stomach

Gummy bears and an IV drip of cheap syrup-y supermarket own-brand caffeine drinks should be supplied and refilled as required.

7. Don’t get tied to the computer

If you get bored, do something else for a while. Play a game, take a walk, talk to fellow developers, eat, sleep, do a handstand, learn to drive… oops, too far. Just do something away from the computer for a while to recharge.

8. Watch this video!

Last year’s Global Game Jam keynote video should be your first port of call… well, after this blog entry now I suppose… Anyway, it provides 8 tips for making the actual game itself, rather than simply staying alive through the event!

(Kyle Gabler’s tips section starts at 1:36 if you want to skip ahead)

9. Don’t be afraid for it to blow up in your face

Yes this is just a repeat of Mr Gabler’s last tip, but it bears repeating. The less you care about your game, the less it’ll suck. You’ll be more open to input from other people and be in less of a frantic rush to fix every little thing right at the end.

So have fun, and try not to pass out from exhaustion. If you’re doing the Global Game Jam next week, keep an eye on the webcams and I shall see you then!

I’ve seen my fair share of game studio recruitment sites, but most have yet to realise that the only real way to really speak to me is through the medium of catchy song lyrics.

Even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play with our pinballlllllllllllllllllllz…

This summer’s calendar is certainly looking busy…

The 2009 Imagine Cup has just finished, but already the Poland 2010 event is starting! I’ve signed up for the Imagine Cup 2010 and ideas are already forming… The round 1 deadline is 1st April 2010, so who knows what might happen before then?

I’ll be posting progress updates on the blog as I go along, but nothing too detailed until after the round 1 deadline - we wouldn’t want cheating, would we?

Also on the cards for the near future is the Independent Games Festival Student Showcase 2010. Not sure about whether I’ll get time to do it, but I’ll certainly have a go!

Unfortunately, Dream-Build-Play is looking like a non-starter for me, due to this year’s event being an Xbox-only competition. Not having an Xbox myself, developing for one is going to be just a tiny bit difficult… Maybe next year.

Various videos from the Microsoft Student Celebration Day held at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, which I was fortunate enough to have attended back in April, are now available for all to view. Of particular interest to me was the talk on fast route finding by Simon Peyton Jones (shown in the video above). If you want a clearer look at the slides from that presentation, they’re available in all their crystal-clear glory here.

More videos from the event are available from Ed Dunhill’s blog, with accompanying slides here.

Kodu Game Lab from Microsoft looks like an interesting tool for co-op game creation on the Xbox 360. While I don’t foresee “the next big thing” in gaming being created with it, it certainly seems like its simple interface and ease of use could just have the potential to kick-start some new programming and design talent into considering the games industry as a viable career choice, which can only be good in the long-run.