My First Game Jam - Berlin Mini Jam 2024

How I Found My Way to the Berlin Mini Jam

In December 2024, I registered for the Berlin Mini Jam through Meetup and took part. Until then, I only knew Game Jams from YouTube, where they mostly took place online over multiple days. However, I did not want to participate alone and had no friends who would join me. All the more reason I was happy to see that the Berlin Mini Jam was a local event - a perfect chance to meet new people.

Getting to Berlin proved somewhat tricky. Finding a parking space was not easy, but I managed. After arriving, the event started with a round of introductions where everyone could chat and get to know each other. I quickly noticed that many were attending a Game Jam for the first time. It also turned out that most participants used Unity, a few used Godot, and nobody used Unreal. That worked fine for me: although it had been around eight years since I last used Unity, I still remembered how to set up UIs and generally handle the engine from my previous experience with Vuforia for AR.

Choosing a Theme and Forming a Team

After the introductions, the themes for the jam were announced. They were:

• Raccoons

• Harmless Weapons of Mass Destruction

• I'm Hungry

Participants could follow these themes but were not required to. Once the themes were announced, we began team formation. I teamed up with papyroll (design and dialogues) and metalpriest94 (programming). We did not know each other beforehand, but that changed quickly - we got along well and enjoyed working together.

The Game Idea: From Planet Eater to Visual Novel

Our original idea was a game where a raccoon becomes ever larger as it eats more trash - eventually moving on to entire planets. But when we pitched the concept and searched for more teammates, we spontaneously changed our plans: we developed a visual novel instead! In it, a raccoon uses a dating app to find out where you live - so it can get your trash.

Development: A Complete Game in 7 Hours

None of us had created a visual novel in Unity before, so we needed a plan. We decided to use GitHub, created a repository, and used issues to assign tasks. After picking a name and setting up Unity, we were able to start implementing our game within just 30 minutes - faster than expected!

Task distribution:

• papyroll: Design, pixel art, dialogue

• metalpriest94 & me: Programming, UI, scene creation

We had planned multiple endings and more interactivity for the dialogues, but with only seven hours, we settled for a simple points system: Each player answer gave plus or minus points, ending in one of four possible outcomes.

From a technical perspective, we used ScriptableObjects for the dialogue. I handled the UI and scene design, while metalpriest94 and I imported and tested the dialogues together.

Final Stretch: Bugs, Stress, and Success

As often happens in programming, a few bugs cropped up at the last minute, especially incorrect images in the dialogues. We managed to fix most of them quickly, and wrapped up just in time to present our game.

I was proud that we had completed a working game in such a short period, even if it lacked audio. During the presentation, it turned out we were not the only ones with technical issues: some teams only had a prototype, some got bogged down by bugs, and others only managed to produce music. Still, it did not dampen the mood.

I was especially pleased that our game was well-received by the other participants and got a few laughs.

Conclusion: My First Game Jam, But Not My Last!

The Berlin Mini Jam was an incredibly interesting experience for my first jam and went better than expected. I met many new people, learned a lot about game development in Unity, and built a complete game with my team in just seven hours. It was stressful but very rewarding.

You can check out and play our finished game here: I want you(r trash). There are also a few other projects from the jam here: Berlin Mini Jam 2024.

I am already looking forward to the next Game Jam!