So, game jams. Let's talk about them for a second.
For those unfamiliar with interactive spaces or game jams in general, let's get the easy part out of the way first.
What IS a Game Jam?
Typically, a game jam is an event where individuals from all over come together to make a game in a very short time—usually 24-48 hours. It's like a hackathon, but for games. Bonus points if you survive.
Most games are incredibly short and often fit into one of two categories at the start: Simple & Broad or Overly Complex & Hyper-Specific (see "Molyjam").
It's truly a marathon that tests your ability to prioritize, collaborate, create, test, write, and engineer your way out of an incredibly complex industry that many consume but very few actively participate in. Consider The Following: 🎮 ≈ 3.3 Billion Gamers Worldwide
🧑💻 Global Game Devs: ≈ 300,000* (that's 0.01% of gamers)
🙃 Folks who sign up for Game Jams FOR FUN: A fraction of that 0.01% ‼️‼️ Let that sink in. We're talking about people who already spend their days in high-pressure jobs making games under deadlines, dealing with crunch, and navigating all kinds of creative chaos. And they choose to spend their free time doing it again -- voluntarily.
For fun.
No paycheck. No Sleep. Just vibes. 😎
Crazy? Yes.
Fun? Absolutely.
But definitely crazy.
That's why I signed up for my very first game jam a few weeks ago.
A Bit of Lore
If this is how you're introduced to me, "Hi! Welcome! (and I'm sorry ahead of time)".
I've been trying to get better at documenting my life, specifically relating to my career and creative process. Still, more often than not, it flows out of me in a sense of nonsensical word vomit, so I'm hoping this makes sense.
My name is DJ Meadows, and to answer your question, no, I'm no longer a DJ.
But seriously, it's very nice to meet you, and I'm glad you're here. Hopefully, I can bring a laugh or two your way through my stream of consciousness, and we can relate to the frustrations that can sometimes come with a fulfilling creative career.
I've been working in audio for about 7 years. Currently occupying the:
"Too-many-years-to-be-Entry-level-but-too-little-years-to-be-Sr-level" Space indefinitely (Send help or snacks).
In this 7 years, I've had the opportunity to explore damn near every aveneue of audio in some way: Music/Studio Recording, Independent Theater, Installations, Corporate AV, FOH Mixing, Broadcast Mixing, Advertising, Podcasts/Audio Dramas, but mainly my focus has always been Film Sound, more specifically Sound Design + Foley.
You may ask, "Why so many disciplines?"
Well, partially out of my inquenchable thirst for knowledge and my passion for all things audio-related, but primarily out of survival. Determined to make a career out of something I love instead of hoping over to something secure and stable - smart move, right?
But on a serious note, I've also touched many of these sub-industries to try and find "my place," and it wasn't until pretty recently that I may have found a path to belonging.
Over the 2/3 years (more seriously in the last year), I've started to shift focus to see what opportunities gaming and interactive media may hold, specifically in audio, and was welcomed unconditionally by a community I never knew existed.
Thus began my journey into Game Audio.
"But what does this have to do with Game Jams?"
Be Kind, Let's Rewind.
Personally, 2024 was a rather challenging year for me. Going into 2025, I wanted to make an active effort to be more involved and make more waves in my gaming journey.
Screw the "toe dip" method, let's just cannonball into the deep end and hope my body has naturual buoyancy.
Spoiler: It doesn't.
So, what better way to get a little toasty than jumping into the flames of a non-traditional Game Jam?
What makes it so "non-traditional"?
Well, as I mentioned before, most game jams last between 1 and 3 days. There are a handful of exceptions, including personal jams, but most of the time, they fit that framework. It's just pure chaos for 48 hours, and then, boom, it's over.
This one was unique as it was a week and a half and with two days in-person (optional but encouraged).
The lovely folks at Unlikely Collaborators (UC) partnered with the IGDA to provide them with their (UC) first ever Unlikely Collaborators Game Jam. Open to anyone and everyone with a pulse and a passion for gaming.
Sure, why not, this'll be fun! Sign. Me. Up.
The Games Begin
I won't bore you with all the details, tears, and ridiculously long nights spent attempting to implement logically simple solutions in a very complex language, so I'll share a few things that I learned very quickly in my first-ever Game Jam.
MINIMISE SCOPE. MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY!!!!
If you remember one thing from this blog, make it this: Minimize. Your. Scope.
Yes, even smaller than that. No, smaller still.
Got it? Good. You still might wanna go a bit smaller, though.
When you start a game jam, it’s tempting to go BIG.
Epic stories. Intricate mechanics. Gorgeous animations.
We had that temptation, too. Our original concept?
A children’s storybook author battling writer’s block, traveling through different cultures, teaching kids about animals and their significance.
Awesome, right? Yeah… it was also way too much.
The Problem:
As cool as that idea was, it required:
🌎 Multiple worlds/cultures to represent
📝 Complex writing systems
🖼️ Lots of art assets
🔊 Tons of audio
🌌 And a programmer who could literally bend space and time. (He got close a few times --)
And we only had 5 people, 1.5 programmers (long story), and a week and a half.
The Solution:
We simplified. Our refined concept:
A children’s book author teaching kids the importance of collaboration and seeing the world through others’ perspectives.
Boom.
Same vibe. Same heart. But it cut way down on scope. Fewer levels, simpler mechanics, and less pressure on everyone.
The Takeaway:
Small, focused ideas give you room to polish.
If we hadn’t scaled back, we’d still be crying over broken mechanics and unsettling sections of the game with ZERO audio assets.
Minimize scope ➡️ Maximize productivity ➡️ FINISH the damn game.
Building Blocks & Reverse Jenga.
Now, what do I mean by "Reverse Jenga"? If you've ever played Jenga, you're generally not "building" something as you're slowly chipping away at what already exists in hopes that it will crumble on your enemies' turn.
In "Reverse Jenga," you're attempting to build a solid structure with only one Jenga block as the foundation. Each block represents a person with a specialty, and hopefully, you can come up with something in the allotted time. Although there are some absolute MADLADS out there in some game jams, even a few in this one, who take on these competitions solo, there comes a time where you might have to join a team.
And as a new(er) game audio person who knows nothing about coding or game development, I had absolutely no choice. I needed a team, and I needed one fast.
Luckily for me, I met two amazing folks. Shout out to "Evie" and "Leo" for welcoming me into their already-established team and taking a risk on an outsider to provide audio for (our) soon-to-be game!
I would then invite a composer who originally told me about this event to our group to help brainstorm and write music, and we would later grab another programmer (late game) to finish off a few additional tasks.
But let's refresh on the team dynamic:
🔊 2 Audio people
🎨 1 Art Director/Project Manager
🖥️ 1 Programmer HOW THE HELL WERE WE GONNA MAKE A GAME?!
Decoding The Binary: Understanding Other Languages
This was probably my biggest hurdle, and one we should've addressed a lot earlier than we did.
Coming from the linear world (Film/TV), I'm used to the language of other filmmakers and audio professionals in this field. In the last year, as I've become more actively involved in gaming spaces, I've noticed that although the terminology is the same, the definitions vary wildly. This is compounded by the fact that audio for games is a fairly new (and not fully fleshed out) specialized position.
This isn't to say audio professionals haven't ever existed in games; it's just more likely that SFXs were handed off to the programmer who maybe knew a bit more about sound/music than the rest of the team, or they gave it to the composer, who may also have been a programmer.
Coming from the outside and suddenly being a part of a project with a deadline, team, and prize pool on the line, what I anticipated was not what I ended up doing.
Design for film is just that. Design.
Maybe a little bit of editing but at the end of the day, you're the design guy.
Sarah is the foley artist. Jake is the Mixer. Paula is the Sound Supervisor.
Everyone has their own role and their own specialized duties.
In games, you're everything.
The Sound Designer for games is the designer, implementer, tester, programmer (to a degree), composer, recordist, foley artist, VO Recordist, Dialogue Editor, project manager, sound supervisor, and the list goes on and on.
While I did get to design a bunch of great elements, my teammate did have a point about 56 hours from the finish line:
Sometimes, you gotta get it out and get it done.
Over the next few days, I would have quick and direct conversations with the programmer to determine what we needed to do to achieve our envisioned outcome.
It Takes Two (or More)
Maybe this is partially my own ego, life experience, or the industry that I'm coming from (no disrespect, I love it and always will) but you can't develop a game COMPLETELY on your own.
Ask for help. Seriously. You can't make a game on your own.* (*Exceptions may apply)
I've never been one to ask for help.
Personally, I've always looked at asking for help as a sign of 𝚍̶𝚎̶𝚏̶𝚎̶𝚊̶𝚝̶, 𝚏̶𝚊̶𝚒̶𝚕̶𝚞̶𝚛̶𝚎̶, and 𝚍̶𝚒̶𝚜̶𝚜̶𝚊̶𝚙̶𝚘̶𝚒̶𝚗̶𝚝̶𝚖̶𝚎̶𝚗̶𝚝̶.
Although, in my previous positions, I would harp on my staff or teams to ALWAYS ask for help and never think ill of them for asking for it, I never once had the opportunity or safe environment to ask for help confidently without some sort of repercussion.
You can't do that in games. You won't last long.
And mind you, I've only done a SINGLE game jam. One!
But because I didn't ask for help for most of this game jam, it cost me so much time, energy, and sleepless nights. Energy that I could've used in creating cooler, more high-quality assets, game mechanics, or dynamic music functions.
Luckily, as I mentioned already, the game world, especially the game audio world, is so approachable. Our programmer, Leo, was incredibly receptive to my (very) dumb questions about GitHub Desktop, terminology, workflows, and even assisted in creating blueprints/systems that make my job a bit easier once we found out how to communicate our ideas with eachother when it came to inputting/referencing assets from Wwise.
"Gerry" (name changed for privacy) was more than open to answer some of my "help-I'm-on-fire-and-don't-know-where-to-find-water" Discord messages about best practices and places to look when implementing new BP's and workflows that he has used in his AAA experience.
People I never thought I could talk to because of status or vocabulary were offering advice and "I get it" validation to let me know that it's all good. We all have to learn sometime.
"Gerry" put it best. After I revealed that I had taken all the courses I could, read all the articles, and practiced where I could, with no dev background, he said:
There's so many things with Wwise that I find it's impossible to learn until you're on a project where everything is established already and you can understand the use cases.
While there are companies and resources available, starting from scratch with something you have a very slim understanding of IN PRACTICE, not theory, will not be a smooth road.
However, you can do some things to benefit you in the long run...
New Simulation Game: ORGANIZE EVERYTHING!
Down to the last breadcrumb that wasn't accounted for.
If you don't think it needs to be organized, think again.
Since I volunteered for the designer role but inherited the technical sound Designer Role (implementation), VO Director, Music Implementor, and Script Writer (to some degree—we all contributed), things got out of hand, and they got out of hand fast.
This is especially true after I spent 16 hours trying to marry footsteps to a character with no movement animation. My God, it's f***ing annoying to try and simulate the idea of footsteps when you don't have a visual reference, but man...
That payoff.
✔️Revisions
✔️ VO Re-Takes
✔️ SFX Variations.
‼️‼️‼️ HAVING OUR ENTIRE WWISE SESSION WRITTEN OVER BY ACCIDENT SINCE I DIDN'T REALIZE WWISE DIDN'T HAVE A "Collaboration" FEATURE ON PROJECT FILES AND MY GITDESKTOP WAS BEING DUMB. ‼️‼️‼️
✔️ VO Re-Writes but not know when, if, or where they were recorded.
✔️ Improperly labeled VO takes.
All of these things could've been avoided if I had spent less time sleep-deprived and maybe some more time thinking, planning, and then executing.
However, in my defense, I had no idea what to expect.
Now I do and now I will create templates that I will use until the end of time. Regardless of whether I end up working in games long-term or just use it in my everyday life. It got so bad that I'm just going to YOINK the entire session after judging concludes and do it properly.
Who's with me?!
And Finally...
DLC Not Included
Not everything is going to work out the way you originally planned.
Things won't get done. Quality might suck (by your standards). Bugs? Unavoidable.
I used everything I could find—official docs, forums, YouTube videos, mentors, audio pros, even ChatGPT—just to understand the basics of technical sound design and implementation.
And sometimes? You’ll end up right back where you started.
A perfect example is my footstep blueprint. Photo A was the "correct" way. Photo B was the one that actually worked. Go figure.
Just because the answer isn’t out there doesn’t mean you’re alone.
(Also: audio was only 5 points out of a 40-point rubric. HAHA! No pressure.)
"Special Thanks..."
This game jam taught me a lot in a very short amount of time.
I’m beyond grateful I found it (and that I survived).
A massive shoutout to my killer team: Evie, Leo, John, and Chun.
You were open, honest, and super supportive, especially during those moments where I questioned my very existence—
"You're just living the average game dev experience."
(That line is seared into my brain forever now.)
I’m excited to keep learning and bringing this new knowledge into future projects (and jams).
Partly because I’m determined to nail this stuff down…
Partly because I want to prove I wasn’t just learning it on the fly and forgetting it due to stress-induced memory loss.
(PTSD? Possibly. Who’s to say?)
One Last Thing...
It’s a rough time in the industry. All the entertainment industries, really.
But with a community like this—and people like the ones I’ve met here—it makes the shared dread feel a little less heavy.
Maybe even hopeful.
If you’ve made it this far,
A) Thank you, sincerely. You're a real one.
B) If you've read about it, you might as well play it. (no pressure)
Gush over the beautiful art, cheesy voice acting, and surprisingly cool mechanics.
It has flaws—but dang nabbit if I ain’t a proud dad about it. Be our testers!
Comentários