Not to disparage the effort Epic are going to with these jams, but while prizes are always a sweet incentive for people to join, gamejams should not be about “winning” - to me, a gamejam is about making something cool, proving to myself and the world that I can make something cool, and having a fun time with my team. They’re an opportunity to learn and try new things, let your creativity run wild and make some crazy-*** wacky stuff that would never get past a marketing board There are no stakes in gamejams, so while it’s to push yourself and experience the pressure of finishing something with a very tight deadline - try not to get distracted by the prizes, guys! You’re robbing yourself of a great experience if you’re just doing this to win
I totally agree with that We’re now doing this (included this month’s jam) the fourth time - first was DEC 14 then AUG and SEPT 15 and when i look onto some private projects we did back in 2014 and look at the quality of them then it’s like “Holy moly that was bad”. We (my best friend “Merarlion” and me) do game development as a hobby - having fun with it and getting bigger. But you always have the intention to create a finished game some day, but that is a usual thing as i think. When you start learning an instrument you want to play it flawless. But as long as you are just doing the jam because of (more or less big) prizes you only think of “this has to be the best” and you stop thinking creative but expediently and this is what will block you and probably makes your submission not that good as you want it to be.
As we finished our Submissions we’re always excited of what we’ve done in this time. You’re getting a good feel that’s like “i (or we) finished this” and this is what makes the jams so .
This may be made as a competitive event, but i think all users are a big family. So whoever wins gots it well-deserved.
Sorry for my bad english but this is not my native language.
Man we are stoked for this jam look at all those teams! Can we add too
I just wanted to share some killer technology we developed recently at the VR Hackathon in Seattle at the University of WA. I may do a more detailed write up about how we got it all working one day but I wanted to share the basics with you all.
We implemented head and hand tracking with the HTC Vive and it’s motion controllers (dev versions) using only Blueprints. It is tech!
's a small demo of what that looked like as we were figuring it out. The ever popular Lightsaber physics game that wants to make when you first get these controllers tracking properly!
Right now I have this tech working with a archer character shooting arrows from where ever your left hand is in real life by pulling the Right hand trigger. But there are so many possibilities. And we’ll do something new for this jam using the hand tracking devices (and regular controller/keyboard support).
's the archer dude we made (for the VR Hackathon) using the motion sensor tech + regular controller support + keyboard support. I’m testing it with a keyboard because I don’t own the HTC… yet.
Setting this all up is fairly straight forward. First use VR Preview mode and use the FPS pawn for the head tracking and moving the player. We made separate BP’s for each hand that essentially just took the co-ordinate information from each motion controller and attached physics objects to the hands. There is a ton of motion controllers supported via input functions by default in the latest 4.9 builds. The hands are separate BP’s and simply placed in the level. So you have a player start and then each hand’s controller BP is also placed in the scene. When the level starts and the motion trackers are in the VR safety zone ( about a 5m x 5m box you make with the HTC sensors and tape on the floor) the meshes you have added to those BP’s will start moving with your hands. If you get to far to the edge of the VR Zone, a component is used to show a big green net around the player, like “don’t go past this” type thing. Your head is also tracked so the hands are always in the same spot in relation to real life in the game. You can attach whatever you want to those hand controller BP’s: boxes, swords and eventually we got the bow and arrow working. It was a blast discovering how to use those controllers and I’m happy to share that experience.
I find the best part about game jams and hackathons is the fact comes together when they are usually competing in this industry. Making games in secret and exploring new tech in secret but for game jams we come together and share what we have learned in a research and development kind of atmosphere. This benefits on so many levels so share your ideas and listen to others, you might just learn something.
Also if you’re in Seattle come and show off your game the night before they are due at our monthly Meetup On the 14th!
To follow up on’s concerns regarding prizes and the rules: These jams are put on each month in the spirit of fun. We added prize categories to this one in celebration of you**, the excellent UE4 community ** The reason that we’re rolling them out as raffles is so there are plenty of community prizes alongside award categories for the whole community to have a to win something, regardless of discipline or depth of knowledge
This time around we do need to put a few rails on the event due to new prizes and the effort to make the playing field as fair as possible for you all. For those that are used to our monthly jams not much changes for you outside of the at winning new things!
The detailed rules will take all of your concerns into consideration, I assure you As mentioned by others as well (and the basis of a ton of other jams), your game is your prize, regardless of any other outcome but we’re super happy to be able to present a number of other new rewards for the you all.
Worth explicitly calling out: Assets ***do ***need to be created or procured (Marketplace, etc.) during the jam. Working on your project or making your project assets beforehand can lead to disqualification for award or prize categories, as it completely undermines the spirit of the event. You can still, however, use this opportunity to make something with your existing work!
I edited my reply a bit for further clarification - Working on your project or making your project assets beforehand can lead to disqualification** for award or prize categories**, as it completely undermines the spirit of the event. **You can still, however, use this opportunity to make something with your existing work! **
I appreciate you taking the time to clarify and by no means do I want to make things more difficult but if we already own marketplace content, have it downloaded and pass it to our team in preparation (maybe we are on 3g internet for instance) for the event in a blank project getting ready to get right to work. I know some teams have more professional setups that they use every day but some of us are just rag tag teams of friends wanting to make cool stuff. Im just wondering if this would be considered against the rules as the project, the game for the Jam hasnt been worked on directly just planning for the 7 day event?
Im just under the impression Epic wanted us to be prepared given the lengthier notice for this Jam and the longer duration. Im just not comfortable with the assumption planning beforehand is some how against the spirit because managing a team effectively is a important skill
But planning does not mean producing. Of course you can outline your battle plan, you should indeed know at-least what every team-member will do and a rough time estimation.
Yeah thats exactly it, I feel as though the whole Jam thing is about Producing something cool just off the cuff rather than going in blind. Maybe it was just my interpretation of what was said, the theme could drop and make all that planning useless, you just never know, some people might even be so good at guessing games they know the theme already lol
There are no stakes in gamejams, so while it’s to push yourself and experience the pressure of finishing something with a very tight deadline - try not to get distracted by the prizes, guys! You’re robbing yourself of a great experience if you’re just doing this to win 
The reason that we’re rolling them out as raffles is so there are plenty of community prizes alongside award categories for the whole community to have a to win something, regardless of discipline or depth of knowledge 