Forming a team and working with others is an integral part of game-dev learning experience. If teams are worried about a member’s lack of participation, they can simply agree to give them the boot. Agreeing about how much work is expected from each member is pretty high on a priority list of things to talk about.
That being said, I’m going solo 
So, it took a while, but I’ll finally join in. It’s my first time, so go easy on me :p?
I don’t think there’s going to be a fair way for things like Titan X, but, since it’s the “best” prize out of all of the prizes, I would say that, it should go to the WINNING TEAM over all, and then EPIC, randomly chooses a team member of that team. So, in essence, it goes to one of the more deserving folk.
Randomly selecting a participant, just because they entered…makes no sense at all.
A Titan X in a team competition really made no sense in the first place. That’s about average, $1000 a pop. That’s two 980s, threeish 970s, five 960s. Since the team was five…should have just gone with a prize of five 960s.
But if I win, can I just trade it in for a 980ti, which is cheaper and performs better? Just saying…
Game jam teams, please read!
Deadline for anything to be included on my personal stream is Monday, October 12th, 2015
Hello! Because this is the mega jam, I want to do something a bit special too on my playthrough stream. I know there isn’t many days of notice , but even if a few of the teams signed up take part, I think it could be pretty cool.
I would like to have a library of ‘brief intro videos’ for any team who is willing to take part to play on my stream before I play their submission. Usually I pull up the forum post, read off the team names, and any team info they provide, but I want to up the game a bit and give teams a to introduce themselves. If this goes well, I’d like to take it one step further and create ‘post jam’ videos to create a mini documentary of the event using footage from.
I’ll be using Slack to coordinate with people to do this, so if you’re entering the mega game jam, please join this Slack and lets get stuff going before the theme is announced, as I know yall will be too busy jamming to do this during the dev time. I don’t have a contact list of the pre-registered teams but hopefully some of you see this. You can join the Slack : https://unrealjammersslack.herokuapp/
If you don’t have a team, maybe you can join the slack and find a team?
The goal is pretty simple. I’d like to give teams of one ~30-45 seconds to introduce themselves, talk about any past experience, and talk about the game jam itself. Teams of multiple people I’d like videos of about 30 seconds to 1 minute. I can do basic editing and splicing of videos, but teams that have ‘pre-canned intro videos’ would help so very much. These videos don’t have to be high quality, could just be basic webcam footage, or really anything that just isn’t offensive or copyrighted.
These videos can be structured any way you want, and you can introduce yourself/your team any way you want, as long as it’s not vulgar, offensive, or uses copyrighted material. Please don’t put in music. I would like the general talking points to be:
InsaneByDesign supplied a recording of himself, sent it my way, and this is the final version that’ll be in my stream. Thanks InsaneByDesign. A few teams have also already sent in some videos. He let me use it as an example for anyone trying to understand what I’m trying to aggregate:
v=2kAngNZsZbI
If you have a team logo, sending a high res would be too. If you send a team logo and a video, you’ll get a cool little intro overlay thing. Example coming soon.
If you send just a logo, you’ll get one of these playing before I play your game on my stream.
?v=BITcMpAM5-c
If you have any questions or want to submit a video, please join the Slack. https://unrealjammersslack.herokuapp/
I’d really like to get as many people involved as possible . I think it could turn out to be a pretty thing.
tl;dr: Get hyped:
v=J_jPM1R66sc
Do we need to do this or is it optional?
I would love to do this but my english is not the best
when did you choose the participant team?(sry problem solved)
taking this thing to a new level :D. If I see at least 15 teams doing this, I’m also in <3.
I’m in…looks like fun
Taking this gamejam a bit too seriously
Man, 79 teams already.
Make that 88 D:
Not bad!!!
So you start before the actual start time hoping that the theme will match your prototype ?
Epic, please try to make that Infinity Blade sound pack available again in time for the jam. 
No…we will polish it to match the theme.-__-
The detailed rules will be posted when we announce the theme this Thursday. Though to be clear , development of the project should not begin until we kick the event off with the theme announce and rules release 
How to join this? Just post before the deadline??? I MUST KNOW I WANT TO DO THIS SO BAD!!!
hi sciencefreak500 -
to find out just read everything about the jam and what’s expected:
https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?83792-Epic-MegaJam!-October-8-15th-2015-Third-Sponsor-Announced-Nvidia!
(front page of this thread has the details at the bottom asks for team name & number of members to help them keep up with the entries)
if you’re looking to join a team look :
https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?84735-The-Epic-MegaJam-Team-Up-Thread!
basically you’re in, lol
it starts this Thursday on the Unreal Stream @ 2:00 pm EST, just make that game -> package it -> post it w/ info, etc. (time & everything you need to know is on first page of this post & the top link) good luck 
Already getting enough coffee for the jam 
working 8h and jamming is fun but freaking hard! Will record the video for @ today
Sounds like the rules are being worked on, which is good. It seems to me that UE4 game jams are experiencing ‘growing pains’, and the event is becoming bigger than when first envisioned. are just few things I’ve noticed personally;
Developing a game before the theme announcement:
I’m guilty of this as well; I’ve been working on October Jam game assets immediately after the September Jam concluded. My reasoning is that if people are allowed to use game-ready assets on the market place, that I can start working on game jam assets long before the theme announcement date, creating AAA assets of my own. This is counter-intuitive to learning about making UE4 assets, and game assets in general under a deadline; but is essential for those who cannot afford, or do not want to use other people’s assets, but still want a winning against the half-dozen extremely polished games that will inevitably show up.
Essentially, it becomes a pay-to-win scenario, unless developers can make assets / already have assets to use before the announcement of the theme. Removing the ability to use marketplace assets, and adding an ‘Asset Theme’ could be a possible solution; since, to me, Game Jams are all about learning and developing games under a short deadline.
The theme:
Adapting the theme of a game jam to a preexisting game, or one that has been in development before the start of the game jam is extremely easy, since the theme is open for interpretation.
This is a double-edged sword… For one, open interpretation is fun, and I think it’s a core element of a Game Jam, and wouldn’t want to see it removed, since I believe creativity is the most important asset a game developer can have. On the other hand, this is probably the reason why people take the ‘risk’ to develop a game long before the theme announcement, because the risk is basically negligible with enough creativity; even if the theme is extremely specific; “Top-Down Game” can translate into a 3rd person game, where the character fights it’s way down a winding abandoned mineshaft, traveling from top to bottom.
I don’t know how this could be solved, or if it should even be solved, but it’s something to contemplate.
Anyway, I’ll be interested to see how the game rules have changed when the theme is announced; and this alone has certainly kept me on my toes
Edit:
The skill of game developers ranges from AAA to those just beginning to learn UE4. I also notice a trend between those who desire to be game developers as a career option (or those who are already full-time game devs) to those who are in it because it’s a really fun and exciting hobby competition. I also find that this is a source of contention when participants begin to find teams. Some are in it for the fun, others are in it because they want to become extremely talented, and make money. This leads to the, “Hey, this guy isn’t doing as much work as I am.” disagreement.
Perhaps different tiers of rewards can be made? I’m not thinking about expensive rewards like new GPUs (although they are more than welcome, and very appreciated); more like shiny trophies or ‘diplomas’ that people can show to friends (or perhaps future employers) and say, “Hey, look, I won gold medal in the UE4 Game Jam. I think I can help develop your game.”
As an endnote; if UE4 Game Jams continue to grow at this pace and is given enough support, I can imagine it becoming a competitive sport, on the level of DoTA, LoL, or Hearthstone tournaments. Combine this with the recent VR/AR tech that is on the verge of exploding, and I can see a new era for gaming (and other professions) dawn.