#AwesomeMusicJam has officially started. Get ready for games with awesome music!
Details here.
What?
#AwesomeMusicJam is a #GameJam that invites developers, artists, writers, composers to team up and produce games with the best music. As always, you should try to produce a gaming experience both fun and delightful. This time though, your MVPs are the composers, as the games will be mainly judged on their awesome music.
Why?
Too often, music is the one thing left out of games produced for gamejams. And that is understandable: You can’t have a game without game mechanics and at least some art. Yet, games can generally exist without music. However, sound and music really do play an important part for making an emotional connection with a game. Take for instance this corny lake scene from Final Fantasy X, which stayed in our hearts only because of the beautiful music.
Music also helps a game to be remembered. As a kid, I didn’t own a game console, so I barely remembered those games I played at my friends house. Yet, I do remember this epic opening of Starfox’s first level:
Or what I consider to be Sonic’s best song:
… ok one last one just for the fun of it:
How?
So, it’s time for you to make new games, with new awesome music.
Head out to the jam’s site: http://jams.gamejolt.io/awesomemusicjam to read the rules and details. The theme this time is WONDERLAND.
Create a game entry on Gamejolt, and include the tag #AwesomeMusicJam in the description. I advise you to make a game entry even before you have any game ready to show. You can gather some followers by sharing some preview of screenshots or music from the game.
Upload your game before the end of the jam, then spend the rest of the time checking out other people’s entries.
Who?
You of course, but who else?
On the GameJam’s page, I’ve listed composers who are willing to compose game music for this jam:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/awesomemusicjam/music.
Another great place to look for people to collaborate: Newgrounds. Forums like the Gamejolt community forum. Maybe just hit up artists on Souncloud.
When?
You have a month, between December 20th 2014 and January 20th 2015. I don’t advise you to skip the holidays altogether just to make your game. In fact, while the jam is a month long, I expect people will spend at most a week working on the game, between spending time with friends and families during the holiday season. But you can always kick off some nice conversations about your game during those gathrings, and who knows, perhaps ask them to join your team!
Last Words
Whether or not you are able to attend the jam, I hope you get to enjoy the games that comes out of it. I created thisgame jam because of my love of video game music, and to encourage more collaboration with composers in the world of Indie games. Good luck and Happy Holidays!
PS: Don’t let my dictatorialship decide what’s universally good and bad music! Feel free to post links to songs that you consider the BEST of video game music in the comments section below!
A nod to some video game composers I’ve worked with:
JamZ (for Darwin Gator)
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