After a Game Jam: What Next?

TritonWare's wrapped up, but that doesn't mean there's not more you can do—if you find yourself wanting to take those next few steps, then this week's post is for you!

Completing a game jam is no small task, but you and your team got through it! The completion of every game you make is a rewarding experience that will stay with you for the rest of your game development journey.

Now that it's over, you might be wondering how to put what you've just learnt into practice. The first step we'd recommend is finishing your game.

Finishing a game can mean different things: it might be complete in terms of mechanics or narrative, but feel lacking in regards to the player's experience. Whatever the case, taking the time to fix bugs and adding polish is what transforms a hobby game into a portfolio piece.

Be prepared, though—the last stretch of development is often the majority of it. Tasks to reach completion often seem small, but become larger than you'd expected. To keep it manageable, we'd recommend prioritizing polishing current systems before implementing new ones.

Once your game is at a point you feel satisfied with, add it to your portfolio! Game development portfolios can be done a number of ways, the most common of which being a personal website displaying your best work.

No matter how you present it, a portfolio is a critical part of getting a game development position in the industry. Having said that, there are cases in which you might want to showcase your game outside of your portfolio.

If you attend any game development networking event, you should show your work there! Even without a dedicated display or booth, your games can work as a conversation piece that helps you establish valuable connections and get people interested in your work.

We also encourage you to share your games in our Discord server's game showcase channel! We do our best to display all playable games submitted to us on our website, so please check both of these regularly.

As you've learnt by now, the best way to improve at game development is to do more of it. Whether or not it's through us, we want to see you continue to participate in game development projects!

There's a lot to be gained from taking on projects of varying lengths and sizes; You might learn how to make a compact game in a twenty-four hour jam, then gain some insight into managing a larger team during a quarter-long project.

Whatever you do next though, the most important thing is that you continue to learn and enjoy it.

Check back here during week eight for our next post—see you next time, and thank you for reading!