Proper planning and preparation early in the jam have a massive impact on how quickly and easily everything comes together. The more people you have on your team, the more essential it is to decide these early.

Here are some game design decisions that your team should make in the first 3 hours of the jam:

1. Genre

What type of game is this going to be? Platformer? Puzzle game? Survival adventure? First-person shooter? This metaphor will give a strong mental picture of the general feel and conventions that should go into the game.

2. Key Gameplay Feature

What is the most important gameplay feature? Jumping? Shooting? Dodging? Exploring? Thinking? Decide which verb is the most important for your core gameplay loop. Everything in the game design should be aimed at providing the player with that core experience.

3. Camera Perspective

How will the camera show the game action? 2D side view? Top-down? 2.5D Sideview? First-person? Third-person? Picking the camera angle up front makes it easy for the gameplay programmers and artists to visualize their part of the game.

Share a single reference image with the team with the correct camera perspective.

4. Game Setting

Where will the action in the game happen? What locations will be present? Caves? Casinos? A boat? A desert? Underwater? Will there be more than one location in the game?

Share 2-4 reference images with the team to convey the idea of the locations.

5. Visual Art Direction

How will the world be depicted? Should the art be 3D or 2D? Low-poly or high-poly? Photorealistic or stylized? How will the characters be depicted? Is there a core color palette?

Share 1-2 initial reference images to convey the general art direction.

6. Key Character(s)

Who are the key characters in the game? Will the player have an on-screen avatar? Will there be a main villain? Or a love interest? In the initial design, you want all the key characters listed with their essential bits, though design, art, and coding will all happen later.

Share 1 reference image for each key character with the team early to help them capture the core vision.

That's what you want for a Game Design Skeleton in the first 3 hours of the jam.

• 6 Design Decisions
• 5-10 Reference Images

These are the important things to decide early that will make it easy to realize your vision for the game and provide clear direction for the team, even as everyone splits off to work on their domain-specific bits of the game.

• Are there other key design decisions that you think are incredibly powerful at the start of the jam?
• Do you use artifacts besides images for references?

Share your thoughts in the comments.