Digital Monster Collective is competing in this year's GDWC with their educational game for children in the autism spectrum, The Wordland Scape. They took the first place in the Fan Favourite vote during the Educational Games week with their game.
Squirrel Bytes has enrolled with two games this year, Discord Nitro Race, a fun racing game for Discord which ran in the first Fan Favourite weekly vote of 2020, and Hyperstacks, a frenetic action-puzzle VR game! Let's see these devs have to say about Game Jams!
GDWC: Hey! Let's start with who are you and what got you into game development?
Digital Monster Collective: We are a group of creative people which comes from different fields of audiovisual creation. On one side, it was Kraken Academia, an Animation studio and academy, creators of "Avelino" (2018) and "Elvis!" (2019). On the other side, there were the creators of the project Odal, a final degree project consistent in a metroidvania videogame. We joined to create Digital Monster Collective to grow up as a bigger studio specialized in video games and short films. We began as a group in early 2020.
Extrys from Squirrel Bytes: We are 2 people, who made these games: Kima, who made the 2d art and ensured the color matches with discord ones and I'm Extrys. I've been learning game development for 8 years since i was 14. I've been interested in game development almost since I knew video games.
(The Wordland Scape by Digital Monster Collective)
GDWC: Is this your first game made in a Game Jam?
Digital Monster Collective: This is our second one. The first is "Say Hello!", which was, in addition, our first project together.
Extrys from Squirrel Bytes: Yep, i never did a game jam before so i wanted to try.
GDWC: What is the most challenging thing for you in making a Game Jam game?
Digital Monster Collective: Time! We work in a game, we get excited by it, and then we look at the clock and have to put limits on creativity. And then we have to choose what to put on the game and what to leave out of it.
Extrys from Squirrel Bytes: I think that getting the correct idea in a short time.
(Hyperstacks by Squirrel Bytes)
GDWC: Both are quite essential parts that can place challenges in Game Jams! Do you have good tips for making a Game Jam game or for participating in Game Jam in general?
Digital Monster Collective: Just try to make something good, but specially, try to have fun and learn by doing so.
Extrys from Squirrel Bytes: What i know from my first one is: don't waste time with coming up with more ideas, once you have one and develop, develop, develop, don't imagine it working, just make it work.
GDWC: That sounds good! What about your favorite things about Game Jams? Can you point out some specific things that you really like about it?
Digital Monster Collective: We try ourselves and our skills, and we grow them by working hard without spending much time. It's the best condition for experimentation.
Extrys from Squirrel Bytes: Personally some aspects i most like are that it forces me to create a new game prototype, so it makes me disconnect from current long projects. It is super cool when you do with friends
(Discord Nitro Race by Squirrel Bytes)
Thank you both for the interview! I really liked the comments on Game Jam from our Spanish participants! Wish you both all the best.
If you have a game made in a Game Jam, feel free to enroll it to the Game Development World Championship 2020 and add it to the Game Jam category, which is a bonus stage in the championship!
Check out the rest of our interview series here.
