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Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2024 Retrospectives

 Howdy!

The Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2024 has wrapped-up and was a huge success! There were 19 entries including one by yours truly, and there are some real bangers in there. I've read through each one and written a mini-review with some thoughts and feedback, which you can read here. But I also thought it would be worthwhile to go over the Jam in a bit more detail.

I'd love to take credit for organizing the Jam but alas the glory is all on Sammy J (Staggered Amusement Machine) who did an excellent job putting together the jam this year and getting it up and running. That said I've been along for the ride providing help and feedback along the way since the first HyperSpeed Adventure Jam in 2022. Back then it felt like there was a lot less, and especially less readily accessible sci-fi RPG content. Following the success of the One Page Derelict Jam and the Delta Green Shotgun Scenario contest (which has been running since 2005!), a sci-fi adventure jam seemed like a good idea.

At the time however, I had basically no experience writing adventures. Fortunately I had a good idea of what I wanted to write: a series of events tied to the concept of a propagating "adjustment" to the laws of physics which would allow for FTL travel, eventually leading to space ghosts from the past's future. I had no idea about the scope of work that went into them or even how to piece one together from a loose collection of ideas. And if I'm being totally honest, adventures are not really my thing–the games I run tend to be more open world and interconnected. All of that mixed with the 2000 word restriction and overlapping time frame with the One-Page RPG Jam which I was participating in meant I got no where fast with my idea. (Luckily, I still have the idea saved and have iterated on it for my home game. Maybe I'll do something with it one day, who knows.)

The 2022 jam was still successful, garnering 13 solid submissions.

Last year, Sammy and I put together the Sci-Fi RPG Collective Discord (link to join) as a place to discuss Sci-Fi games and host future jams. The discord has evolved into a pretty great community, with frequent games, discussions, and even a reading circle. But setting up a server and hosting a game jam for a fractured community left the Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2023 a bit sparse. 2023's jam only had 7 submissions.

My attempt that year similarly fell flat. "Screwgate to Korina" was supposed to be a hellish bureaucratic crawl (see image) but ended up just feeling boring, and I couldn't make it as interesting as I hoped given the limitations. But I did write something even though I didn't get around to publishing it.

This year, after some deliberation on the server, Sammy decided to drop the word limit to instead favour an (optional) page limit, move the Jam ahead a month to avoid conflicting with the One-Page jam, tighten up the theme (there would now be one theme, chosen by the community, with optional secondary themes) and add a "hard mode" for those who wanted to beat the added challenge. The theme decided on was "Stellar Phenomena".

As a result of the changes and with a larger discord community behind it, the 3rd annual jam was a smash hit! Nearly 20 entries with some phenomenal displays of quality. It's also been great to see the amount of entries from first time RPG authors. As mentioned, I've reviewed all of them and declared a couple stand-out faves!

My submission, The Sunsetting of Lutres 8 turned out really well IMO. I'd tell you more about it, but it's best to just let it speak for itself. It's only one page anyway.

Lutres 8 is a milestone for me, being the first fully fledged adventure I've completed. It took a lot of failure to get to this point, but each I learned something from. Now those lessons have been incorporated in something truly great. Ultimately though, I'm just thrilled I got to actually submit something this year!

All of this has gotten me thinking about the point of doing game jams. I'll admit I've entered more jams than I've submitted something to, which I do feel a little inadequate about. But the more I think about it, the more I've come to realize that Jams are about more than just results. 

I've improved greatly as a designer from participating in game jams, even if I fail. Likewise I've helped people and provided them with feedback so that they can improve as designers as well. As a result, I've met and interacted with folks I normally wouldn't. The end products have inspired me, submissions which blew me away have given me new ideas as the amateurs motivate with their pure ambition. If someone has participated in a jam I'm familiar with, I'll usually check out their submission to that jam before anything else to see their work (Jam submissions are usually free after all). All of it culminates into a positive force for a growing scene.

Every Game Jam, even the ones that fall flat, are worthwhile. I look forward to next years, and any game jams that happen in the meantime (even if I don't submit something).

Oh, and there is definitely more Sci-Fi RPG content out there than there was at the start of 2022. I'd call that a success.


Next: Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2024 Roundup

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