That's not a bad idea, but it takes some of the randomness out of it. Right now I'm thinking that people could email/submit their suggestions and one get's chosen at random.
It's a good idea, but also dangerous, because some themes can be really bad and hard, so it would be better if we can vote, so we can go into a general direction everyone feels comfortable with.
We could also make it similar to Lundumdare, where we end up with a few themes and just at the starting point the actual theme is chosen at random.
So "huge list of suggestions" -> 'voting' -> "small list e.g. 5" -> 'random chosing' -> "final theme"
Honestly, what I meant by "one get's chosen at random" was actually that I'd pick my favorite.
![Tongue :P](https://www.sfml-dev.org/forums/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
I really like this though. It'll definitely be how we decide the final theme.
What I think I'll do is allow people to suggest themes for a set period of time, create an online poll for everyone to vote, and randomly pick one of the top five, like eXpl0it3r suggested.
A game jam would definitely be nice, but beware that the LD is soon, and I don't think too many of us would enjoy having two jams in a one week period. :p
That's a great point. I don't want to have to make anyone choose one over the other.
Maybe organizing regular jams could be a nice way to show the SFML community is alive and running.
Yes! And to get others more involved with it! That was what I really wanted to achieve by starting this.
I'd say, for a first edition of the jam, let's keep things simple, and use the Forum. On the decided date, Jebbs can create a thread announcing the final theme and any special constraint. People can then answer with their submissions.
I think this is what we'll go for, at least for the first jam. Depending on how popular it is, we can expand from there.
I suggest the week before that, Aug 16-18, one month from now, as tentative date. That way, it doubles as ludum dare warmup, for those that want to participate in that. It might be a bit too soon, but I think we should do one version of this before interest fades. The next jam can be planned better.
I think that might be cutting it a little too close. Since we'll be using the forums for submission, there won't be much to set up. Why not have it sooner? My own suggestion is Aug. 2-4. It's also a weekend, a little over 2 weeks from now so it gives us some time to prepare and spread the word, and there is plenty of time to recover before people do Ludum Dare.
I think that a 72 hour jam would be nice, but you could host two, one of 72 hours and another that lasts a week, and do the first
IMHO, more than 2 or 3 days and it isn't really a jam anymore. Part of the fun resides in knowing that you won't be spending *that* much time, so you can implement crazy ideas. Also, it lowers the entry barrier. Many of us might not have a whole week to commit. YMMV.
I agree. I'm pretty set on it being a 72 hour jam only.
Another option to consider is a ready-made game jam framework.
If this gets pretty popular, I might just do that for the next one. I think the forums are just enough for the very first jam though.