PGJ 2025 Timeline and Schedule

Jam Preparation

Time Period: Now - August

Duration: ~2 months

Recommended Goals

  • Start thinking up a great game idea
  • Finalize your game idea and create a 1 page design document with your minimal viable product (MVP)
  • Submit your game idea online before the jam starts to get a head-start

First Monthly Meeting

Time Period: Sat., Sept. 21st 9:00am

Duration: 3 hours

Recommended Goals

  • Bring your creativity and pitch your game idea
  • Find a team to work with
  • Get your teammates names and contact information
  • Submit your team and game idea to the Executive Producer
  • Start working on your game

Weekly Sprints, Month 1

Time Period: 9/21 - 10/18

Duration: 1 month

Recommended Goals

  • Start your first sprint (or follow your selected methodology)
  • Host regular meetings with your team. We recommend brief daily morning or evening meetings and weekly review meetings for your team
  • Iterate through design goals as rapidly as possible keeping an MVP in mind
  • White box a proof of concept of your game idea with your single most important mechanic or element of your idea
  • Prepare for the second monthly meetup by reviewing progress with your team and creating a backlog or list of TODOs

Second Monthly Meeting

Time Period: Sat. Oct. 19th 9:00am

Duration: 3 hours

Recommended Goals

  • Start the meeting by reviewing your backlog or TODOs with your team and refine as necessary
  • Plan your weekly sprints for the month ahead
  • Keep your focus on that MVP and expand only as you've completed earlier assignments
  • Function first, form second, then features. Always push your superficial or cosmetic tasks to the end of the backlog
  • Stay focused on MVP. What NEEDS to be in the game to make it work. Everything else is cake

Weekly Sprints, Month 2 - 4

Time Period: Oct - May

Duration: 6 months

Recommended Goals

  • Continue iterating through your sprints or work cycles
  • Regardless what methodology your team has chosen, always host a full review with the entire team at the end of each sprint or iteration
  • Test, test, test, and test. You want a viable product in the end and going back to fix things takes more time than you have
  • Start making regular builds. When you are happy with your progress and have a playable game. Make a build. You never know when you might have to go back to one if you come across a problem.
  • Cut anything that is delaying the project (we recommend doing this often.) If it's critical to your MVP, downscope it or find an alternate solution (e.g., downloading a free asset)
  • Prepare for the final monthly meetup by reviewing progress with your team and creating a backlog or list of TODOs

Last Monthly Meeting

Time Period: May 17th 9:00am

Duration: 3 hours

Recommended Goals

  • Share your progress with other teams and have them playtest. The feedback will be invaluable
  • Demo your game for the Executive Producers
  • Review the feedback with your team and decide what, if any, last minute refinements you'd like to make
  • Build and save a known working version of your game and don't touch it. Use it as a backup in case late versions of your game have critical failures
  • Discuss preparation tasks with your team and make plans to prepare your game for the showcase
  • If you haven't done so already, create a presence on the web for your project like a website and/or social media accounts, so people can find you and follow your progress

Final Month

Time Period: 5/17 to CCS 2025

Duration: 1 month

Recommended Goals

  • Make a trailer for your game. (Can be as simple as 30 seconds of gameplay)
  • Put the final touches on your game and submit your game trailer to SDC for the PGJ showcase at CCS 2025
  • Decide who on your team will be present at the showcase to present your game and put it on your schedule
  • Prepare any marketing materials for your game such as handouts, business cards, website/social media links, etc.
  • Take a deep breath...you're almost there! Get ready for Capital Creative Showcase and have a ton of fun showing off your work!