PGJ 2025 Timeline and Schedule

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!