It’s 7:50PM and I’m going home with the train. I was in Thun for the NetGame Convention where I showed Splash, to play-test some features and see how people liked it. In the same time, I was participating at the Ludum Dare 34 in the Compo category. Compo means that you have to make the game all by yourself, code, art, sound, music.

I never did a game jam all by myself. During Nordic Game Jam, I isolated myself, but the assets were done by other people. Here, I’m all alone. The theme were Grow and/or Two Buttons Control. I went on the Two Buttons Controls with a game called “Fat Cat Rock’n’Roll” where you were playing a cat that roll in the snow trying to avoid rocks. A very simple idea, super easy to finish.

So why am I here complaining? I don’t feel the same as with other game jam. I never allowed myself to fail when they were other people involved. I just can abandon someone during a game jam. I abandoned a team before a game jam began, but not during.

Here, if I can stop without any problem. Even if the Ludum Dare community is active on IRC, I feel all alone. I have no social interaction with anyone. The collaborative process is dead to me during the Ludum Dare compo.

I learned something great about myself. I need other people to create. I can not create alone, not because I don’t have the skills, but because I don’t want to. When I’m working on a game, I need someone to ask questions and to work with. My artistic process goes through collaboration.