My Game Jam Experience.
On the 6th and 7th of December 2025, I took part in a 48-hour Christmas-themed game jam focused on C++ and Rust. The theme revealed at the start of the event was "Elf on a Shelf." What followed was an intense, creative, and genuinely fun weekend of designing and building a game from scratch with a talented team.
Choosing the Tools
Before the jam began, we decided to build our project in Rust. As beginners, we felt Rust would be easier to manage thanks to its strong error handling and reliability, which can be a huge advantage when you're working under tight time pressure.
Our first idea was to use the Bevy engine, but we quickly realized that its fully code-driven workflow might slow us down, especially when it came to positioning assets and handling visual elements. During a short round of research and discussion, we switched to Godot with Rust extensions.
At first, this sounded complicated, but in practice it turned out to be straightforward to install and run. This setup gave us the best of both worlds:
- We could write gameplay logic in Rust.
- We could use Godot's editor to manage assets, positioning, collisions, and scene layout visually.
That decision saved us a lot of time and made development much smoother.
The Game We Built
We created a simple but engaging game with the following premise:
You're an elf who needs to reach the shelf. Fall through the sky, dodge different dangers, and reach the shelf without getting hurt.
The core gameplay focused on movement, obstacle avoidance, and timing. Given the short timeframe, our priority was to build something playable and polished rather than overly complex. That focus helped us stay on track and actually finish the project.
You can see the result here:
What I Learned
This game jam taught me a lot in a very short time:
- Working under constraints forces you to make decisions quickly and stick to them.
- Choosing the right tools matters — sometimes practicality beats ambition.
- Teamwork is everything in a fast-paced environment. Having a supportive and skilled team made the experience far more enjoyable and productive.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a fantastic experience. I learned new tools, improved my development workflow, and had a great time collaborating with a talented group of people. Game jams are intense, but they're also one of the fastest ways to grow as a developer.
I'd definitely do it again.
© Prem Shrawan Jha.