Prepare yourselves for… Duck Sauce Jam 2025
Our 4th annual game jam is starting soon, and we can’t wait! Here’s some important information about the event to make sure you get the most out of it. If you are not already a member of the Duck Sauce Games Discord server, please join us using this link: https://discord.gg/jSAWv3X6uR. This will be kept updated with the latest news and announcements.
Please note: We will be photographing the event, so let the DSG team know via email, Discord or in person if you want us to avoid posting photos of you on the website or socials.
Jam Schedule
We’ll share the full jam schedule at the opening ceremony but here’s a sneak peek of the main events:
Doors open: Friday 5pm
Opening ceremony and theme reveal: Friday 5:45pm
JAMMING (plus side events): 6pm Friday to 1pm Sunday
Submission, demos, playtesting and community voting: Sunday 2pm
Closing ceremony: Sunday 5:45pm
We’re also introducing scheduled “mini demo” time at 2pm and 6pm on Saturday. This is intended to give board game makers some dedicated time to play test their games with other participants before the big reveal on Sunday. This will help you build the healthy habit of continuously testing your board game to avoid scope creep, and also exposes your audience to your concept early on!
Food and Drink
Dinner will be provided on Friday and Saturday.
Tea, coffee and hot chocolate will also be available in the kitchens.
Breakfast items like cereal and milk will be available in the kitchens.
Please note that lunch, snacks and soft drinks will not be provided at the event. Here’s a handy list of the nearest places to grab those:
Mulkanwan - delicious breakfast rolls and lunch sandwiches that you can pre-order on their website
Babylon - they have an on-site bakery with fresh pastries and breads
Riverside Coffee - filled Greek pastries and pies
St Enoch Centre - if you fancy a walk, this shopping centre has all the basic necessities: McDonald’s, Aulds, Greggs, Wingstop and more
Jam kit
To have the best jam experience, here’s our list of jamming essentials:
Laptop, peripherals and all the cables.
Art tablets, musical instruments and recording devices.
Notebooks, pens and pencils - for sketching out ideas and prototyping.
Card sleeves, buttons, cardboard, rulers, scissors, and any other item you need to craft a tabletop game (we will provide some of these things for you, but please bring them with you if you can).
We’re also very excited to announce that board game makers will have additional pieces of kit available to them, courtesy of Panda Games!
Game Design Toolkit
We have a few kits available if you would like to try designing with it throughout the weekend. This is a kit containing some basic necessities for most types of board games. Read more about it on Panda Games’ website: https://pandagm.com/game-design-toolkit/
OMNIDECK
We also have a few omnidecks available. This is a deck of cards with various markings on them, so you can use any part of the card to create the exact type of card game you’re envisioning. Read more about how to use these cards here: https://pandagm.com/omnideck/
Staying The Night
We have 24 hour access to the venue and jammers are welcome to stay overnight. If you plan on doing this, we recommend bringing the following:
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Sleeping bag and mat - there will be floor space but it may not be comfortable without your own sleeping bag and mat.
Travel pillow - if you own one, otherwise a folded up jacket will do the trick.
Deodorant - it’s a long event so please be mindful of your fellow jammers.
A towel if you wish to make use of the showers at the venue.
Software
If you’re planning to make a video game, we recommend setting up your GitHub repository and inviting your team (if you don’t know how to do this, don’t worry - we can help at the event). It’s also worth installing all the software you need before the event as this can take up valuable jamming time. For example, your game engine of choice (the correct version) and software for art, music and programming. See below for some of our recommendations:
Music
Boscaceoil - good for beginners (free - download)
Beepbox - also good for beginners (free - browser only)
Sonic-pi - a programming approach to making music (free)
Art
Piskel - Pixel art, good for beginners (free - browser or download)
Aseprite - Pixel art, easy to use with more features than Piskel (paid)
MagicaVoxel - Voxel art (3D pixel art) (free)
Clip Studio - 2D Vector art (3 month free trial)
Blender - 3D modelling (free)
Programming
Game Engines / Libraries
Unity - Powerful game engine with many tutorials available (free)
Godot - Slightly simpler, good for beginners (free)
Phaser - Lightweight Javascript/Typescipt game engine (free)
Pygame - Super simple python package for building games, great for a first game (free)
Storytelling
Twine - Great for creating a game with branching dialogue options (free)
If you want to explore even more software options, this is a fantastic collection: https://github.com/ellisonleao/magictools
Finally, if you have any questions about the event, please reach out on Discord or through our website. See you soon!
