Game jams are a great place to push creativity and team play. Since they are a team sport, sharing files via a version control solution should be as smooth as possible. There is no time to configure servers and teach others how to send files.
GitHub and other Git-based cloud solutions have always proven themselves, not only in game jams but also in game development in general. Git is open source, easily accessible, and favored in the programming world. However, Git is hard to get started with for artists and other non-coders.
Anchorpoint solves this problem by being a Git client for non-coders that is optimized for game development. In this document, we want to emphasize how it can be used in game jams, starting with an example.
Soul Blast is an RPG developed during the first Druid Mechanics - Game Jam by a team of 3 developers, Boris, RitzyTritzy, and y4ku. During the game, the player takes continuous damage while battling enemy waves. Saved souls restore the angel's health when reaching an altar and ascending.
The game was developed using Unreal Engine while using Azure DevOps as the Git server and Anchorpoint as the Git client.
The team did not struggle with Git, as Anchorpoint helped them with a clear and simple interface. This was especially helpful for participants who are not experienced game developers.
Take a look at Soul Blast on itch.io. We also want to congratulate the team for winning the jam by getting most of the votes.
Anchorpoint is a Git client made for non-coders and optimized for use with engines like Unity, Unreal, or Godot.
Setting up a Git repository in Anchorpoint that connects to GitHub or Azure DevOps is done with a few clicks. LFS and a proper .gitignore are automatically configured.
Teaching Git to artists takes a lot of time. Anchorpoint simplifies Git by exposing only the basic operations that an artist needs. It also shows things like merges in a visual way.
Files are still on GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, or any other Git cloud solution. There is no lock-in like in other version control systems.
We have a set of videos that are dedicated to version control with Unity and Unreal Engine, short and sweet.
We support Game Jam events in two ways. Further support can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
While the normal Anchorpoint trial period of 14 days is fully enough to complete the jam, some participants would like to tweak their game even after the jam. For that, we offer Anchorpoint for 2 months free of charge for every participant.
The winning team can use Anchorpoint on other game projects they are developing during the year.
Are you a Game Jam participant or are you hosting a Game Jam and want to let your participants know about Anchorpoint? Write us a short email with the link to your Itch.io event. We will send you a coupon to activate Anchorpoint.
Version control is required if you want to work in a team using a game engine. Game engines don't understand incremental saving, and using a Dropbox would cause total chaos because people would override each other. Also, version control allows you to go back if something breaks.
Git is a version control system that is very popular in software development. GitHub, which you may have heard of, is a cloud storage provider based on Git. So it follows the rules of creating new versions and reverting to older ones.
Git is designed for software development. Game development involves a lot of binary files (3D models, textures, audio). Git LFS is an extension to Git that handles all those binary files. An application like Anchorpoint handles Git LFS automatically, so the artist is not aware of it and does not need to configure anything.
If you do not upgrade to a paid plan, you will revert to Anchorpoint's free plan. You will always have access to your files because they are stored on both your local computer and a cloud storage service such as GitHub. If you are on Anchorpoint's free plan, you will no longer be able to sync files to the cloud.
Yes, one person on your team can use Anchorpoint and another person can use GitHub Desktop, Sourcetree, or similar. The only thing that won't work is additional features like file locking that require the whole team to use Anchorpoint.
Just drop us an email with the link to your Itch.io event. We will send you a coupon.
