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10.1c — 2-Button Jam: Build Day 2

Yesterday's loop exists (10.1b); today either becomes a GAME: the sticky-note task first (the one that could kill you), one more system, and the first difficulty ramp. By close of class the jam is shippable — everything tomorrow adds is bonus.

Build Day ~50 min

Order of the day:

  1. Sticky note first (15 min, hard cap). The riskiest thing from yesterday — the wall of text? The moving obstacle? The enemy that respects your verbs? BUILD IT NOW. If the cap expires and it still does not work: cut the feature, not the cap. That decision is the whole skill of jamming.
  2. One more system (15 min). Score, health, or a second obstacle TYPE — exactly one. Systems are verbs' consequences; two verbs × three contexts is a whole game if each context teaches something new.
  3. Ramp the difficulty (10 min). Your 7.5 beat chart, compressed: the game should be trivial at second 5 and demanding at second 45. Same shapes, tighter timing, one new thing at a time.
  4. Playtest cross-team (10 min). Two minutes with a NON-team member — silent watching, 2.4 rules. Fix nothing; write it down. Tomorrow (10.1d) is the playtest day, so today's two minutes are just a smoke test of the ramp.
Close of Day ~5 min

Socratic: The Risky Task First

  1. You did the task that could kill the project before the task that was easy. What would today have looked like if you had done them in the other order?
  2. You added a difficulty ramp. What does the ramp actually change for the player — more of the same, or a different decision?
  3. By close of class the jam is shippable. If tomorrow's playtest says the game is confusing, which one feature do you cut — and why that one?

Checkpoint — before moving on, you must be able to:

  • Explain what your sticky-note risk was and how it resolved
  • Ship the second system inside the day's cap
  • Show a difficulty ramp a stranger can feel
  • Declare shippable honestly, with a ranked wishlist

Reference Docs

Need a deeper explanation? These pages cover the same concepts:

Next: 10.1d — 2-Button Jam: Playtest

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