This was our first tech jam, so we didn't know what to expect. The idea was that instead of forcing people to make coherent games, they could just make whatever they want.

This resulted in a LOT of variety among the entries, with a lot of cool and interesting directions. I had a lot of fun exploring and playing with them.

I want to mention some of the entries that I enjoyed that didn't win anything. I'm sure the rest of the team have their favourites, but here's mine.

This procedural city generator suprised me. What it created was coherent and neat. It doesn't actually seem that complicated, with like 20 parts to build the city, but it shows how you can make something huge from something small.

If this was a game contest then Swarm Agents would have placed. We all got addicted to it. There aren't a ton of games in s&box right now that make you want to play longer than a couple of minutes - this is one.

This little animal simulator made me appreciate how desperately we need more NPCs in s&box.

In GMod, wiremod always frustrated me. I never really learned how to use it properly, but I can appreciate the appeal. There were a few wirey type entries. This one, which is probably the closest to wiremod. This one takes it to a whole other level, introducing water and cooking etc.

This was very tricky one to judge for us. 

Because we had a mix of games, maps and editor libraries it was hard to get everyone to try everything. Then because we had 10 categories, it was hard to find the right category for things to be in.

I still think having multiple categories is the way to go versus having top 5 places, but maybe we were too broad.

The categories that were quite specific got lots of entries obviously targetting them, but the categories that were more open ended didn't really get any targets.

We've done a super broad jam now and we can see what happens. I thought people would revel in the freedom to experiment with something that interested them. Some did, but I feel like most struggled with it.

So what we decided is that the next jams will be locked down and more specific. They'll be single medium - either editor, map, model or game - not just any. This will allow us to cater to make it more accessible for people to try in game by having a menu with all the entries.

We got 4 VR entries this time around, and it felt bad because they worked and were cool. ShadowBrain's entry in particular was very well polished and high effort. But the problem is that these entries next to normal games are always at a disadvantage - because they require special hardware and standing up. So we're thinking about a VR specific jam, to cater for this specifically.

Right now they're the only way for us to let creators make money from s&box. It is my hope that the Jams become less important over time, as we bring standalone game exporting and monetization options to the platform.

I don't think they'll go away completely, but it'd be nice if we can get to a place where the prize money isn't that important, and they're not as competative so people share what they're working on as they're creating, so it's more of a creative community thing.