Planning a small game jam with generated assets
Forty-eight hours, a tiny team and no dedicated 3D artist? Here is how to plan your art so generated models speed you up instead of slowing you down.
Game jams are about scope. You have a weekend, an idea and far less time than you think. Generated 3D models can fill your world quickly, but only if you plan the art as carefully as the gameplay.
Before the jam: prepare, do not produce
Most jams forbid building assets before the start, but you can still prepare:
- Know your pipeline. Import a test GLB or FBX into your engine and confirm scale, materials and orientation.
- Write a style sheet. Two or three style words your whole team will use in every prompt, such as "chunky stylised, hand-painted".
- Check your credits. The free plan's 20 credits are enough for a handful of test drafts. For a full jam, the Pro plan at €11.99/month with 500 credits gives you plenty of room.
Hour one: the asset list
Once the theme drops and you have a concept, write a short asset list and sort it into three tiers:
- Must have: the player character, the main enemy, the key environment piece.
- Should have: two or three props, a secondary enemy.
- Nice to have: decoration, variations, a trophy for the ending.
Generate only the first tier on day one. You would be amazed how many jam games shipped with half an asset list and still looked great.
Generate with the engine in mind
- Go low-poly when you will have many copies on screen.
- Skip textures for silhouettes and blockouts; texture only final assets.
- Rig only what moves. A character with the walk, run and idle presets covers most jam needs. Props and scenery do not need a skeleton.
- Keep scale consistent. Pick the player as the reference and resize everything else to it on import.
Divide the work
In a team of three, one person can own asset generation and importing while the others build gameplay. That person keeps a simple spreadsheet: asset, prompt, seed, status. When a model needs a tweak, the saved prompt and seed make the rerun fast and predictable.
Export choices
| Need | Format |
|---|---|
| Characters with animation | FBX or GLB |
| Static props and scenery | GLB |
| Web builds | GLB |
Common jam traps
- Polishing one hero asset for six hours. Good enough on day one beats perfect on day two.
- Mixing styles. A realistic rock next to a toy-like hero looks like a bug. Stick to the style sheet.
- Forgetting collision. Add simple box or capsule colliders instead of using the full mesh.
After the jam
Some of the best models made during a jam deserve a second life. Publish your favourites to the public gallery, or list them on the marketplace so other developers can use them in their own projects.
Plan the art, protect your scope and let the models do the heavy lifting. Good luck at your next jam.
