Over the past several months, some of the team has participated in private 12-hour Game Jams. We use the Jams to hone our skills and explore new areas of development. Here is a list of the outcomes of each of the Jams, with a short post-mortem for each.
Taxi chase is a 2D side scrolling shooter. You play as a taxi driver in a futuristic world based on Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. As usual, Anthony created all the art while Nick wrote the code.
What Went Right
- Art Cohesion: All of the assets had an obvious common theme, thanks in part to the movie already existing.
- Preproduction: The entire game was well planned-out in advance, we identified the exact number of enemies, cut functionality if it was too much, etc.
What Went Wrong
- No Balancing: We went up to the final minutes with adding in assets and functionality, which left us very little time to balance and playtest the game.
- Unoriginal: The game itself is similar to old school side-scrolling shooters, set in a pre-existing world.
Star Scavengers is a 3D multiplayer incremental shooter. Up to 2 players can defend their ship against asteroids by shooting them, earning points, and upgrading their stats. Anthony created all of the art assets while Nick did the coding.
What Went Right
- Cel Shaded Art: The art style turned out very well, striking a good balance between simple and detailed.
- Co-operative Play: The functionality was kept simple enough for multiplayer to be included even though the development time was small.
What Went Wrong
- No Balance: The game is fun for the first few minutes, but it quickly gets more difficult as the upgrades become too costly to continue upgrading at a reasonable pace
- Repetitive: The players are doing the same thing over and over again: clicking on asteroids. We wanted to add in some abilities but ran out of time.
Lethal Dodgeball Dystopia is a 3D competitive arena game. Up to 2 players can battle it out in the dystopian arena, using 5 unique dodgeballs. Anthony did the art while Nick coded the game.
What Went Right
- Level Design: Before creating the level, Anthony created the layout in GIMP, which made placing the objects in Unity much easier.
- Unique Mechanics: The core gameplay used Unity's physics system, so it was simple to give each dodgeball unique properties.
What Went Wrong
- Lack of Distinction: We could have added visual distinction between areas of the map by adding landmarks and/or texture changes on different buildings. As it stands, each building looks roughly the same.
- Little Polish: There was little time leftover for polishing the game and fixing bugs.
Wandering Bomber Experience is a 3D bomb-placing action game. You must strategically place bombs to kill oncoming enemies, earn experience, and increase your stats. Anthony created the art while Nick coded the functionality.
What Went Right
- Consistent Style: The UI and the art style meshed well, both giving off a cartoon-like vibe
- Upgrades: There are plenty of stats for the player to upgrade.
What Went Wrong
- Too Many Mechanics: Between placing bombs, exploding them, AI, and leveling up, there were simply too many mechanics. This resulted in none of them being particularly great.
- Asymmetric Workload: Anthony had far fewer assets to create than Nick had code to write, which resulted in more downtime for him.
Asteroid Slaughter Omega is a 3D typing game. Asteroids fly toward Earth and the player must type their words or face destruction. Anthony created all the art while Nick coded the game.
What Went Right
- Simple Gameplay: Because the game was very simple, we were able to polish it and add plenty of juice to it
- Artistic Theme: The game has an obvious art theme which worked great: outer space
What Went Wrong
- No Menu: There is no way to quit the game from inside the game without forcing it to close
- No Instructions: A simple "Type the words" at the beginning would have gone a long way