My First Game Jam Game

Background

For those unfamiliar with LudumDare, it is a 72 hour event where developers attempt to create a game from a given prompt, this events prompt being "Unstable". There were two categories during this particular game jam - one was a competitive form with stricter rules (particularly restrictive with assets needing to be created during the jam). The category I participated in was more casual, allowing for some pre-created assets to be used. Pixel art not being my strongest skill, I opted to make use of some open source libraries for most of the art in this game. However, all programming was completed by me within that 72 hours. Admittedly, I did stray from the theme specified for that jam a bit in order to create a more fulfilling and coherent experience but as my first game jam attempt I felt pretty accomplished with this project.

Developed using Game Maker Studio 2 (now just GameMaker), this is a puzzle platformer that has the player to take control of different creatures, each with different abilities, to traverse the level to unlock the door that is blocking your progress. By the end of the jam, only 2 such creatures and 5 levels were completed, but the final product is feature complete in what it attempts to do and serves as a solid base for any future additions if the inspiration were to strike.

As mentioned above, the prompt for this jam was "Unstable". However, if you play through the game (a fairly short, a 5-10 min endeavor) you may walk away wondering how the game incorporated this concept. This would be a very astute question as the game, in fact, does not make use of the prompt.

This was not always the case as an earlier conception of the game did make use of the prompt. Whereas the final product allows the player to choose which creature to take control of and when, the original idea would have had this happen spontaneously (the player character having an 'unstable' form) and would require the player to respond to the new form to best suit the situation.

But, with this being my first game jam, I went in with two very clear goals:

Goal 1. I WILL complete a game by the deadline.

The challenge (and fun) of doing a game jam is the limited time one has to brainstorm, plan, develop, and test a game. My previous projects were done under more hobbyist conditions and, as such, tended to see development times in the weeks and months only for those projects to become neglected as the inspiration faded and interest in newer ideas bloomed. I wanted to challenge myself to make an essentially feature complete experience within the 72 hour time-frame of the jam.

Goal 2. I want the finished product to be something people would want to play.

It would have been fairly straight forward to develop a 'game' where the player would use the mouse to remove 'horse' sprites from a 'stable' (one of the many initial brainstorming ideas) but how long would a player spend doing this before moving on? And would they come back and try it if new content were to be made available (would the addition of Clydesdale sprites be enough to entice players to return)? I mean, maybe for some but my exposure to such niche communities is fairly limited. In short, I did not want to develop something that I personally would not want to play and this would impact the design and mechanics of the final product if fairly major ways.

So, with these goals in mind, that original idea for spontaneously changing forms proved to be unworkable. First it ran afoul of Goal 1 - in order for spontaneous for changing to be viable, each puzzle/level would need to be flexible enough to have multiple solutions for each of the possible 'forms' the player character could take. This would require additional planning and testing with regards to level design to ensure that each level remained playable regardless of form. This would, in turn, impact the number of levels that I could complete for the game. As a result, I decided to go for more levels with rigid solutions rather than fewer levels with flexible solutions.

This decision ultimately came into conflict with Goal 2. I wanted to avoid any situation that would result in the player just sitting there waiting for the next form to be able to progress. There is nothing fun about sitting and waiting in order to progress. Even the most avid of train enthusiasts would find themselves at least a little irritated to be stuck at a railroad crossing for too long. Anyone voluntarily playing a game would have even less patience for such idle time. With this in mind, the 'Unstable Form' feature was removed and replaced with the ability for the player to choose the form. (In practice, the choice is whatever creature is available to inhabit, but more creatures can always be added in the future.)

Key Take Aways

This was ultimately an experience in prioritizing outcomes. Having gone through the process of brainstorming, planning, and developing what would become my first game jam game with the two explicit goals stated above, it was clear to me that if I had attempted to adhere too rigidly to the prompt I would have failed to meet one or either of those goals. One could argue that by abandoning the prompt of the game jam I failed to meet the requirements of the jam itself, and I would not argue against that. However, I went into this experience with a specific desired outcome and was merely using the framework of the jam as a starting point. I had never faced a deadline when it came to game development and wanted to challenge myself to make a feature complete game that could be fun, and as it was my first game jam I feel as though I accomplished that.

Having met those goals I set before myself, my participation in future jams have since included the goal of adhering to the prompt more rigidly (though not so rigidly I not allow myself the occasional creative interpretation) as I now know that I am capable of making a complete game within the 72 hour time restraint.