GAME JAM BLOG
Well, it's been a while since I participated in a Game Jam so I felt it was time. I hadn't anticipated in competing against over 400 other people and I haven't had to prove what I created was during the time it was running
Day 1
March 6th, 2020
The theme was announced as LIGHT & SHADOW and I had nothing. I literally had no ideas. This is from the guy who normally has so many ideas, I don't have anything big enough to keep them all in. I pulled out my sketch pad and started to think.
Finally, it came to me. I would have these broken lines you could move and depending on where they were, the screen would be black or white and there would be colliders and you'd move the 'player' around getting him through the gaps of the lines until he was pushed to the finish goal. Awful. No, seriously, in my head it was great but then I just realized one thing was missing...fun. There was no way I could introduce any 'juice' into this idea and I wouldn't enjoy working on it either.
When you compete in a Game Jam, you want to spend some time coming up with an idea. You might notice there is a lot of 'getting nowhere fast' and after 18 hours (of a 48-hour jam), I've still got...you guessed it, nothing. I needed to start brainstorming. I loved playing video games in the arcades growing up - maybe there is a mechanic I could use from that. Some frantic Googling later and I decided on Gyruss. For those that don't remember it, it looks like this:
The main idea was that you would rotate around the screen firing into the center. Ok...that's what I would use. I wanted to combine it with zombies so the idea was born. Would it be possible for Unity (my game engine of choice) to display shadows of objects without displaying the objects themselves? Apparently, yes!
I realized at this point I had my work cut out since I am many hours in and basically have now left myself 1 day to create a complete game...from scratch.
Day 2
March 7th, 2020
I was clear on the rules and already had the game looking great...in my head. It would be titled SOUL SHADOWS and involved a lone police officer trying to 'kill' enough zombies to complete the 'game'. I say 'game' because outside of a jam, this would be a level but you know...I may have mentioned that I am running out of time.
The first thing to get working was the movement of the player. Anyone who creates video games will tell you that rotation is notoriously tricky. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel so a quick search lead me to a Circular Motion tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=292&v=BGe5HDsyhkY) which meant I had the basic movement down.
Ok, I had some hope back that I might at least be able to produce 'something'. Now, why would the zombies only appear in shadow form? I know, there are lightning strikes and when it does strike, they will appear! All other times, they would be in shadow-only form. Feeling a little like Einstein at this point but baby steps and little-wins were what I needed right now.
I liked the overhead camera style in the previous video, so I decided to stay with that. Next, I needed to spawn/instantiate zombies from the center-point and have them go in random directions - well I did!
Then I couldn't decide, for the longest time (because you know, time was what I had so much of...) whether to leave dead zombies on screen. I decided I would.
Ok, now I was getting somewhere. I found a font on Dafont.com called Smoke Shadow which seemed fitting. I loved the style of Tiny Toon People (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/toony-tiny-people-demo-113188) so they were my main characters (police and zombie). I found a Graves Collection (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/graves-collection-3125) since the screen would have a couple of gravestones and only free assets can be used for the jam.
I also found:
- Low Poly Police Car Pack
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vehicles/land/low-poly-police-car-pack-59458)
- Yughes Free Bushes
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/plants/yughues-free-bushes-13168
- Free Zombie Character Sounds
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/creatures/free-zombie-character-sounds-141740
- A tutorial to create my own lightning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewC_c6aHbf8
- Storm sounds
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/thunder-sound-set-volume-1-56530
https://freesound.org/people/kingsrow/sounds/361772/
- Free particle effects (I love JMO assets)
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/cartoon-fx-free-109565
- Oversized bullets
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/guns/cartoon-machine-pistol-9648
So I crammed this all in and tried to make it all look worthy of submitting. With only a few hours left it still seemed like there was a lot to do. I understand why some people work jams as a team instead of solo...
I couldn't find any music I liked for the main menu, so I opted for some thunder rumbles which should lead the player nicely into the main game. A police officer chasing a zombie back-and-forth (Scooby-Doo style) seemed a good way to throw something quick but effective together, which ended up looking like this...
...and the main game screen like this...
I don't smoke and don't encourage it but I feel like I need something to celebrate with. Maybe I'll just take a nap. Oh wait, I need to submit the game.
Well, it's been a while since I participated in a Game Jam so I felt it was time. I hadn't anticipated in competing against over 400 other people and I haven't had to prove what I created was during the time it was running
Day 1
March 6th, 2020
The theme was announced as LIGHT & SHADOW and I had nothing. I literally had no ideas. This is from the guy who normally has so many ideas, I don't have anything big enough to keep them all in. I pulled out my sketch pad and started to think.
Finally, it came to me. I would have these broken lines you could move and depending on where they were, the screen would be black or white and there would be colliders and you'd move the 'player' around getting him through the gaps of the lines until he was pushed to the finish goal. Awful. No, seriously, in my head it was great but then I just realized one thing was missing...fun. There was no way I could introduce any 'juice' into this idea and I wouldn't enjoy working on it either.
When you compete in a Game Jam, you want to spend some time coming up with an idea. You might notice there is a lot of 'getting nowhere fast' and after 18 hours (of a 48-hour jam), I've still got...you guessed it, nothing. I needed to start brainstorming. I loved playing video games in the arcades growing up - maybe there is a mechanic I could use from that. Some frantic Googling later and I decided on Gyruss. For those that don't remember it, it looks like this:
The main idea was that you would rotate around the screen firing into the center. Ok...that's what I would use. I wanted to combine it with zombies so the idea was born. Would it be possible for Unity (my game engine of choice) to display shadows of objects without displaying the objects themselves? Apparently, yes!
I realized at this point I had my work cut out since I am many hours in and basically have now left myself 1 day to create a complete game...from scratch.
Day 2
March 7th, 2020
I was clear on the rules and already had the game looking great...in my head. It would be titled SOUL SHADOWS and involved a lone police officer trying to 'kill' enough zombies to complete the 'game'. I say 'game' because outside of a jam, this would be a level but you know...I may have mentioned that I am running out of time.
The first thing to get working was the movement of the player. Anyone who creates video games will tell you that rotation is notoriously tricky. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel so a quick search lead me to a Circular Motion tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=292&v=BGe5HDsyhkY) which meant I had the basic movement down.
I liked the overhead camera style in the previous video, so I decided to stay with that. Next, I needed to spawn/instantiate zombies from the center-point and have them go in random directions - well I did!
Then I couldn't decide, for the longest time (because you know, time was what I had so much of...) whether to leave dead zombies on screen. I decided I would.
Ok, now I was getting somewhere. I found a font on Dafont.com called Smoke Shadow which seemed fitting. I loved the style of Tiny Toon People (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/toony-tiny-people-demo-113188) so they were my main characters (police and zombie). I found a Graves Collection (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/graves-collection-3125) since the screen would have a couple of gravestones and only free assets can be used for the jam.
I also found:
- Low Poly Police Car Pack
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vehicles/land/low-poly-police-car-pack-59458)
- Yughes Free Bushes
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/plants/yughues-free-bushes-13168
- Free Zombie Character Sounds
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/creatures/free-zombie-character-sounds-141740
- A tutorial to create my own lightning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewC_c6aHbf8
- Storm sounds
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/thunder-sound-set-volume-1-56530
https://freesound.org/people/kingsrow/sounds/361772/
- Free particle effects (I love JMO assets)
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/cartoon-fx-free-109565
- Oversized bullets
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/guns/cartoon-machine-pistol-9648
So I crammed this all in and tried to make it all look worthy of submitting. With only a few hours left it still seemed like there was a lot to do. I understand why some people work jams as a team instead of solo...
I couldn't find any music I liked for the main menu, so I opted for some thunder rumbles which should lead the player nicely into the main game. A police officer chasing a zombie back-and-forth (Scooby-Doo style) seemed a good way to throw something quick but effective together, which ended up looking like this...
...and the main game screen like this...
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