I recently completed a game with my friend Ryan Sand for Ludum Dare 30’s 72 hour game jam competition. I did the animation, effects, and programming. Ryan did the modeling and level design. Our game is called The Jackal.
Things that went well:
- We got the core of the game designed, as well as the ability to grey box levels by the end of the first day.
- I was really pleased with a few of the tools, such as the lights and lighting. They were really easy to use.
- The aesthetic was graphic and simple. It reminded me of something like Powerpuff Girls.
- I had done some tech testing ahead of time on things that would be useful to do for a variety of games (pathfinding, world space to screen space, raycasting, and a few others).
- We kept to a limited scope.
- Giving the refugees names and backstories was a nice little extra.
- We left the entire last day for bug fixing, and deployment
- Game is easily streamable online.
Things that went less well:
- The game is a bit on the difficult side.
- Animations were done with the planning that the refugees would be carrying things.
- We needed the entire last day for bug fixing and deployment.
- Integration wasn’t the smoothest.
- We didn’t convey the theme as well as we could have.
I had a great time making this game and seeing old friends.