The Game Jam went great, I met tons of amazing people, saw some pretty inspired game ideas and creations, and had the opportunity to work with some extremely dedicated and talented programmers over the weekend. For those of you that are not as familiar with the GGJ it is an organized event where programmers, level designers, audio technicians, and artists get together, break off into teams, and make games in 48 hours. Normally there is a lot of sleep deprivation, troubleshooting, tutoring, and re-building going on in those two days, but over all the whole thing is an excellent learning experience, and one of the best ways to meet people in game design and creation, both professionally and as fellow beginners. This is my second year participating, and I have had a fabulous time at both, been introduced to some amazing individuals, and gotten more closely acquainted to the game community as a whole.
My groups creation, titled “The Happy Dust Death Bunnies” , was based on my idea of a Dust Bunny Vs. Cat game, where the player controlled a dust bunny that is trying to escape a house full of cats. The main game play is built around a score system determined by the size of the bunny at the end of the game. By consuming it’s fellow bunnies and dust balls the bunny grows in size and gains health, though dust is constantly falling off of the character and attacking cats have the ability to reduce health in large chunks upon contact. We only completed the first level of the game, and there is definitely quite a bit of work still left to be done before it is ready to be declared a polished product, but a few of my group’s programmers and myself are planning to get it there.
As far as the art goes, we decided to make it a 2D side-scroller, and I went with a semi-gothic design for the characters and backgrounds. Complete with cinematics, the game will take place over the different rooms of the house. In order the levels will be Bedroom, Hallway, Stairs, Living-room, and Main Hall, with the possibility of an opening Closet level or a special Kitchen level, depending on the willingness of the programmers. The main enemies are the cats, and the types of cat villain vary. There will be the main source of drive being a large orange tabby chasing the player, with several cats swiping at, jumping out at, and startling the bunny. I am very much looking forward to seeing the completed version.
I guess I’ll have to decide eventually. Stand by for the details of this years Global Game Jam, and the unveiling of my contest entries in the next few days!
