Game Jams
Press Space
Game Jam: Winter Jam by SoloDevelopment 2023
Duration: 72 Hours
Theme: The End is Near
Concept: The blackhole’s gravitational pull gets stronger the closer you get, avoid passing objects and collect anti-matter to fuel your ships boosters to survive as long as possible.
The game was made in Unreal Engine 5 with blueprints. My role was as a designer and programmer, there was also another programmer and 2 artists on my team.
Click here to visit the submission link.
Animation by Abraham Emdon
I collaborated closely with the other programmer to create all of the game’s core systems: Spaceship movement, asteroid spawning, and variable gravity. I also added the score counter and the boosting mechanic.
Variable gravity proved quite challenging to get work with Unreal’s default gravity system, so we ended up writing a custom system ourselves where each object calculated it’s movement speed based on it’s distance to the blackhole.
Whilst not something we planned to add, I’m really glad I found time to create the boost mechanic. I think it makes the gameplay a lot more fun than just simply dodging asteroids, with a resource to maintain and opportunities to escape near death situations.
If I were to continue with this game I would add more features such as: camera zooming out as you get further from the blackhole, being able to destroy asteroids and a win condition perhaps by collecting enough fuel to warp.
ROB and BOB
Game Jam: Global Game Jam 2022
Duration: 48 Hours
Theme: Duality
Concept: Control 2 robots each with a different set of tools to solve a timed escape room. Each robot has limited battery life but you can charge it’s battery by swapping to the other. Play by yourself or co-operatively by swapping the controller when swapping robots.
The game was made in Unity. I was the main game designer, my team also included 2 programmers, 3 artists, a sound designer and another game designer.
Click here to visit the submission link.
I co-founded the team and worked closely alongside programmer Erin Boundy, and was the main designer in engine. I implemented the majority of the game’s assets, audio and mechanics. I also collaborated with Kelvin Statham to design the escape room and level, the puzzles within it and how they connect to one another.
I particularly enjoyed collaborating with engineers to develop tools which assisted me in implementing game mechanics. I hadn’t used Unity in a while and had recently started learning Unreal Engine and Blueprints, due to which, I found that I had a much better technical understanding of Unity since I’d last used it. This allowed me to give more constructive and detailed feedback on the engineer’s tools, and further improve the game’s mechanics and how they were implemented.
If I were to continue this project, I would like to explore more ways to differentiate between the two robots with colours, body shape and maybe some unique tools and mechanics for each of them to have access to. I also would like to lean into the co-op idea, it would be cool if the game could be played from 2 separate devices.
An Act of Humanity
Game Jam: “My First Game Jam”: Summer 2020
Duration: 1 Week
Theme: Change
Concept: 2.5D wave based shooter. The zombie apocalypse has reached the wild west, after being bitten you must commit acts of humanity to slow down and reverse the zombification process. The more zombified you are the weaker you are in combat.
The game was made in Unity. I was a designer, my team also included a programmer, a sound designer and 2 artists.
Click here to visit the submission link.
I was responsible for the level and system design, implementing the map’s assets and their collision, as well as determining zombie spawn rates, item drops and weapon damage. I also setup the game’s UI elements, including the menus and HUD. I designed the game’s zombification mechanic, and worked with the main programmer to balance and implement the weapon switching.
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- Why we chose this concept
- My Exact contributions
- Something I did well
- Something I could do better for next time