Global Game Jam Aftermath

Soooo, I survived my first Global Game Jam. Yippee! And I even helped make a game in 48 hours that you could play (somewhat). How did it go, you might ask. Well I will tell you in a conveniently concise bullet-point list:

• I forced myself to pitch an idea since it was my first game jam. Probably a bad idea but I did it anyway and a couple of people seemed to actually understand what I was pitching in spite of my incoherent babbling.
• My idea didn't garner enough support to make it to the next round, but a few people seemed to genuinely like it and I learned a lot about pitching to a large audience and how not to do it.
• Two other ideas that I liked did make it to the next phase and I managed to get on the team for one of them, a game called Inner Monster.
• I met some great and talented people, drank a lot of Mountain Dew and ate a lot of pizza.
• We had some version control issues and perhaps overestimated what we could accomplish in 48 hours, but otherwise had a lot of fun and our game was playable if not complete.
• I worked as a programmer and designer. Most of my design elements didn't have a chance to get implemented but I did a fair share of programming (for someone who is not a programmer) including the enemy AI (all four of them).

Okay well maybe that wasn't concise, but there you have it. Cheers to all the guys on my team. Congrats to everyone who participated. And most of all thanks to my lovely wife who let me go and geek out for the whole weekend while she stayed home trying to keep a two-year-old and five-year-old entertained.

And if you would like to check out the game we made click here. Also a photo of all the downtown Orlando game jammers can be viewed here and the games our site made are here. Finally you can feast your eyes below to see some concept art and screen shots of the game we made.

We Be Jammin

So the Global Game Jam is almost here. This will be my first game jam and I am very:

A) Excited
B) Nervous
C) Congested
D) All of the above

Take your pick. For those of you who don't know what a game jam is, basically a bunch of people get together and try to make a game over the course of a weekend. The Global Game Jam is international and countries all over the world will be taking part. Check the Global Game Jam website for a gathering near you. I will be attending the one here.

So there you have it. Go out and meet some people and work on some games. For freedom - for justice - for all humanity!

Mech Inferno Feature List

Okay, so maybe not quite a feature list but more of a proposal. This is basically what I started with when Mech Inferno was first developed. I don't try to list every feature at first. I like to pull out three or four features that I think make the game unique and then kind layout the big picture as far as the concept goes. Oh and I want to keep it brief so I limit it to one page.

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Game Title: Mech Inferno             Genre: Sci-fi/Horror top-down shooter

Setting: Gomorrah (Dark Earth)       Similar Titles: Castlevania/Smash TV

Description

After the fall of civilization, evil inherits the Earth and it is renamed Gomorrah. There is one safe haven for humans, Paradiso, but it costs a fortune to buy your way in. Sydney and Adelaide plan to do just that with the use of their homemade mech. The quickest way to make money in Gomorrah is to take it from the demons, but they soon learn there is hell to pay when they steal from Gomorrah's richest demon, Mammon.

Concept

Mech Inferno is a top-down shooter similar in gameplay to Smash TV and Gain Ground, but with a setting that merges Castlevania with Contra. In it the player will progress in a typical level structure. The game uses a mixture of 2D and 3D graphics and is designed to be played with a Super NES style gamepad.

Format

Mech Inferno will be created using the Unity3D game engine and will be released on PC. Console will also be considered as they become plausible options. A free demo will be released first and then additional funding will be sought to finish the game.

Key Features

Mech Inferno offers players some unique features such as a post-apocalyptic horror themed world, shared energy weapon/boost and charge style bullets.

Post-apocalyptic Horror Themed World
The world of Gomorrah is to be a well-developed setting that can be used for many future projects. It combines a post-apocalyptic setting-as seen in movies like Mad Max-with gothic horror creatures and races inspired by classical horror stories/movies like Dracula.

Shared Energy Weapon/Boost
The mech in Gomorrah has an energy bar that is used to power the mech's weapons and boost ability. This bar is self-generating, but as the player boosts and/or charges bullets the energy is depleted. Once the energy is reduced to zero, the player will not be able to boost of shoot until the bar completely refills.

Charge Style Bullets
The player can hold down the shoot button and charge their bullets similar to R-type. This produces larger bullets that do more damage and go through more enemies. Some enemies can also have armor which must be knocked off by a fully charged bullet before the enemies can be harmed.

Mech Concept WIP