Learning From Experience

Another gam jam starts... I step onto the blood soaked sand of the arena.

So, I've been participating in these for a little while now and maybe broke the top ten once. I would like to do better. The most "successful" game I've done here was assembled in a panic over two days and was a complete bug fest. I would like to do better than that too.

I want a fun, simple game that will break the top five! Tall orders.  But... Maybe I can do something about it.

For a game that can be played by (almost) everybody, the browser is the way. Something that can make a game feel "fun" is providing a sense of agency -- the environment responds to your inputs.  A feeling of "incompleteness" gives you an impetus to revisit the game (ask my why I'm on my third playthrough of Nier Replicant...) knowing that there are things left undone, new worlds to explore.

So here are my requirements:

• Play in browser.
• Fun.
• Something to look forward to.
• SFX and music.
• Every day must end with something playable.

That last one? That's a biggie. I'm tired of everything being broken up to the last day. Even if it turns out I can only work one day on it, I want to have something I can submit. No long range planning anymore! It's got to always be working. Always Be Working!

I'm less worried about music. But I think some well-placed sound effects could be nice. And the traditional way to make something to look forward to is to have content that isn't addressed in just one playthrough of the game. Fun is going to be harder to define, but I think I'll know it if I get there. Like the time I was building a paint program for work (back when a paint program was something you reasonably "built"), when I noticed I was spending more time using it than developing it, it was done.

The concept... Robot finds Kitten. A classic theme, which is usually implemented very simplistically in text mode. I think I can do more. I made a stab at it once in Godot, but didn't get where I wanted. Well, now it's time to finish it, to get this idea out of my head and onto the screen so I can move on. It also has the benefit of being relatively straightforward.

The schedule:

1. Dev environment setup and test. Box (Robot) on plane with directional controls. Obstacles?
2. Obstacles / treasures.
3. Work out robot differential drive. Six wheels or treads.
4. Terrain. Flavour text.
5. Robot model animation.
6. Music, SFX.
7. Kitten!
8. Treasure models and animation.
9. Playtesting.
10. Final fixes and submission.

The "treasures" have intriguing flavour and almost any game of RFK is going to leave most of them unexplored. So the original concept provides good reasons to keep coming back. I want to supplement this with varying terrain ("levels" in less sophisticated games...) and add-ons for Robot ("power-ups" in the vulgar parlance).

So, we'll see how I do. Right now it's 0244 in the morning and I really need some sleep. But, Day One awaits!