Global Game Jam Projects

Infection: BBT is a puzzle platformer made in Gamemaker for the 2012 Global Game Jam. The principle of the game is to play a parasite that loses health over time, but heals itself by leeching from other creatures. At the same time the parasite needs to reach the goal using the powers of the animals available, the bear, bird, and turtle. With each having unique strengths and weaknesses such as the bear being strong and the turtle swimming well, it is a good setup for puzzles and thinking through the actions needed to reach the goal. With 48 hours to make a game from scratch, my group had to think quickly and come up with an idea we liked. Settling on using Gamemaker for ease of use speed, we decided a platformer was a good pick for the sake of simplicity. My role in the development of the game was in programming mechanics and ensuring the features worked, along with the role of designing mechanics and testing the game which was shared throughout the group when time was available.

Existential Dread is a platforming game made in Java for Global Game Jam 2013. The player must make his way through a few levels of darkness, building a lantern, and escaping the darkness before succumbing to it. If needed he can use the finished lantern to protect himself for a bit and survive. For this project, we used a Java engine primarily developed by one of the team members, who I had assisted in some of the features and mathematical fine-tuning. My main role during the Game Jam itself was the audio, creating sound effects and music for the game, along with testing and tweaking the game mechanics.

Lucernae is an exploration game made in Java for Global Game Jam 2014. The player explores an empty town setting looking for items to escape. They can switch between physical and spiritual forms, allowing them to bypass certain obstacles and solve minor puzzles. The game was developed in the Java engine from the previous year, and again I focused on music and designing mechanics as the features were already being coded by the engine's main developer. Unfortunately the scope was a bit large and implementation of some features weren't finished, leaving the game more minimalist than intended.

Curiosity is a survival exploration game developed in Unity for Global Game Jam 2015. The player is stranded on an island and must gather resources, explore, and stave off hunger. While doing so, they can train survival skills and create gear used to enhance their ability to explore. Along with wandering the island itself, they must explore a cave to discover secrets, but reaching the end requires the player to be properly prepared in stamina and resources. For this project I wrote scripts for core features and assisted other other team members in their scripting to improve their understanding of C#. Unfortunately, a number of features I finished such as NPC AI were not implemented due to time constraints and simply not being put into the build which was ready at the deadline. As such the game primarily focused on picking apples and hitting rocks.

Misologue is a puzzle game based around memory and mazes made in Unity for Global Game Jam 2016. The player is shown a series of sigils, then takes control of a ball of light. The player must navigate a maze, picking up sigils, and reach the exit before their light fades, although their light can be restored by staying near torches. The final phase of the level is placing the sigils on the altars in the second room, and they must not only remember the order of the sigils at the start of the level, but the order in which they picked them up as that is the order they will place them on the altars. If the ritual performed is wrong because of the order being wrong, the player will not know until they beat all 4 stages, meaning they must perform all 4 rituals perfectly with increasing maze size and numbers of sigils to memorize. In this project I was the lead coder and worked on almost every feature in the game, along with working with teammates to design the game and test it, which was a herculean task due to the sadistic format of the game.