Game Jams
Game jams have been a great way for me to explore new design opportunities separate from my day to day responsibilities. It allows me to focus on my implementation skills rather than paper design or game balancing alongside keeping on top of my animation skills. Here are some of my favourites and why.
One Way Taxi
One Way Taxi is a unique one button gameplay game where you score chase to deliver as many passengers to their destination as possible. This was a charity game jam where we were encouraged to make the game as accessible as possible.
I wanted to challenge our team of two to create a driving game where you controlled the vehicle with one button. By manipulating the direction of the one way signs you can guide the taxi to its destination to score points. The taxi increases in speed over time, creating a playful “out of control” atmosphere in those last remaining moments of a game. With easy to learn, hard to master gameplay it kept people returning to our demo beat their previous high scores time and time again!
The Friend Zone
In this Epic Games X Sumo Digital gamejam our team decided to flip the escape room concept on its head. Teams of four navigate an interactive game show, where they have to solve environmental puzzles and collect keys in order to escape within the time limit. However, if players separate and leave each others “friendship circles” time ticks down faster.
We designed puzzles that encouraged players to move together in groups of two or four, creating risk if players ran away from others. Some level objects would interact with elements on the other side of the room, in game pings or verbal communication between players was key to a successful escape!
The Splaten Kraken
Beware a kraken attack in a 90s platformer style boss battle! I used this gamejam project as an opportunity to explore boss battle game mechanics, learning about timing and pacing alongside implementing game systems and cinematics for a dramatic setpiece driven boss battle!
Creating escalating gameplay was exciting and the promise this project showed opened up opportunities in my day to day role to work on boss battles in one of my major projects!