Games Jam- First Experience

Games Jam 28th Nov - 2nd Dec
Following our prototype project, we participated in a 3 day game jam. During these 3 days I could apply my skills learnt through my first year and more importantly that I learnt through prototyping and blueprints. I enjoyed applying this knowledge with a short deadline, pushing us to work faster and make sharp decisions. Our brief was a single screen game (fixed camera) with the theme 'boiling point'.

After the brief Monday afternoon, we brainstormed ideas, looking into mechanics and games we liked and ideas revolving around the term 'boiling point'. With this in mind, our game ideas often went for an arcade style or mobile game.
We chose the idea of a robot overheating to expand and make a game from. In hindsight, we should have brainstormed longer and developed more challenging and entertaining mechanics. After talking through the idea, we concluded the game would be 'A old robot having to work and earn money to keep alive and pay for his repairs' . To ensure we got multiple levels and polish mechanics, we kept the scope small and planned the essential mechanics and then listed extras if we had time.
We all took a small task home for the evening, and would get a fresh start in the morning. We planned to get the mechanics in the game during that first full day, and have the main assets such as cabinets that would block out the level. 


I created 2 tables, stainless steel and wooden within the first hours of the first official day. With feedback from the whole group I kept editing until the colours were nice and the brush effects were correct for the material. I was unsure of the perspective as it was strange to me and not a true perspective, so I passed these assets onto a couple of my team, to alter to the appropriate perspective.
I mainly painted assets and gathered reference images, however I look over all other aspects so I could input feedback and keep in loop with all aspects of the game.

Alongside this, our character was in the iteration stage. We all agreed on which designs we preferred and that was iterated on further and conformed as our character. With this character, our team then did separate tasks, one made the flip book for he would animate whilst walking around the level, and someone else began doing the comic strip, which would briefly show the player the story behind the game.

 Final character design

We altered some cabinet assets and made more items that would feature in a kitchen, such as fridge freezers, ovens, and dishwashers.

When in game, we could see if the fit well. Even though we weren't all in the UE4 file at once, we often flicked round to see and give feedback on how the assets sat in the game. An example was the fridge having no depth. We noticed this, so went back and added shading, then replaced it back in the level.

 We made lots of small and quick assets to give character to the kitchen. With these, we could place them in other assets such as the fridge, and on cabinets and floors.

We prioritized sketches so assets could be used within the game even if they weren't coloured. These were coloured the next day and didn't end up being put in the level uncoloured anyway.

We ran out of time to colour the comic strip, so just used the line drawings as they still illustrated the story well enough.

 In game screen shots of some levels. 

We kept the main colours neutral so the hot and cold points stood out, and were apparent to the player they are important. Our assets were purposefully made tileable and reusable so we could make more levels with the time we had.

Final logo for the start screen.

To conclude, after the 3 days we had to make or first game in a group of 5, I have learnt a lot about time management and communication. 

Areas I feel worked and I have improved:

• My 2D skills  - I created assets from reference and alongside others so style and consistency was important. I have also learnt how to create flip books within UE4.
• Knowledge of the Health HUD - in my prototype I struggled with health bars, however since then I feel more competent and understood how our health bar was made and how the hot and cold were blueprinted.
• Teamwork and communication was smooth within my team. We were all motivated and gave valid feedback to create our first game together.

The main points of improvement for future are:

• More time exploring the idea and making sure the mechanics or narrative are interesting and how you can execute them well. We settled quickly and brought in the scope to make sure we completed in time, however our game could've been more interesting.
• Decide on an art style early on and stick to it, having reference images. The art style was mentioned and mood board and references were sent, however the style changed slowly and the mood and atmosphere of the game overall changed.
• Challenge ideas more and push each other. Even though we did not argue and got a completed game at the end, some tasks could have be completed quicker and we could have had more ideas if we would have persisted in areas and challenged each other.