Spoiler Alert: We won!!!
This weekend I traveled back to Sacramento for another awesome IGDA event. This one was a 2 day game jam hosted by IGDA Sacramento and Woman who Code. This time there was no theme, so we got to come up with our own ideas. Lot’s of cool ideas came out of the brainstorm such as a reverse Kirby. You could take out enemies Mario style, or get sucked up by them which would take you into a new world inside of that enemy where you can collect coins and other power ups before breaking out. Other cool ideas consisted of a brain wave 2D speed runner, a battle arena RTS hybrid, a fantastic tale of a Giant and her human daughter and more!
One of the ideas thrown out during all of this by one of the mentors was a “Silent Hill Rip Off.” We ended up spinning off that idea, and decided to make a phychological horror game. We settled on the theme of an office littered with cubical farms after a strange power outage. The concept was that you had stayed late at work, and lost track of time. When the power cuts you finally come to, but something isn’t right. Nobody is here, furniture has been tossed around and something seems to be following you.
The objective was to escape the office. Of course, we only had two days so we quickly cut the scope down to make sure we had something to show at the end of the jam. We had planned features such as needing key cards to access the restricted stair case, getting the power back on via a generator and using an elevator to escape your doom. Alas, we focused on the basics. I churned out some quick models while the programmers and sound guy went to work. I couldn’t have done this one alone, and I’m super thankful for our awesome team this time around.
At the end of day one, we had all the assets we needed to make a basic demo. I worked through the night to do a level layout and began setting up lighting to direct the player. At the end of the day we were all super proud of what we accomplished. Day two came, and the demo (which should be posted soon-ish on the IGDA Sacramento website if you’re interested) consisted of awaking at your cubicle, a flashlight, navigating to a hallway through a cubicle farm, a physics jump scare where a shelf gets knocked over as you approach it (assisted by some AWESOME sound work), working doors, ambient music, flickering lights, and a few more rooms to explore before coming to a close.
Out of the 5 groups the judges named us the winner. Which means we get the opportunity to show our game at the next Sacramento Indie Arcade, which is pretty huge! However, I think we’re all the winners for having such an awesome environment to get together and do what we all love, and that’s making games. Everyone there made something awesome in such a short time span. IGDA Sacramento has brought us mentors and a communal place to do what we’re passionate about and I’m super thankful for them.
Another thanks to my team;
Ivan, Kyle, Curtis, Tracy and Justin. You all rocked.
Joey Simas 