Build Environment

Given that we had a larger team than we were used to and varying experience levels, we opted to use Unity 2D and C# for this game jam. This was the engine that had the most cross-over experience and our artists handled the shift pretty seamlessly with direction from the devs.

How It Went

Dev

I was one of 3 devs on the team, and one of our two systems architects was unable to join us at the venue last minute, so we had some fun working around that over the weekend. Our remote dev built the world generator that would disperse tiles of varying densities the further you travelled from your ship (as well as the gems rarity decreasing in denser tiles), our other architect managed the collision masks and state system.

I was responsible for organizing the artists and art direction as the ‘lead game designer’. As ‘gameplay scripter’ I handled the input and animation systems, the drilling mechanic, and the gem collection script. I also implemented all the art from the artists as well as hooking up the UI and mini-map.

It was really interesting to orchestrate the team (half of which had never worked with the other half before) and get everyone focused towards a final goal only 2 days away. It was also a fun experience to gather in a school in a city we aren’t from, sleep on the floors for 2 hours at a time and then sip at your 5th coffee/redbull while you try and figure out why that thing you wrote at 4am isn’t working as expected.

Design

I was nominated to lead the game design efforts and really wanted to emphasize how simple this game had to be. The only goal we really had was to have a currency you could collect while mining, which would make the core game loop more exciting while you search for the broken parts of your spacecraft.

The currency was meant as a way to upgrade your drill and scanning capabilities or your drone’s speed, and would give you the feeling of progressing in power while you explore the randomly generated world and search for parts and clues.

We had a very loose narrative that we planned to feed to the player in scraps as they dug around and found things that were marked on the map but clearly weren’t gems or ship parts. The idea is that through natural play, the player would have a chance of stumbling on one, upon realizing they provided a reward (lore) for their efforts, it would encourage exploration and further reinforce the core game loop.