Posted July 12, 2020 by Dylan (dad), Asher (12), Isaac (10)
We've created our first game, and it was done in just 48 hours for the GMTK 2020 Game Jam!
Everything in the game was created this weekend, even the music. Well almost everything, the background image of the houses we found on Google images.
How we prepared
Because we didn't know the theme of the Game Jam until it started, we spent the last few weeks practicing in different ways...
Being creative
We made up our own themes and tried to think of game ideas around those themes.
Some themes we brainstormed with:
Learning the tools
We spent 30-60 minutes every night up to the Game Jam creating a practice game using the tool we picked to use, Construct.
Starting the Game Jam
We learned about the theme, Out of Control, at the start of the jam. The first thing we did was write our ideas on paper. We then each picked our own favorite idea and drew what the game might look like.
Prototyping
We prototyped Asher's idea and loved it, but thought it would be difficult to finish in time. The next day we prototyped Isaac's and thought it was going to great fun to play and finishable in the short time we had - just one more day.
Building the game
Isaac and Asher used Incredibox for the music, and their own voices for the sound effects.
We did the art in Construct.
We tested on their ipads.
We used a Google doc to track our tasks and prioritize the nice-to-have's vs the must-do's.
Releasing the game
Isaac thought we were not going to finish in time! But we did! We finished adding the sound effects and fixing the last big bugs in the final 5 minutes! It was thrilling, and we are still shaking from the excitement as write this.
Please vote for us
Create an itch.io account so you vote for us! We would also love your feedback!
Thank you for playing our game, Snowball Tsunami!