Posted June 26, 2022 by JustBlinkGames
*** Beware spoilers ahead. Play the game first! ***
This game, released under the name "Countdown" was made for the 2022 Lost Relic Game Jam, theme "Connection" and the first jam I had ever done. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I somehow managed to pull off in game, the kind of vision I had for the game in my head.
Started off by actually drawing the concept on paper, with the idea that each item would consume a resource, but that you could not run everything at once. Items would have unequal resource usage. I wanted parts of the game to be hidden by shadows, to add an element of confusion. I had also wanted to give audible feedback with the generator noise changing as the power consumption.
Development went well, despite needing to overcome some difficulties. Switching off downstream switches proved difficult, but provided some great learning on the use of construct 3 functions. Also came up with a process to be able to draw the shadows without too much to an fro, from the game engine to the art package.
General comments from the Jam were positive. Two things stood out, the art style, and the voice overs. On the negative side, a number of people struggled with understanding the direction of what should be done when. I am guessing that some people missed the post it note, thus not quite sure what to do. Some people also missed the rocket launch button, which I had thought was obvious.
I will probably make some minor changes after the game jam, most likely in a single update and then call the game finished. I think I want to change the name to "5 minutes to impact", Countdown just seems too generic. I might also be tempted to make some kind of a YouTube trailer and or play through trailer.