Vespid - GameDev.tv Game Jam 2025

🎮 Game Title: Vespid – Post-Jam Devlog

Hi! I built Vespid for the GameDev.tv 2025 game jam, and although I narrowly missed the deadline due to a last-minute Unity build issue (💔), I still wanted to share the finished game and the process behind it!

Completed in 10 days (around full-time employment), no sleep and harsh lessons learned.

🧠 The Concept

The theme was “Tiny World”, and I built a 3rd-person Wasp simulator where you gather resources to survive and expand the nest. You explore the "world", fend off humans, and grow the colony.

My inspirations were GTA, Goat Simulator, Subnautica, King Kong and to be honest, my ambition got the better of me! In the end my main inspiration was to embody one of natures most hated insects and lean into that!

⛏ Development Process

• Built in Unity 6 using C#

• Core systems: Flight controls, AI giant humans, nest expansion, pheromone mechanics

• Simplified enum statemachine (not sure it simplified things in the end)

• Procedural grid-based collectible spawning

• Simulated nest attacks and human activity

• Created a unique pheromone system for detecting danger

• All assets were either custom created during the Jam, by developer Tim Kendall and 3d Artist Harry Kendall,
   or aquired free, available to the public at time of creation. With great thanks to the following... Wasp Model (Bee) by 'angusbodangus' https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/animals/insect/low-poly-flying-bee Flora by 'Pure Poly' https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/free-low-poly-n... "Wasp Nest" (https://skfb.ly/oOGsq) by Korbinoyo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). "Wasp Sound" Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay "Nature sound" Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay and to the developers of ChatGPT.... honestly, amazing! Much gratitude to that resource and their true genius!

⚠️ What Went Wrong

• Spent too long debugging nest attack visuals

• Final build threw errors due to Unity pipeline quirks—missed the deadline by 15 minutes 😭

• Didn’t sleep enough…

✅ What Went Right

• Finished a complete game loop: gather, expand, defend

• AI felt reactive and alive

• Visuals and systems communicated the theme well

• I learned a lot about ScriptableObjects and AI behavior trees

🚀 Post-Jam Build

Even though I missed the deadline, I’ve uploaded the working post-jam version here:

Please give it a go and let me know what you think!

📌 Lessons Learned

• Always build early and test the final package

• Simpler visual indicators beat fancy effects when time is short

• “Done” is better than “perfect”