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Are you trying anything new?

A topic by crazyhoundgamedesign created May 21, 2025 Views: 736 Replies: 67

Viewing posts 1 to 26

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago (3 edits)

I'm curious how many of us use jams to try something new. A new mechanic, art style, sound style, anything really.

I've only been playing with gamedev for a little over a year and when I participate in a jam I always try to do something different to what I've done before.

This time around I'm trying to make a game with a different art style as most of my games for jams end up being 2D pixel art. I'm also making a more casual click to move style game. The mechanics are simple, but based around this style of game so are built a bit differently as well.

So what are you doing different? And is it working?

[Edit] - Got my game submitted now, game page link is https://crazyhoundgamedesign.itch.io/petri-dish-gdtv-jam-25

Ratings page link to follow once it opens.

Also, thank you for all the comments and conversations in this thread, I will definitely be aiming to play everyone's games once the ratings open.

[Edit] - Rating Page: https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-jam-2025/rate/3587730

[Edit] -

I know we've passed the end of the making games bit, but if anyone else has been doing anything new or different to what they've done before, I'd still like to hear about it.

I'm also interested in playing your games and have already played the ones for the devs in this thread. I'm happy to carry on with this approach as well, and would like it if you could play mine.

jcmonkeySubmitted110 days ago(+1)

i tried to use a new language and a different framework/engine. ran into so many problems so now i am back in godot trying to get something together to release :D

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

Trying a new language and engine at the same time gives a steep learning curve. Over the years I have used multiple languages for different purposes, some educational, some professional, but I'm not an expert in any of them.

You mention Godot, do you use gdscript or c#?

I hope you manage to pull something together.

jcmonkeySubmitted109 days ago

i stopped using c# because in godot 4 you cant do a web build with it.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

That's annoying, hope you're making progress though

ZKyleSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

Not completely new, but I'm using this as a chance to re-write my FSM in a new style, every one i've used in the past generated and stored a new state every transition (old ones were deleted, no problems there) but this time I'm generating all states relevant for each character upon instantiation, and switching between them using dictionaries. So far it's working really well, but perfectionism has caused me to spend a little too long on this sidequest

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

Dealing with a new complex task can become all consuming. But the feeling when you make it work is great.

I hope the rest of your project fits in the way you want.

BloodknightukSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

I'm looking to add a very simple base building system. little more than floors walls and doors probably

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

I've been thinking about designing base building systems before, not put anything into practice yet, but figuring out how to do it and keep it simple is an interesting challenge.

How are you organising a built structure?

BloodknightukSubmitted109 days ago

At this point, i havent even considered much in terms of organisation, my frame of reference is just something like no mans sky basic early base wooden components.

TiaraliSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

In previous jams I kind of said, I'll make a platformer that I've already done a tutorial on and then I'll change this and this to make it different. This time I was just kind of, I'll make a game that does this, and to do that I'll need these features. So I don't think any of what I'm doing is new (although I'm so out of practice I'm having to do lots of research anyway) but I'm putting them together in a new (for me) way, which I'm pleased about. It makes me feel like I'm progressing a little.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

The new approach though definitely changes how you would scope the project, and even individual components.

I always try to do something new, but also try to keep it relevant to what I'm building.

Shifting perspective can be useful in figuring out what you want to build into your game.

RheyanSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

Mostly. I only started learning gamedev 3 months ago, I started with MonoGame and made just one game in Unity before this one. So most of it is new hehe. I've used particle effects and scriptable objects for the first time in this game. I've got a problem with my world map and I think I'm going to have to try and refactor it to be procedurally generated which could be a challenge. I'm loving learning all this stuff so far though!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

I hope you manage to figure it out.

I've never really played with proper procedural generation. For the projects I've been making so far I'm always worried that procedural generation could make my games too big for what I want, but it is definitely something I want to figure out.

What I would like to be able to do with it though is be able to generate assets for my games that I would be able to export and reuse, making them persistent.

Good luck!

dTMSrSubmitted110 days ago(+1)

This is my fouth game jam (all gamdev.tv ones) and in the past I have tried something different every time (FPS, platformer, and card game), but this year I have been really pushed for time (I had to submit yesterday as I'm at a festival for the rest of the week). I was still rewardind though as I hadn't got the chance to do any game dev for almost a year, so it was fun to get back into it and see what I could remember. I've been going through a gamdev.tv Blender course most recently, so if I had the time I would have liked to write a game using my own models and animation. Maybe next year :)

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

3D modelling can be very time consuming, I have done some simple modelling for my own projects, but not yet completed anything for a jam, I recently tried to make a 3D game for the recent underwater horror jam, but missed the deadline.

If you want to make a 3D jam game, you might have to work on your own assets over time and then use some of them in a jam in future.

I have found that making 3D assets and a game in short time frame is quite difficult if you want to include more than basic shapes or a basic game.

Good luck with the jam

dTMSrSubmitted105 days ago

Thanks and good luck to you too.

And yes, I'll have to build up a bank of 3D models and hope some of them will fit into any future game jams I enter.

Celestial Twins StudioSubmitted110 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Hey, that’s awesome! I’ve been using Unity for a few years but only really got into it deeply the last 4 years. I’m definitely making things more modular now, trying to write reusable code.

I also use jams to experiment with new ideas. This jam though has been the most fun I’ve had making a game so far.

Also, I’m not an artist by trade, but I made all the art myself in a vector style, which is new for me too!

Your switch to a different art style and casual click-to-move sounds really cool. How’s that coming together?

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted110 days ago

Also not an artist by trade, or a musician, sound designer, programmer or writer, that's part of the fun.

I normally make my own assets. Over the last year my main focus has been improving the music I make for my games, and I think it has improved a lot from where I was.

Making your own assets increases the work load for a jam, but it is quite rewarding knowing that your game is unique, plus you don't have to worry about licenses or credit for your own work.

The new art style I'm using this time is a simpler hand drawn style. It looks ok for a jam game and I have got most of the game working as I intended, I only have to get a few menus and Sound Effects done, then I'll probably even have time to add a little polish and balancing to the game.

To be honest it has come together a lot quicker than I thought it would as I didn't start till Tuesday.

GalksterSubmitted109 days ago

I'm trying some rope physics and playing around with 2d skeletons / inverse kinematics within Godot. This is my first game jam - but I saw so many people comment about using game jams to try something new, and I loved the idea.
The above may not work out properly, but its a great start to understanding these concepts if I decide to use them in future games. I'm hoping to spend one more day on the Skeleton2D / bones / IK stuff, and then start working on sound, UI, game polish, additional levels... which causes me concern as I'm not proficient in any of those things!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

Rope physics sounds like a fun mechanic, I've not really dug too deep into 2D physics yet. Most of the games I have made so far haven't needed complex physics systems yet.

I find jams are good for giving me focus to finish a project around normal life. My normal experiments outside of game jams haven't really lead to much yet. Some of it is lack of focus, and some of it is confidence in what I'm building.

Good luck with the jam, and I hope you get the ropes working.

mike2056Submitted109 days ago(+1)

Game Dev itself is new to me XD

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

I hope you manage to make what you want.

MiniputsSubmitted109 days ago(+1)

I recently discovered the beauty of the Kotlin programming language. So I'm using Godot-Kotlin module that is in alpha stage. I have trouble with getting my classes known to JVM, so the code is not pretty, but I can move on. I'm doing something new and risky, but I still have a plan B if plan A fails.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

Never heard of Kotlin language, sounds an interesting approach using a different language for Godot. Does the plugin act like an interpreter?

silasmathguySubmitted109 days ago(+1)

I am making my first platformer game I guess.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

We all make a platformer at some point, I blame Mario and Sonic.

I hope you get it working the way you want.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted109 days ago

Just also realised, I remember the poison game as well ... nice to see you again.

LazarusCraven108 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I started using a different art program very recently, so it's still fairly new for me. This jam has been my first time using it for animating, which was definitely a learning experience even though it's far easier than the previous art software that I have been using for the last few years.

This will also be our first fully 2D game, and also our first platformer.

Edit: We're really not happy with how the game is turning out so we've decided to drop out. Good luck to everyone who is staying in though, and hopefully we'll be back again next year!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

It's a shame you're dropping out, it's always a tough call when things don't progress the way you want.

Sometimes it is better to stop and re-focus.

Hope to see you in another jam in future.

Out of curiosity, what software were you using for art this time?

LazarusCraven108 days ago

Aseprite, I was previously using Clip Studio Paint.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

I've been thinking of looking at Aseprite for a while, it's supposed to be one of the best tools for pixel art, but not gotten around to it yet.

A lot of my own has been done using Paint, GIMP and a little Inkscape for vector graphics.

Do you mind if I ask how the platformer was supposed to end up?

LazarusCraven107 days ago

Aseprite can be compiled yourself for free if you're comfortable doing that (I can post the link of the YouTube video that I used to help me do it). It's completely legal, the creator puts the uncompiled version on Git for people to do that. It's what I did to try it out to see if I would like using it before spending money on it.

We're still kind of working on the platformer, so there's still a small chance that we will end up submitting it. It's meant to be a puzzle platformer very loosely based on Greek mythology, where the player plays as the goddess Nyx and she must carry tiny worlds up a mountain for Gaia so they can be put into the sky and added to the solar system. Almost all of the art is done, and the animations, the basic controls, start screen and options menu, but we just can't find a way to make the puzzles interesting or engaging. I think that despite the two of us loving puzzle games, neither of us is smart enough to actually make one, lol!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted107 days ago

I wait in anticipation.

It sounds like it would work with mazes and traps, the player would need to think about their route up the mountain while carrying a big cumbersome thing.

Traps could be like tripwires and the like that trigger painful events.

LazarusCraven105 days ago

This is the YouTube video I used.

We've decided to give up on the jam this year. We spent the last two days trying to make the game fun but our hearts just weren't in it, unfortunately and nothing was working out. Looking forward to playing everyone elses games!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted105 days ago

I'm sure we'll meet again in another jam.

Good luck and hope the next one goes more smoothly for you.

d3f4c3rSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

For me it was a mixture of the “Ole reliable” and something new. Sticked with the Engine I know (Unreal Engine) but as Solo Dev I didn’t want to spend to much time on Level Design, therefore I made a 2D Platformer. Also I used Reality Scan to get some models. Which was a complete new experience. And as a refresher I only had Contact with Enemy AI in a Gamedev.tv Tutorial and I rebuilt it and modified it (atleast I hope)

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

I'm also a solo developer, so if I do something new, it's normally building on what I've done before. One of the things I've been trying to do in the game jams I've done is to try to do a different style of game in each jam as I'm still learning and gives me a chance to try out different mechanics.

So far my exposure to enemy AI has been using states based on player detection, I would like to expand it into using algorithms to manage behavior, but it's a bit outside my skill set for now.

Hutia GamesSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

i made sound effects for the first time. and water physics. and i tried some fun things with the enemy's i have and put in some NPC's which i have never gotten to work.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

Are there pirates in the game? Your game sounds interesting, getting enemies and NPC's into a game for a jam can be a challenge if they use different mechanics. I tried it in a jam earlier in the year. Overscoped the game a bit and had to cut the NPC's.

Hutia GamesSubmitted107 days ago

you are a pirate and there is a pirate npc's and possible some enemy's. i made all sounds including music with a guitar and two half's of a coconut. what is the game you over scoped on called?

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted107 days ago

Sounds fun.

The game I overscoped a bit was Orc Survival.

The jam was about a week and I spent about 80 hrs on it.

There's still more I'd like to do on it but been busy with work the last few months so not much time to do more.

Hutia GamesSubmitted107 days ago (1 edit)

i Just played the game it is very good. but the text is a bit hard for me to read.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted107 days ago

One of the things I need to fix, thanks for having a look.

Hutia GamesSubmitted108 days ago

i made sound effects for the first time. and water physics. and i tried some fun things with the enemy's i have and put in some NPC's which i have never gotten to work.

Cuzgun108 days ago(+1)

Its my first time participating on game jam and all I did make before was a few arcade games. I like management- tycoon games so I am aiming to make one in this jam so every mechanic and feature is new to me and its challenging. Thankfully the AI is a big help to me in my dire moments. So I ask it for guidance, what to do etc. And with the help I've got from it I managed to make customers, their behavior to walk into the store but I couldnt made them wait in line yet. Next one is putting a store menu for customers, some economy features etc. But I think I am going to discard some things I've planned for the jam and rush to finish the game since there is only 3 days left. But I like the game and am planning on continuing after the jam.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

Good luck with your first jam.

I haven't used AI yet, and I'm still not sure about it. I understand it's a tool, but I wonder when my work stops being my work and starts being work generated by the AI, not to mention who gets credit for the work as any AI system would have been trained on other people's work without their authorisation in most cases.

For the queueing system, have you thought about a grid system or a series of waypoints?

E.g. check position 1, if position 1 empty, move to position 1, check position 2 etc.

Cuzgun108 days ago

I've already implemented waypoint system for the customer movement so I am trying to combine it with the queue. As for the AI, from the looks of what it could already achieve in just a few years, I think its the inevitable.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

I look forward to playing your game.

Cuzgun108 days ago

Thanks, me too.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted104 days ago

Did you manage to submit a game?

RicoTVSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

I tried to pactice using the save and load functionality in Gdevelop for local best and experimented with fairy colour tint FX - nothing major but always good to try some stuff out.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

Saving and Loading data is one of those things I struggle with, not so much the input and output in code, but how to approach the format of save files ... I use Godot and I haven't found any good tutorials on how to save data in a good way for making a production game. For me it's up there with uploading a game to a platform like steam for going from a hobby developer to trying my luck at doing it properly.

CallinInSubmitted108 days ago(+1)

For long jams like this one i usually pick a subject and try to do as much of it as possible to learn by doing, so for one jam it was ui, for another one vfx etc

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted108 days ago

So what's your subject for this jam?

Is it focused on a genre, a mechanic or is it something a bit broader?

At the moment my UI and VFX are normally quite simple. The limits in a jam, my own inexperience and my own desire to make my own assets limit how much time I can spend on some aspects of the development cycle, but your approach definitely sounds solid.

CallinInSubmitted107 days ago (1 edit)

For this one i was going for vfx but this time i've strayed away from my own mini theme cause i like the concept and i don't want to make this game worse than it could be if i was doing my usual approch. So it's basically do i want to get a game out of the jam or knowledge, this time i decided on the game

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted107 days ago

And we all love a fun game ...

MamaDespikSubmitted106 days ago(+1)

In all my previous games, I've done frame-by-frame animation for some of my 2D sprites, but this time I tried 2D rigging and in-engine animation (Godot). Quite a journey to get a character rigged, but a great experience to see the plusses and minuses of a new way to approach animation!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted106 days ago

I normally go for frame by frame for 2D animations as well.

From what I've seen in other games and tutorials, using 2D bone animations seems to result in it's own animation style and can appear noticeably different to frame by frame.

How did you find the process?

MamaDespikSubmitted106 days ago

It's a much more in-depth process to get set up for sure, but it feels like now that I have it rigged it's so much easier to add new animations, tweak existing ones, and especially go back and add details to the base sprites. With frame-by-frame if I wanted to add something like a panel on my character's space suit, I'd have to add it to every frame on every animation. But with this, I can just add it to the single reference image, and boom! It's in every animation in the game just like that.

You're definitely right though, the style is extremely different than frame-by-frame. I guess it's just a matter of what kind of feel you're aiming for with your game!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted106 days ago

I'll admit I prefer to play games with nostalgic pixel art, I grew up with the likes of Mario on the SNES, but making it is a lot of work to get it right, and as you say, making changes afterwards can be very time consuming.

I think I'll try the bone approach in a future game, just to see how it works and see if I like the result.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted106 days ago

Thank you for all the comments and conversations in this thread, I will definitely be aiming to play everyone's games once the ratings open.

Munkkipulla (TeesseGames)Submitted105 days ago(+1)

Well all my other prototypes/demos/games have been mostly just 2D pixel art games with my own artstyle. For this I made a 3D game with heavy use of free assets. This was totally new experience but I wanted to make something in 3D because my current bigger project is 2.5D and I need more experience in 3D to make it work. With this project I learned to do some animations in 3D, use materials way more then before, to use depth/z-dimension and much more.

BTW I really liked your game. Felt snappy and intuitive!

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted105 days ago

Thanks for the feedback and for playing.

I want to be able to make a 3d for a jam at some point, but will likely need to use premade assets as when I've tried making my own, time disappears too quickly.

I look forward to giving your game a go (I will start playing games tomorrow, going to have a few to get through at this rate).

FoxByteSubmitted105 days ago(+1)

Just submitted our game. 🥳

Usually not into super casual games, but as we found this theme quite vague, went on something small and cozy.

This was our first game jam after all, quite stressful :D

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted105 days ago(+1)

Congratulations on completing your first jam (or group jam).

I like it when the themes are vague when I join a jam, I find it allows for more creative solutions. While I'm still only learning myself, I definitely enjoy participating in game jams

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted105 days ago

Ratings are now open ...

My ratings page is https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-jam-2025/rate/3587730

I have the next couple of days off work now so I hope to start going through games tomorrow and I'll be starting with everyone I've interacted with in the community.

If you've already had a look at my game, please don't forget to rate it.

crazyhoundgamedesignSubmitted103 days ago

I know we've passed the end of the making games bit, but if anyone else has been doing anything new or different to what they've done before, I'd still like to hear about it.

I'm also interested in playing your games and have already played the ones for the devs in this thread. I'm happy to carry on with this approach as well, and would like it if you could play mine.