This is a blog on the 2 day Game Jam at Massey University.

The theme was out of time, and my team completed the game within the given two-day timeframe.

Sanderson#

The game we made is called Sanderson, named after our main character.

Lore#

Sanderson is a Teenager about 18 years old who ran away from home. Somehow he ended up in an abandonded city… somewhere in the desert. You know what deserts are like, they are hot, so you must stay hydrated. When outside Sanderson gets dehydrated really quickly, despite the lack of water.

In the beginning of our story, Sanderson hears word about an Oasis somewhere in the City, so seaks out for this large source of water. Due to the extreme temperatures, he has to avoid staying outside and take cover in houses on his way. These houses have some water reminants, and sometimes the odd waterbottle, but they aren’t there for any intruder, only the ones who are best at Parkour.

How we incorporated the theme - “Out of time”#

We did this in a few ways.

Hydration Bar
The first is Hydration. Sanderson has limited time he can live before dehydrating, especially outside. Whilst playing the game, you really do not want to be sanding outside in the sun, as you will completely dehydrate in about 10 seconds and have to reset from the last door. You need to make it to the checkpoints, which are the water droplets and bottles in houses before this bar depletes completely. The game is quite unforgiving, in that even with a perfect game, you reach the end with hardly and Hydration left. During the game jam I had a few people try our game, but no one, including myself and another person on our team could beat it. Well that’s not true, our third team member did beat it as we really wanted to show our ending.

The Ending
I would show you this, but I think it’s something you should experience yourself when we release the game. It hits the right spot of your heart I believe.

Animations#

We were so lucky to have to artistic people in our team of four. One of them couldn’t make it on the first day, but they made such cool sprites on the second. The other was here for both days, and he even made the most pull requests on github :0.

Our character Sanderson has a few animations. Stand Still, Walk, Jump, Climb, and Crumple.
I think that they are all self explanitory by the names.

My Thoughts#

I found this Game Jam really fun. I enjoyed the feeling of progress that comes from making a game, and the sense of success when you finally finish it, and present in front of a crowd. This was a very valuable experience, as it taught be more about teamwork, showed me what completing a project is like, and gave me another topic I could writeup on my Blog.

This was the first ever game jam for 3 of us and we had never made a game in our lives, so you can imagine how I felt going into it, worried that I wouldn’t complete it.

We had a good range though, a person experienced with some 2d game dev and art, someone who wants to add new stuff, a person who works on features to the side and adds them when done, and someone who keeps everyone on track. This is how we managed to complete the game in the given time.

We plan to continue developing this game and are considering working together as a team again for a gamejam online.