Game Jam: Patch Notes v01
The theme for this jam was simple but brilliant: The Error is the Feature. The moment I read it, I pictured smacking an old CRT television and watching the screen scramble. That’s when I knew I had my game. What if that scramble didn’t just distort the screen, but changed the game itself? The mechanics practically wrote themselves: adjust the volume to mess with a sound-based enemy, switch the controller to player two to move a second character, or desaturate the color to make certain blocks disappear.
This was my first thought—and this time, I trusted it. In Pirate Jam 16, I’d second-guessed myself and lost a whole day chasing a more ‘on-theme’ idea I wasn’t excited about. Eventually I snapped and went back to my original blacksmith sim concept. It wasn’t perfect, but it taught me a lesson: the best idea is the one you’re excited to finish.
I went on to make “Forge and Enchant Emporium (Under New Management).” It ended up being super complicated to code and I only left the last day to do ALL of the art, but I love how it turned out. It’s not nearly as polished as it needs to be, it has HUGE bugs that need to be worked out, but I love the game I dragged across the finish line (flaws and all).
So, I started with some scratch art and setup my scene ASAP:
The most important thing for me to get done quickly was getting the game within the game to project onto the TV. I don’t know how I knew it could be done (some dev video somewhere at sometime) but I trusted I could figure it out.
And here’s how I did it:
I started with an image and applied a 2D render texture to it. I then had a dedicated camera send its image to that render texture and that is projected on the image. It seems simple, but getting there was a bunch of small hurdles. In fact it took up the first half of my first day just to set it up. Ultimately, here’s what it looked like:
On the right is the dedicated camera and where the platformer is “shot.” The left shows the result on the CRT.
With the CRT out of the way, I could focus on getting the basic mechanics in place. I ended up using UI buttons in the larger meta screen to affect the gameplay. Smack the side of the tv to scramble the player’s location. Adjust the volume to turn off speakers in the level. Desaturate the color to get around red blocks. And finally, switch the controller to move a second player on the screen. These came together quickly and I love the result.
Nearing the end of the jam, I came up with a nice strategy: I’d finalize the art, program the ending credits, and then make as many levels as I could until I ran out of time. I pulled some references from Pinterest to nail the aesthetic and triggered the credits after the last level was completed. The way I structured how the levels are handled, I could immediately add them until the last minute and build the whole thing to WebGL.
As I neared the 3am deadline, I had to cut the last ability. I wanted to add cameras that cause the player to restart. By turning off the TV, the player could walk past them. I love this idea but simply ran out of time.
With my project submitted, I went to sleep extremely proud of what I’d pulled off. The idea, the scope, the execution–this was a new level for me. And folks seem to like it. I’ve got a bunch of comments, all mostly positive, and some great feedback to make it better. Judging ends on 9/29 and I think I’ll do pretty well. With about 500 entries, I could see this game in the top 20. I’ll let you all know!
