Game Jams
I love game jams! I see them as an opportunity to work with my friends in an intense stint of creation, giving you a break from the day-to-day and often focusing on trying new things and developing new skills.
Game Jams are a fast-paced environment, requiring excellent scoping, time management and communication. My favourite way to scope in game jams is the MoSCoW method - Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won’t Have. It gives you a clear MVP (minimum viable product) and priority to tasks, and the “Won’t Have” column helps keep everyone on the same page with limits and no-gos.
Below are a few of my favourite (video) game jam projects.
Blind Bake
Global Game Jam 2024
Made with: Unreal 5. My role: Game & UX Design, Game Art & UI Programming.
Blind Bake is a small experimental game built to showcase audio navigation through 3D levels. It hopes to teach gamers and developers some basic methods of guiding players without sight through spatialised audio.
This game was built for the Global Game Jam 2024 and has been updated for a more robust release with more features and levels. It uses ReadSpeaker’s Unreal Engine plugin to power dynamic Text To Speech. It is the proud recipient of the ReadSpeaker GGJ Accessibility Award.
Pageturner
Epic MegaJam 2021
Made with: Unreal. My role: UX Design, Game Art & UI Programming.
Pageturner is an interactive narrative with a roguelike twist, created for the Epic Megajam 2021.
Set in the pages of a book and played through whimsical illustrations, you choose how Aviena and Borbu will tackle their challenges! Aviena and Borbu gain modifiers based on your choices, and those modifiers help you in the minigames that follow. If you succeed or fail, your path branches on your journey to Harmonia. The game was made in 7 days for the Epic Megajam 2021, with the theme “Running out of space”.
Hole in None
Game Makers Toolkit Jam 2023
Made with: Unreal. My role: UX Design, UI Art, UI & Gameplay Programming.
This is minigolf, but with a twist! You're playing as the course, controlling obstacles and trying to ensure our putter doesn't get anywhere near par!
It was developed for the GMTK 2023 Jam with the theme "Role Reversed".
The Box
Global Game Jam 2019
Made with: Unity. My role: UI Art.
The Box was made for the 2019 Global Game Jam, with the theme of 'what home means to you'. We created three mini-games, involving a timed gathering puzzle, memory puzzle and pirate shoot 'em up. The main challenge was creating three unique-feeling games that were small and digestible, we were able to do this through visual theme and variety of mechanics.
The Box is about being a child; just a cardboard box and your imagination can allow you to become an astronaut, a pirate or a survival expert!
The Box led to a personal project of mine where I looked at taking my favourite of the three minigames - the pirate - and created a series of UI screens for it as if it were a mobile game. This project is available to view in full on my behance.