The design process and development of Druid's Haven

Postmortem of the game jam we did for GMTK Game Jam 2024. It details our thought process and some of the steps we took. It also describes how we found the fun by accident.

I recently participated in a game jam and created a game called Birdmail with my team. We had to pivot from our original idea of using simulated birds (boids) due to time constraints, so instead we developed a game where players guide escaped birds to retrieve packages. Despite some challenges, such as implementing the boids efficiently and dealing with limited resources, we managed to create a playable game in just a few days.

As the lead coder of the Infernal Garden game jam team, I faced many challenges and hurdles during the 3-day development process. From nailing the player controls and feel to implementing the shooting AI, I had to work around the clock to ensure that everything came together smoothly. We utilized Unity's way of doing things as much as possible, creating a very atomic and modular architecture, and adding a quick mode where plants don't attack for more relaxed gameplay. Despite disagreements on the gameplay loop, we managed to create a fun game with exciting features such as target searching and a sharpshooter plant. Read more about our journey and play our game on itch!

Hey there! As a member of the development team for Recipe for Disaster, I wanted to give you a sneak peek into some of the exciting progress we've made so far. From early prototyping to the integration of stunning visual effects, we've been hard at work crafting an immersive gaming experience that we hope you'll love. Keep reading to learn more about the challenges we've faced and the triumphs we've achieved along the way.

In my latest blog post, I share my experience creating a 2D game using Unity's Entity Component System (ECS) and all sorts of experimental tools like Unity Adressables, 2D Lighting engine, 2D Platformer Pathfinding, GOAP, and more. I talk about the struggles and victories of developing the game, including custom 2D lighting, tilemaps, and the challenges of using ECS with the Inverse Kinematics solution. To learn more about my journey in developing this game, check out my post and see the open-source project on GitHub.