Shelter from the Blight
Our First Game Jam: Shelter from the Blight
For a long time, my friend Yiraa and I have shared the dream of making a game together. We’ve been close friends since engineering school, and every now and then we’d talk about cool game ideas, build some lore, and say, “We should make a game!” We’d start something, tinker for a few hours, three, maybe four, and then it would quietly fade away.
But this time was different.
A few weeks ago, Yiraa said:
“Let’s join a game jam.”
It felt like the right push. Unlike our past attempts, this would give us a deadline and a reason to actually finish something. Ludum Dare was coming up, and it felt like the perfect opportunity.
Neither of us had any prior experience in game development, but we're both developers. I'm fairly experienced, but Yiraa is excellent, especially when it comes to quickly learning new concepts and solving tough technical problems.
To work efficiently, we decided to split tasks. I had touched 3D modeling briefly more than a decade ago, so I took on the modeling and helped shape the game design, while Yiraa focused on the core systems and logic.
The Game:
The theme was “Depths”, and that’s how Shelter from the Blight was born, a 3D hex-based strategic building game where players dig down through the earth to escape a creeping corruption from above. Each new depth unlocks new resources and buildings, creating a satisfying sense of progression and pressure.
We didn’t want the game to be too easy. In fact, our goal was to create a kind of die-and-retry experience, where players learn through failure and slowly master the systems. That said, we didn’t have time to fully tune the difficulty or resource generation, something we’re excited to work on in the future.
Creating Under Pressure
We were realistic about our ambitions. It was our first game jam, and we knew we’d be up against the clock. To save time, we reused and adapted design ideas across levels. The only thing we knew about a jam is it is all about making tough calls quickly, and sometimes that means recycling mechanics or models to keep momentum.
That strategy helped a lot. I even had time to do some sound design, using random things around my apartment to make effects. I probably annoyed Yiraa by banging on furniture, but it made him laugh, and it was part of the fun.
Learning by Doing
Creating even simple 3D assets was a challenge for me, especially early on, but I learned fast. With each new model, I got a bit more confident and efficient. Maybe I have strong instincts for modeling, but for sure i can thank my last experience, the fact that necessity is a great teacher, and the jam pace forced me to improve quickly.
One unexpected bonus: my dog. Thanks to her, we had to go outside every now and then for a walk, which turned out to be the perfect excuse to take breaks and get some sunlight. These little pauses helped us reset and come back with fresh ideas.
Of course, doing a game jam after a packed week of our full-time jobs was intense. It wasn’t exactly relaxing, but it was energizing in a different way, a creative rush that made the effort worth it.
Looking back
We’re incredibly proud of what we made. Shelter from the Blight may not be perfect, but it’s a complete, functional, fun game that we built from scratch in just a few days. That alone feels like a massive win.
We're already thinking about a V1.1, where we can polish the gameplay, improve the balance, and expand on concepts we didn’t have time to explore.
More importantly, this experience gave us a lot of confidence to keep going. Some of our friends were hesitant to join the jam, worried they wouldn’t be able to contribute. Now that we’ve been through it, we know they absolutely could. And hopefully next time, they’ll join the adventure too ...