This project means a bit more to us than just a jam entry.

Pinky Guard is based on a cartoon series by Luke Humphris — something a few people on our team have genuinely loved for a long time.

A few months ago, we decided to take it seriously and try to reach out to Luke. It took a while (and quite a few attempts), but we eventually got in touch — and received his permission to create a game in this universe for the jam.

He knows about the project, and that matters a lot to us.

We treat the original with a lot of respect. Even though the source material is quite compact, we're trying to explore its potential — carefully expanding the world while keeping its tone and spirit.

Right now, this is a prototype — a short experience we're building during the jam. But we also see it as a way to introduce more people to this universe.

And, honestly, we really hope Luke will like what we make.

But what about the jam itself?

This is where things get… complicated.

Maybe we were just one day short. Or maybe… one programmer.

Having a bigger team sounded like an advantage — but in reality, it slowed us down more than we expected. And now we're at that familiar point where a lot is done… but not the most important part.

The core gameplay isn't fully there yet — which, as you can imagine, is critical.

What we have done:

Content-wise, we've made strong progress:

• Map is assembled
• Audio is in place
• Characters are ready

Some systems are already working: * Character movement * Role assignment * Tech tree * Task system

What's still missing or incomplete:

• Animations (some actions still have none)
• Progression and win/lose states
• The celestial activity system (not even started yet)
• Parts of the UI
• Lighting and color filtering (our current shader breaks the palette we carefully chose)
• No random event system yet Yes, it is a lot...

Right now, we're pushing to finish character spawning and at least bring everything into a playable state.

Testing… didn't really happen. Balancing — even less so.

So the big question is:

What do you do if you don't make it in time?

Submit something unfinished? Or admit that you didn't make the deadline?

We're still trying to push through. There are a few hours left, and we're not giving up yet.

But at the same time, we care about what we're making. And releasing something that doesn't reflect that — doesn't feel right.

So we'll finish it either way.

With or without the deadline.

Because this isn't just about the jam anymore — it's about doing justice to something we love.