Anya_Voinova

Ludum Dare 54

Dear passengers! Welcome aboard the train of memories!

In our train, you can expect a smooth ride according to the schedule, as well as cleanliness and order in every carriage. We have done everything possible to make your stay comfortable and enjoyable!

We kindly ask you to be polite and respectful towards other passengers, so that everyone can enjoy their trip without any disturbances.

Our train is ready to depart!

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Ru Уважаемые пассажиры, добро пожаловать на поезд воспоминаний!

В нашем поезде вы можете рассчитывать на точное движение по графику, а также на чистоту и порядок в каждом вагоне. Мы сделали все возможное, чтобы ваше пребывание было комфортным и приятным!

Мы просим вас быть вежливыми и уважительными к другим пассажирам, чтобы каждый мог наслаждаться своей поездкой без помех.

Наш поезд готов к отправлению!

Ludum Dare 58

Meet "Harvest of Wyrd"

Hello! 👋 We are a small team that has decided to dive into this game jam.

  • Me, Anna — game designer.
  • Vasily (@vvartism) — artist, responsible for the style and visuals.
  • Arkadiy (@arkadi-voronchenko) — Unreal developer.

And so we got together and decided to create a game called Harvest of Wyrd.

And the idea appeared not long before the game jam… First, I got hooked on Dome Keeper (I especially liked the mode without monsters!), and the "dig-risk-return" mechanic stuck in my head. I wanted to make something of my own with a similar cycle, but with more room for exploration.

Separately, for another game that was unfortunately abandoned, I was developing the setting of the magical prison called the "Source." It's a place where the very essence is drained from magical beings, and people use this "condensate" as resin magic. It's a magic-technology, the antithesis of complex and demanding natural magic. You just take the resin, enchant an item — and it works. Like electricity. Meanwhile, inside the prison itself, the inmates, merging with each other and the environment, slowly fade away, turning into monstrous chimeras.

When we saw the "Collector" theme, everything clicked! My collection mechanic, the prison setting, and the game jam theme fit together perfectly!

And that's how Harvest of Wyrd was born — a game about a resin collector who, along the way, grows their collection of artifacts.

Stay tuned for updates — we'll show the first sketches and concepts soon. And tomorrow, the first prototype will be ready.

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🇷🇺 Привет! 👋 Мы — маленькая команда, которая решила ворваться в этот геймджем.

  • Я, Анна — геймдизайнер.
  • Василий (@vvartism) — художник, отвечает за стиль и визуал.
  • Аркадий (@arkadi-voronchenko) — разработчик на Unreal.

И вот мы собрались и решили сделать игру под названием Harvest of Wyrd.

А идея появилась незадолго до геймджема… Сначала я залипла в Dome Keeper (особенно мне понравился режим без монстров!), и мне в голову запала механика «копай-рискуй-возвращайся». И захотелось сделать что-то своё с похожим циклом, но с большим простором для исследования.

Отдельно для другой игры, которая, к сожалению, была заброшена, я делала сеттинг магической тюрьмы «Источника». Это место, где из существ выкачивают саму их сущность, а люди используют этот «конденсат» —  как смоляную магию. Это магия-технология, антипод сложной и требовательной естественной магии. Просто взял смолу, зачаровал предмет — и он работает. Как электричество. А в самой тюрьме, тем временем, пленники, смешиваясь друг с другом и средой, медленно угасают, превращаясь в чудовищных химер.

Когда мы увидели тему «Collector», все соединилось! Моя механика сбора, сеттинг тюрьмы и тема геймджема подходят друг-другу!

Так и родился «Harvest of Wyrd» — игра про сборщика смолы, который попутно увеличивает свою коллекцию артефактов.

Следите за апдейтами — скоро покажем первые скетчи и наброски. А завтра будет первый прототип!

Harvest of Wyrd

A twisted resin-collecting adventure where every step off the path could be your last. Manage your time, find artifacts, and survive.

🎮 Play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/harvest-of-wyrd Frame 862.png

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A word from our artist

For some reason our artist's (@vvartism) posts won't show on the feed, so I made this post to relay his message (btw if you know what may cause this, let us know).


Well, that was fun.

No, it really was I'm not joking.

So I decided to make a little post about my experience with a pinch of our art here and there.

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Being a long time concept artist I did pick up some tech art, modeling and other stuff through pure osmosis over the years, but man was I blissfully uninvolved with the intricacies of visual implementation. This being my first jam and being solo artist on the team shook things up for me just the right way (and just for long enough). I always told my students that you never stop learning, and that's exactly what I did throughout this jam.

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It helped a bit that I wasn't a complete stranger to UE and Blueprints, but every new thing was a struggle (albeit welcome and intriguing). And yeah-yeah "hurr durr making 2D game on UE hurr durr" is memed to death, but if anything it made some challenges even more fun. Would I recommend it? No, unless you're feeling the lack of spiciness in your day to day. Is it doable? Sure, and given time, you can probably make this work for you with great results.

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The drawing itself was the easy part.. well, most of the time. My animation skills ain't too good, so for that part I was mostly sitting in front of my workstation, like a monkey before the monolith, I couldn't comprehend. But still, the hardest and THE MOST interesting part was fitting it all together. How things blend, what colors to use, what saturation and contrast works for certain things. Hell I've spent almost an hour to settle on cobblestone road being greenish-gry, what an adventure!

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And lastly, scope. If you saw our 3 day build, you can probably guess that our scope was so big you could climb on it and see the curvature of the earth. Funny, how you can be so aware of things like that, and still mess them up. Sheer amount of cut features would be enough to make one or two more games. And it's never pleasant to cut things and rack you brain around, figuring out how to fit what's left together coherently. By the third day all art assets bar few additional sprites were ready, but implementation turned out to be a bottleneck. But hey, experience is experience.

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It really was fun and I'm looking forward for the next jam and working further on our game, by the way check it out if you haven't yet: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/harvest-of-wyrd

Best regards, VVART.