Even though we're part of a team that runs a long-running live game, this was the first time we'd commited to doing a Game Jam together. We went in with a broad and ambitious scope - a progressive narrative puzzle/story game...

We knew that that's exactly what you don't want to do for a Jam game, but we moved forward. Stubbornness? Hubris? Naivety? All of the above? After 30-some-hours we looked at what we had, and we scrapped 80% of it.

We focused in on the core loop we could execute on, and I swear, we came out with a 100% fun, cute, and playable game that we're all pretty proud of.

It's so much fun, I'm actually taking breaks from playing other people's games to come back to ours and try to beat my high score. We have a list of things we'd like to add (like a global leader board).. someday... but even if we don't, we did it and it's actually very playable game, and that's a pretty great thing.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/fast-bastard

The was my first time working with Tiled, or really creating game maps at all beyond my begrudging attempts as a D&D DM. While there were plenty of headaches with working in Tiled (as there are working with any new tool), I think this is probably one of the pieces of art I've made that I will be the most proud of for a very long time. TBH, I'm not the artist on the team, I'm the game designer, sometimes producer, mostly the "we need a decision, so fine I'll make it" person. But, man, this map and every little drawn-by-these-hands detail makes me so happy. You can't see the full thing in the actual game, so I thought I'd share it in all it's glory here (sized down because the original file was created to potentially be played on 4k... because it seemed like a good idea at the time...) If you want to check out the game behind the art, here you go... https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/fast-bastard

Just watched a streamer play through the whole game and I want to scrap our whole clunky tutorial and just replace it with one card that says "You'll die a lot, but that's okay. If you're observant and believe failure is part of discovery, even when it all seems completely random and overwhelming, you'll find a way to win". It's rogue-like puzzle strategy game. Death and RNG is part of the fun. It won't be for everyone, but if you love guessing, discovery and puzzling how things work, you'll love it - and I love that about this little game we made.