Portfolio - Game Jam Games

'Lilit'

Made using Unity for the fourth CanJam (2015), with the theme of ‘Where are the boundaries?’, the game involves the player needing to escape from a dark realm, all the while avoiding the Lovecraftian monsters dwelling within it. However, the world is ever changing, and any area not illuminated will constantly morph over time, meaning what was once solid ground could now be a wall, or even a bottomless pit. The player has only a single torch to help them find their way, preserve their surroundings, and deter the sanity-sapping monsters, but the torch can only last so long. Therefore, it is up to the player to escape this realm, avoiding the pitfalls, maintaining their sanity, and doing so before time runs out. It uses the theme by providing the player with as little information as possible, such that they must explore and discover what they can do (i.e. what are the boundaries of the game). Won the award for Best Use of Theme.

'The Spiffing Adventures of Major Manors and Spotson the Dog'

Made for the Gentlemanly Game Design Challenge, a 7 day event centred around top hats and moustaches. The games were required to make use of two mechanics out of three given, one of which was mandatory. All games had to use a 'survival' element, but could choose between a 'rock, paper, scissors' or 'round-based' mechanic (or both, if the team felt adventurous). My team chose to use a round-based system and created a game about a colonial gentleman (the titular 'Major Manors') and his loyal canine friend, Spotson. Our hero returns to his stately home to find it overrun with pheasants, rabbits and, worst of all, peasants. The game then involves alternating between rounds of shooting all of the enemies in the current room and finding all of Major Manors' lost possessions (as a true gentleman ALWAYS dresses appropriately for the room they are in, even in their own home). Won the award for 'Best Use of Dog'.

'Besumiye'

Made for the second CanJam in 2013, my first experience with my fellow team member's home-made XNA wrapper (Carthage by d4kshEN3). This time around we were all given a theme (Madness) and an item (Uranium), both of which had to feature in our game. We decided to channel our own madness and make what we would later define as a 'rogue-like-like' game, set in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant...as it goes into meltdown. The player assumes the role of one of the scientists working in the plant who is desperately trying to reach the plant's control room to prevent the meltdown, all the while succumbing to the madness caused by radiation poisoning. Won the LiSC award for 'Critical Design'.

'Shepherds of Doom'

Made for the first CanJam in 2012 (under its original name, the ULCS Jam), this was my first foray into XNA. The themes we were required to follow were 'sheep', 'Vikings' and '2012', so me and my team decided to make a zombie-survival game...only with sheep and Vikings. Following off of the theme of '2012 apocalypse', a mad scientist creates mutated sheep that begin destroying the world. Conveniently, a Viking ship is brought forward through time to combat this woolly uprising. Can our temporally-misplaced heroes overcome this ovine menace? Probably not.