In the end of the 2022 we took part in our first jam, Scorejam #23. This was a game jam that involved both gamedevs and streamers in the contest. The competition started with the game developers. Our job was to create a game with a high score feature within a 72-hour period. Once the time ran out, the games were judged by participants, streamers, and hosts. After the top three games were chosen, the torch was passed to the streamers. The subject of the game was Survivor.

I have never participated in such events. My first feeling was fear of failure, my first thought was how it was possible to create playable, attractive game just within 3 days. Fortunately, our second developer had more self confidence. So, we had some kind of meeting and decided that we would try in any case. Of course our goal was to be seen and not to be waved off. There were approximately 700 participants, but in the end about 150 submissions.

Behind the screen

X day came, the subject was announced the work began. We did not use any ready engines like Unity or Unreal Engine. We are developing our own. It is not fully ready yet, but enough for jam. Just want to remind that our team consists of 2 people and we are both developers, no artists. That is why we chose simple geometric forms as art style of our game. Development work was split in the following way: I was working on everything connected to the UI and the second developer on gameplay itself. We did a lot within two days. Our plan was to polish on the third day of the contest. The third day was unlucky for us. We did not have electricity the whole day, and it was the whole story how we looked for a place to make a submission in time.

But we did it! Of course, not all the ideas were implemented, but for such short term, we did pretty a lot. The voting began. I was worried that at the beginning we did not get any comments. It is really frustrating, when you make a work (really not bad work) and nobody evaluates it. But then people started commenting. And it is best feeling ever!

There is nothing worse than waiting

It took several days of voting. I did not waste my time, and looked at other games. First impression was, our game concept differed from most the games I tried. Their concept reminded Vampire Survivor's while we were closer to Geometry Wars. My strong believe that survivor subject can have various implementation. I found there a lot of interesting ideas of gameplay, art and idea itself.

The voting finished. We were not in the first 10 of best games, but we were not the last one. Golden mean. Not bad for the first time. On my opinion, it can be indication of the potential and I am sure if we foresaw control misunderstanding we would get higher rate.

Thanks to those who played our game within jam and left feedbacks.

Next move

We  decided  to develop our jam prototype further and make a complete game. Our plan is to deliver updates every week (new features implementation, bug fixing, etc.).  We will be glad for your participation or any feedback.