The Familiar Game Jam 6. This jam is a 48 hour game jam that takes place online and in Sevilla, Spain, every 6 months. The theme of this jam was “No Characters” (as in a person in a, book, film, game, etc”. There were many games entered in this jam, I recorded all of them in my video compilation series. Below are some of my favorites, in a random order.

The Last Mission is a space exploration game that has you following the story of a group of astronauts who have lost contact with Earth. You have been sent in a space probe to try and figure out what happened to the crew and bring them back. To get to these stations you need to back your ship into the docking bay. The resources you have are low, so you must find other broken ships to take fuel from as you go to each abandoned space station in search of captain’s logs. Once you find these logs, you can figure out what is going on and where they might have gone. This game is procedurally generated, so each time you play is a little different. Make your way through outer space looking for the lost crew. You are their only hope.

Mecronum 3048 has you controlling a security program called “The Cleaner Eye” that stops individual behaviors. You are in charge of a few cameras that are on a busy block of a town. As you flick between camera angles and watch the people go by, it will detect threats. These threats will then need to be found in the people walking around and eliminated. Threats come in the form of colorful clothing or accessories that make the person who is wearing it stand out. You want these people to all look and act the same, so you must click on them to correct the issue. As more and more threats start to be detected, you will have to work faster. If you let too many people slip through the cracks, you will lose your job. You must watch over everyone and make sure they are all the same.

Super Block Bro is a short but wacky Mario-inspired game that has you playing as the block instead of Mario. This block can jump and hit the yellow boxes that Mario normally can hit. Mushrooms come out of some, while points are added to your score for hitting others. As you touch these mushrooms you will grow in size. After eating a couple you grow big enough to start destroying the environment around you! Enemies are dotted around the level in the form of moving bombs or shooting turrets. These bombs will shrink you if you run into them, or kill you if you are at your smallest size. Your goal is to make it to the end of the level and hit the flag before the timer runs out. Enjoy destroying everything in your path and completely messing up the world, as long as you are big enough!

Go is a challenging, clever game that has you mastering the wind. You play as a ball of wind who is looking to deliver elements to a big tree. You must push the wind around each room, activating windmills to open doors. Some windmills require a specific minimum speed to move. You may have to find upgrade elements to allow you to increase your max speed to open them. Other windmills are connected and require you to activate a few windmills all at the same time. As you move your wind, increasing and decreasing your speed, you need to watch out for walls. Walls will destroy your wind and cause you to restart in the area you are in. This game takes some playing to really get the hang of it, but once you do it’s quite fun to fly around at different speeds discovering new areas to explore.

Undrawn Hero is a challenging game where the developers forgot to make the hero! There is no hero character, though there is an empty customization screen to add to the craziness. Don’t worry though, you can still play through the game without a bulky character holding you back. Once you figure out what the character is, you must go through the level avoiding all hazards and collecting coins. Sometimes Mario-styled question mark boxes appear, looking to be bashed for more coins or lives. So far, there are only two levels, but the game itself is quite fun once you understand it! So, figure out who or what the main character ending up being before trying to avoid death!

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