The GameMaker Studio 2 - Beta Jam was a game jam that’s aim was to test out some of the new features in the GameMaker Studio 2 engine. This engine is now out in the Beta stage. The theme for this jam was ‘Arena’. I was able to play and record all of the games entered into this jam in my video compilation series. Below are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.
Forager is a super nice, open world survival game that gives you the goal of gaining 5,000 coins. This goal is fairly large, as you start off with only a pickaxe and a hammer. The world around you is full of natural resources - things like trees, rocks, coal ore, iron ore, bushes, and mushrooms, which you can harvest with your pickaxe. Once you have a small collection of resources, you can use your hammer to build things, in an attempt to make the most of what you have. Mining poles for example, to automatically harvest items, market stalls to sell extra resources, and fishing traps to keep you alive are all very helpful in the game. You can even craft keys to open chests dotted around the island. Chests are filled with coins as well as an option between two upgrades. These upgrades will give you extra inventory space, a better chance at finding gems or fish, and much more. Forager has tons to do, an island to explore, and is a great little experience!
Decay is a colorful shooter that has you fighting off waves and waves of sweet treats! You are a tooth who is determined to stay healthy and clean. As such an outstanding and honorable tooth, you must fight all of the sweet treats coming at you. You have a gun that shoots toothpaste you can use to fend everyone off. Each wave consists of various different treats - small ice cream scoops, lollipops, and donuts for example, that will charge at you. Some of these different treats have different attacks, like the donut charges up and rolls around, bouncing against walls. You must make sure none of these sweets touch you, or you will lose a life. Every few rounds produces a boss, who packs quite a punch. As you kill off enemies, their colors will rain on the floor, making a very bright looking arena! See how many waves you can survive as the lone clean tooth.
Furballs is a funny soccer game full of little details to play with! In this game, you can do quite a few things to customise your goofy soccer team. You can design a flag as well as an anthem for your team. The primary color of your flag is your team’s color, which will then be displayed on your team’s t-shirt, as well as being the color the ball becomes when your team kicks it. The anthem is played if you win the game, though it may take some time to produce a decent sounding tune! You can also substitute the players on your team for other players, all of whom are different animals. Once you have created the team you want, you can name them and begin the game. You can either play against a friend of yours, or some bots. These bots have different settings depending on how challenging you want the game to be. Once you are pitted against a team, the soccer begins! Your team can rush forward from their current spots - moving straight towards your mouse in an attempt to kick the ball towards the other team. Each time you dash your characters forward, they snap back to their original spot, staying on their side of the field. You are trying to score goals, however the derpy nature of the game sometimes makes this challenging. Furballs is a super fun game to play and it feels really great to customise your team before heading out onto the field!
Me and My Turret is a local two player game that has you fighting off slimes and collecting bullets. One player plays as a massive turret stuck in the middle of the screen while the other player plays as a cute blue robin. The turret needs to shoot enemies on the screen with its limited ammo to protect the robin. The robin must pick up the dropped bullets from the dead enemies and bring it to the turret so it doesn’t run out of ammo. I the turret hits the robin, it does not die, but instead is pushed backwards. The robin however has no way to defend itself, so it must rely on the turret to stay alive. As you progress in this game, stronger and faster enemies start to appear like bombs. These bombs charge directly for the bird, so the turret player must be quick and precise in their destruction of them. Me and My Turret is a very fun little game that will have both players working together!
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