The GJ GDC Jam was a game jam that gave developers the chance to have their game featured at the Game Jolt booth at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. The theme of this jam was Nuovo, meaning weird, original, quirky games. 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.

Infinity is a challenging breakout game like no other. At first, this game seems pretty normal. You can bounce the ball off the paddle to hit the blocks and break them. However, when the block hits the paddle, you gain a bullet. Your paddle can only hold one bullet which you then can use to shoot blocks to break them. Some blocks take more than one hit, by either your ball or your bullet. After you play a couple of levels, you will start to discover the other twist in this game. As the blocks get harder your screen also becomes smaller. Instead of just seeing the game screen, you will see yourself playing the game - infinitely as you get through more levels. This adds quite the challenge as the screen you play on becomes smaller and harder to look at. This breakout inspired game is really quite like no other.

Magic Bag allows you to have the experience of an adventurer’s bag! You are in charge of managing all of the items the adventurer collects as well as using the items to help the adventurer survive in the dungeon. Some items can be sold for gold, while others can be used to refill the player’s health, stamina, and magic. As the player goes about their adventure, they will talk loudly about what is going on or shake the bag. You will get to live vicariously through these small descriptions that you are told. Some of the time the adventurer will be fighting monsters or looting a chest. Once the new items come in you can decide what to do with them! Being in a bag, helping the adventurer, is the best job a bag keeper can have.

Flourish is a short, relaxing game where you are able to fly around bringing life to colorless islands. As you fly swiftly through the air, you can see islands and rings in the distance. If you fly close to the ground of an island - or drop down and walk along it - flowers and trees will start to appear. With each island coming to life, birds will start to fly in the sky. You can fly with them if you like. Flying around is quite fun to do - being whisked through the air as you add life to otherwise boring islands. This game is quite fun to play and watch - as blotches of color and plants just seem to appear out of nowhere, only leading to where you have been.

Turbo Shape Party has you trying to thin down numbers at a huge party of shapes. These shapes are very into dancing - following the music around as they try to escape your clicking. Depending on the dancing they decide to do - whether it’s moving around as fast as possible or trading places as if teleporting, they become quite challenging to click. At the bottom of the screen there is a turbo - after you fill up that bar it will change the dance moves faster. It is up to you to tap on whatever shape is at the top of the screen to evict them from the party. Once you have enough of that shape eliminated, the shape at the top of the screen will change - without much warning at all. You must try not to kick out the correct shape as if you do mis-click and kick out the wrong shape, you will lose your safety net. After that you will only have one more mis-click before losing the game and causing the party to separate. This game does get challenging - but the better you do, the better the score. How long can you keep this party at bay?

A Lifetime of Realistic Simulation is a short, realistic life simulator about making your way in the world. After choosing your name and skin color, your looks will be made to reflect your parents; just in like in real life. Then, instructed by a happy voice, you will have to make some choices about your life. Things like your job, pet, mode of transportation, and such. All of these decisions will then affect your traits and what happens in your life. After picking quite a few of these questions out, things will start to take a turn - just like real life. This simulator is dead serious when it says these decisions will affect your life.

Biotech has you investigating a mysterious kidnapping in a rainbow sewer. A women has brought you a picture of her kidnapped daughter who you believe has been kidnapped by a man who has a base inside the sewer. Now, you are searching through the stylish sewers to try and save that woman’s daughter! Each level is randomly generated - all of the weapons or health packs and their locations change each time you play. You only have a pistol to start out with and your fists to fight off levels full of enemies and turrets as you search for the source. Some enemies will chase you once you are in their territory - dropping ammo if you kill them. As you get deeper in the sewer, the enemies will become stronger. If you do make it far enough, you will have to challenge a difficult final boss. This game, even with all of its beauty, will challenge you. Be determined to save this lady’s daughter.

Introspectus is a really unique point and click adventure. In this adventure you find yourself by a hole. It is up to you - by clicking on purple splotches - to decide what is going to happen next. There are a couple of endings to this adventure. Some shorter to get to than others, but all of them are done in the same unique art style that really adds depth to the game. Each image has a sort of slightly moving overlay that adds a depth to what you are choosing. If you make it to the ending I got - by surviving down the hole - you end up going through strangely marked tunnels. You must try to get some horses to power your chariot. This world is quite curious, but full of strange adventure!

Abribus is a cute little game about a ghost who wants to make people happy. Sad people get off the bus and wait at the bus stop. You are a little ghost who is able to go into these people’s minds to find out what is wrong with them. Once you have figured out the problem, you can attempt to fix their issue and make them happy. Some have pretty simple issues to be fixed; a pickle jar with a stuck lid or nothing to do on a rainy day. As you help more people, you will find more difficult problems, such as being poor or lonely. Sometimes even more than one person might stop at the bus stop for one turn and you may need to solve both of their problems using each other’s thoughts. This game is currently quite short, but it does say “To Be Continued” at the end, so hopefully there will be more soon.

My Hands Behold is a strange puzzler that has quite a bit of challenge. Magda cannot see. In her hands she holds a mystery object. This object can be discovered by moving puzzle pieces onto a grid. These pieces each have green squares representing adjacent tiles that need to be placed around them. The puzzle starts off with a few grayed out pieces that you can then easily find the matches to. Once you have these starter tiles in place, you can start to figure out what tiles go near them. Once you have the puzzle figured out, you will move on to the next one. Every two puzzles presents you with a question about your life. That will determine what route you end up going down. This puzzle does take some time and thought - so be patient!

T.V. Village is an interesting game about a bunch of villagers who ran away into their TV to hide. Yes, that’s right, they have disappeared into their TVs and need you to resurrect them. What you must do is collect some of the items that the villagers have left behind, then combine them into the TV along with a hearth. Specific items go with specific people - you can only add two of the items from the same person to the TV at a time. Once you have all three items in, the villager will come out of the box and go onto exploring the land. Some break rocks, others unlock doors, one even is a farmer. You must explore, find new things, and release these townspeople!

Fly Tim Fly is a challenging arcade game about avoiding tress while you fly through the forest. Tim is the fastest bird in the forest, so he must avoid the trees that are all over the land. These trees need to be avoided by all angles, so you must look at the split screen. One screen shows the bird’s view from top down while the other the bird from the side. You must make sure neither you do not run the bird into the top of the tree or into it on its side. This takes quite a bit of multitasking. If you run into a tree, you will lose a life and have to restart the stage. The more stages you get through, the denser the forest becomes. Do you have what it takes to make sure Tim is the best flying bird ever.

Octoboom is a challenging game about jumping rope under the sea. You are caught, once again, with a giant octopus. This octopus has quite the temper, and finds your human body annoying. You must play jump rope with its tentacle for your life. As you jump rope the octopus will comment on you - call you names and be a jerk to you. You must not let it bother you and keep avoiding its tentacle. If you do get hit by the tentacle, the octopus will throw a bomb at you - killing you completely. This is your only hope. How long will you survive?

Mechanical Feelings is a unique and curious game about reliving life in the year 2016. This interesting game has you use your keyboard in a whole new way; almost as if it is a touch screen. You will swipe across this keyboard while doing some activities that people in 2016 would do. Things like wiping condensation of mirrors to see, moving forward in line at a shopping mall, choosing people in a dating app, or painting pictures. Sometimes the person who you are controlling has thoughts that you have to read or deal with. The tour guide, a robot who works in this new technology system, will walk you through what is going on - that is, until the system breaks and you end up much deeper in the life of someone…

Whole has you traveling around to floating islands looking to help their people. On an island in the middle there are a few pillars that no longer have light. It is up to you to bring the light back to this island. To do this, you must travel in your floating boat in the sky to the other islands; represented by colored arrows on the screen. Once you get to these islands, locate the locals and speak to them to figure out what they need. You will sometimes gather items from these locals to bring to other islands to help them. Once a local is happy again, their colored tower will light up in the middle. It is your quest to restore peace to the world in this beautiful, nice sounding game.

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