The gm(48): Risk & Reward was a 48 hour jam where developers needed to make a game using Game Maker. The theme of this jam was “Risk & Reward”. 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.

That Demon, Murmur is a super challenging, very trippy rhythm game that has you gambling with your life in Purgatory. You are awaiting judgement for your sins, but the Prince of Disharmony has selected you to be a toy for it’s personal entertainment. Each level starts with the Devil giving you a choice. These two options are both handicaps and will make the game more challenging for you - like spawning stronger enemies, increasing the amount that are present, making you move slower or have a weaker attack. The bigger the risk you take, the higher the reward the Prince of Disharmony will give you. To attack once you are in an area, you must click in rhythm to the beat. You can blast a circle around you or shoot a line directed towards your mouse. You also will need to be moving around the arena to avoid giant spiked circles as well as the enemies around you. If you can kill all of your foes you will be greatly rewarded, however this is quite the challenge. Will you last until it’s time to account for your sins?

Fanatic is a challenging tower climbing game where you are trying to make your way up the tower, destroying all of the darkness in it. Lava is filling up below you, forcing you to make your way quickly up this tower, destroying anything in your path. You have a small sword at your disposal to defeat your enemies, as well as the ability to cast a spell. Spells are also used to boost you up in the air, by shooting the spell towards the ground. Using your sword to defeat enemies is more risky, but will give you more coins and sometimes health potions. Shooting enemies gives you far fewer rewards but can be done at a great distance. If your health gets too low, you will start glowing red. This allows you to deal double damage, move faster, and swing your sword farther. You need to make it up through all the floors of this tower, destroying the darkness for good!

Cursed Blood is a challenging dungeon crawler that has you slashing your way through tons and tons of enemies in a procedurally generated dungeon. There are 4 classes in the browser version (which is the most up to date). The mage is able to bash enemies, shoot out a fireball, and has the special of an explosion of magic around them. The stalker has a small dagger to hit enemies that are close, arrows to shoot, and a special of throwing out daggers around them. The Priest has a weapon similar to both of the Mage’s weapons; you can swipe your staff which also shoots out a yellow star. These stars then stack up, allowing you to shoot up to 5 at once. The Priest’s special ability is running very quickly. Lastly, you have the dead knight, which has a power sword and can dash. It’s special is drinking a health potion. As you explore the dungeon, sometimes you will find statues that offer a nice thing. These upgrades come at a cost to your player, so use them sparingly. Enemies come in massive numbers, but they do drop loot and upgrades, so you might want to kill as many as you can. See how far you can survive!

0x0D is a one of a kind shooter that forces you to collect bullets from your enemies! Ships fly towards you, shooting at you. You can shoot back, but you have very limited ammo. This forces you to go into slow-motion mode to catch the enemy bullets and shoot them back! Your slow-motion mode is very limited in duration. It is displayed as a bar on the bottom of the screen. When you go into slow-motion mode, the bar drains. It takes a while for the bar to fill back up while you are back at normal speed. If the bar drains completely, you will be forced into normal speed and must go back to avoiding bullets. This adds tons of challenge to this game - you must plan out when you are going to use slow-motion and when you are going to shoot out your few bullets. 0x0D also rewards your efforts on low health, giving you more points for the ships you destroy.

WEB’d is a bug filled game where you grab flies and throw them at enemies! You are a spider who uses your web to grab flies and stack them on your back. The more flies you have on your back, the slower your movement will be. You can fling these flies against enemies and the environment to destroy flies or enemies. These flies will not die at first throw, so if you want to defeat them you will need to throw them out several times. You need to defeat a set number of enemies before you can move onto the next level. Each level also has a set time that you must complete it in. Killing enemies gives you a bit more time, but you really need to be fast! In between levels you get to pick a power-up; strength, defense (health), or speed, with your extra time. The more levels you take on, the more variety in enemies and the stronger they are, so these power-ups can really help you survive. You can only pick up flies remember, so even when facing ghosts and slimes, you must grab flies to kill them. WEB’d is a very fun, challenging game to play!

Quack Raiders is a quirky local multiplayer that has you finding treasure faster than your friend! You both play fat ducks who want to collect treasure. You have your own specific treasure chest that you must bring your loot to. Finding the loot is the hard part, you must find pickaxes to take down walls and shovels to dig. Pickaxes can only break down the same color walls as they are themselves colored. Shovels can be used to make holes in the ground that will then trap your opponent. The more loot and tools that you carry, the slower you will move, so you need to make decisions on what to carry and when to go back to your treasure chest. You also can only carry up to ten items, and must share weapons, so you need to be careful of thieving friends! This game is very fun to play - especially when your friend falls into a trap of yours! The time is always counting down, so make sure you get your loot to the chest as often as you can!

Breakout Dilemma is a super polished breakout game that has you choosing changes at the beginning of each level. Before you start the level, you are presented with two columns - one of rewards and one of risks. You must pick a risk and reward before you can start the game. There is a total of 20 risks and rewards, though you only get to pick from 6 at a time. These different aspects of the game allow allow a lot of possibilities for your level, so choose wisely. As you go further in the game, the bricks you need to break out will be stronger, covered in vines, and not so easy to break (especially if you choose a risk that makes your ball weaker). Each level also has a limited time that you must break as many blocks as possible in. Your goal is to get the highest score possible and not run out of all of your balls. See if you can get a higher score than the developer; 10,000!

#GM48 #ThatDemonMurmur #Fanatic #CursedBlood #0x0D #WEBD #QuackRaiders #BreakoutDilemma