In the beginning I wasn’t sure this jam would take off. I came up with it a year ago, but didn’t think it was interesting enough to propose to Gamejolt as an official jam. After seeing AVGN’s video series on bad box art, I realized maybe people would dig it after all. Now here we are, a month later with over a hundred weirdo games based on outrageous box art samples.

But enough blabber. Let’s talk about the winners!

The Top Five

Most of the games were rated by you, Joe User (or Jill User, if you prefer). The award to each of the top five highest-rated games is a review blurb and front-page exposure for their efforts. Those winners are…

#1 The Hunger Game
by Rudra Nil Basu
The Hunger Game really runs away with its box art premise: a guy in a cave. That leaves a lot to the imagination, given how little the dev has to work with. In this interpretation, the player ventures out of his cave to hoard food from the nearby forest, with only a single spear for defense. As you collect food, you annoy the local wildlife — you’re encroaching on their turf, after all, and they’ll come out of the woodwork to represent their furry peeps all over your pixelly ass.

The art is pretty crude, but that’s standard for a 48 hour jam, and I still think the demonic yak is badass in spite of it. My main gripe is the spear: throw it once and it’s gone for good, as far as I can tell, anyway. I was only able to retrieve it in the tutorial screen, so either you can’t retrieve it in the normal game, or I’m a pro at losing important objects (just like in real life). Here’s hoping that the post-jam version’s gameplay will be a bit more frantic, and the graphics much more refined.

#2 Enter
by Vlad0
Enter sports a very distinct visual style despite the short development time, and an unusual typing mechanic. Type the words as they appear on the screen, before the screen gets too cluttered and words start crashing at the bottom of the screen and wearing down your….hacker bar? Internet connection? It’s pretty abstract and never explained, so I dunno what it is, but when it runs out, you’re kaput. It’s not a bad way to practice your typing skills, I guess, and it’s cool that the game keeps track of every word onscreen: you can type them in any order to get rid of them. Oh, and you do all this frantic typing to a neurotic chiptune soundtrack, which is cool.

Not so cool is the disorienting distortion effect on the title screen, which can make even starting the game a bit of a nuisance. Overall it uses the box art of Hacker 2: The Doomsday Papers pretty well, I just wish the gameplay had more to do with hacking than typing words on the screen.

#3 Rockin’ Skyball
by Extreme Z7
Rockin’ Skyball does its box art more justice than the original game did. Rock ‘n Ball was a pinball game, but you wouldn’t know it from the box art, which depicts missiles flying through the air and kids partaking in various non-pinball-related sports. Here you play as the kid who’s front and center, looking like he’s playing a game of kickball, and that’s precisely what you do: you kick balls into flying objects to knock them outta the sky! It’s a fun concept, and it’s always satisfying when the ball bounces hard off an alien’s head.

The kicking mechanic needs refining, though. There’s a cooldown period between launching a ball and loading the next one, which is just long enough to throw off your kicking rhythm to catastrophic effect. Aiming high is trickier than it ought to be because of how the kick meter works. I’m sure Extreme Z7 will tweak these issues in a future release (if it hasn’t been done already). I also hope he adds the option to play as the other characters featured on the box art.

#4 Rise of the Water Monsters
by Blyant Games
This one is straightforward: launch lava balls into the air and blast the oncoming water monsters to kingdom-come before they fill your volcano head with soothing H2O. Most minigames don’t keep me entertained for very long, but the character designs really drew me in. The water monsters are deceptively cute, and the volcano in particular has an awesomely rendered face, based on the one in the box art. His death at the game over screen is so beautiful I didn’t even feel annoyed at losing.

The main thing that needs tweaking is the finicky blast radius of the lava balls. Often I would practically miss my target, but somehow still score a kill; other times I would land a direct hit and the monsters didn’t even break stride. Apart from that, this was a pretty solid entry, with a main character that would look awesome on a t-shirt.

#5 Chess, In Space!
by Alex D.
This breathtaking little production opens in first person perspective, with you floating in space. You are accompanied by your endearing robot servant and one half of a ruined spaceship — the other half is floating across the cosmos somewhere. Your half doesn’t have enough power to sustain you and the robot, so one of you needs to leave and basically die. The robot proposes a solution to the awkward “who gets to live” situation: a game of chess tic tac toe!

Alex D. goes above and beyond making a game based on the box art: all of the elements are there, but more than that, we’re treated to a sense of utter futility and isolation, just like the oblivious characters in the box art. This futility becomes evident pretty quickly — ever try to play a board game in zero gravity? It’s simultaneously funny and nihilistic, and immersive no matter how you look at it.

I wish there were resolution and graphics quality options, since it’s too graphics intensive for my pansy-ass integrated card. Alex D. is continuing development, though, so who knows what the final version will look like, and who knows what the future has in store for this developer. If this 48-hour gem is any indication, the sky’s the limit.

The Host’s Choice Award

This award was reserved for the most outstanding game in the jam, chosen by a handful of Gamejolt veterans and myself. We played all the games and rated them based on appearance, playability, and creative use of the box art elements.

This was a tough call, but several games kept popping up in the voting booth. Before revealing who won “best in show”, let’s take a look at the finalists for this prestigious award.

FINALISTS

Phantasy Star II
by Aardvark Games

Cheeky Checkers
by Fernando

Lone Survivor / Wacky Painter
by tomlum

Suraisu Ninja: Sukuta Simulator
by lxlegraw

Chess, In Space!
by Alex D.
Yes, Alex was eligible for both awards! Can ya believe it?

Bad Box Art: Winning Post 3
by Brandtlohnert

And the winner of the Host’s Choice award goes to….
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…wait for iiiiiiit…..
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Another sterling entry, and the best use of the most popular box art sample (who knew so many people would like the idea of scooter ninjas?). lxlegraw gives us the awesome combination of ninjas, scooters, and pinball, wrapped up in a beautiful pixel art package. Bouncing the little ninja all over the screen, off of malicious skulls, and in-and-out of dimensional wormholes never gets old. Neither does watching him scoot along on his precious little scooter. I could see this game being sold in an app store as-is and doing all right for itself. Solid effort all-around!

Congrats, lxlegraw! Your game won with four votes! As the grand prize winner, you get your game featured on the front page, a Fireside Chat interview, and the (possibly) coveted super secret prize:

A sealed copy of the Boss Monster card game! Players take on the role of a boss monster at the end of a 16-bit dungeon they build and modify themselves. Every round new heroes appear to invade your dungeon and get horribly killed, yielding a delicious soul for you to eat. It’s a lot of fun and features lots of really funny sprite art.

Thanks go out to everyone who helped run and promote the jam, and everyone who contributed games. I’ll be in touch with the grand prize winner to work out interview and shipping details.

In the meantime, I’m gonna go take a long nap.