This whole developer account was created in conjunction with Global Game Jam 2014. This account went live at about midnight with low expectations of what this site was all about. (Forgive me, I’m new here.) In the last 10 hours GameJolt went from side-project novelty to a legitimate aspect to our game’s life. Which was entirely unexpected and the views/followers on this page have been a good driving force to deliver a good game.

**SPOILER ALERT***

Our initial concept of the game was to have the labrynth you walk through create itself dynamically as you move through it. This included deleting tiles you have already walked through and replacing them if you tried to turn around. (We hung a picture of David Bowie from the movie “Labyrinth” as a constant reminder of the trickery of labyrinths.) We had a feeling that this concept was incredibly labor intensive, but we had two confident coders who were down to take on the challenge.

One programmer in particular (David) spent roughly 16 hours coding the level generator. And if you would like to see the progress he was able to complete press “2” while in the game. The work is there, we just weren’t able to iron out the kinks with the other game mechanics we put into the game.

Our other programmer (Zac) spent a lot of his time assisting with design while also doing quite literally ALL of the game feel programming. (For example, it was Zac who managed to get the dimming light feature, and implementation of the audio source codes. Without Zac’s hard work, we would only have David’s level generation, which doesn’t make for a “game.”

In terms of art, we converted a designer (Matthew) to do all of the modeling, and texturing. Matthew also assited a lot with design and came in handy for finding typography and general visual feel. Matthew also created the logo for our team. On Matthew’s down time he even managed to create models that looked really good, but at the end of the clock, we just didn’t have time to implement into the game.

I (Alex) took on the role of producer/designer. A lot of my job involved structuring everything to ensure everyone stayed on task, and had a task to do. (We held standup meetings ever 2 hours just to check in with each other.) We utilized a wall in our lab space that is currently covered with giant checklists, ideas, and David Bowie. The Jam site we were at (DePaul University, Chicago IL) managed to get quite a few local industry mentors to come and visit us while we worked. This was both good and bad because they at times had great ideas and input, but they also prevented us from doing our tasks. As a “producer” I was tasked with the job of wrangling all of these mentors, utilizing their wisdom while also allowing the rest of my team to continue to work. As a designer I was the creator of the static labyrinth that you walk through in aVoid. I believe the labyrinth came out well, but I would be lying if I said it was perfect.

Spoiler Alert For Real

The Game Jam theme this year was: “We don’t see things the way they are; we see them the way we are.” Our game was an abstraction on who was articulating this quote. The idea that the labyrinth itself was sentient and wanted you (the player) to see the game space as it is (a maze game where the goal is to get to the beacon). To “win” the game you must go against what you’re notion of “First Person Maze Games” are, despite how difficult it may be and eventually you break out into seeing it for what it is. (I won’t spoil it too much) This concept would shine better if the level generation worked and was implemented. But as we all learn, no matter how much we scope down there will always be unforseen mishaps. And we are happily satisfied with the product we came out with. Will it win awards? Probably not. But this is my (Alex) second jam, and every other member of my team’s first. Not to mention both of my programmers have never used Unity before Friday, I believe that this learning experience was a success.

If you’ve read this far or skipped due to spoilers, I invite you to play our game and give us feedback as to how YOU think it applies to the Global Game Jam 2014 #ggj14 theme: “We don’t see things teh way they are; we seem them as we are.”

On behalf of Dogtrack Hooligans, Thank you.