The Procedural Generation Jam is a yearly jam focused around procedural generation. This jam is a bit different than most other game jams, as it challenges developers to make games, tools, or even twitter bots. I decided to play all of the creations that were entered in my video compilation series. Below are some of my favorites, in a random order.

Acre 6 is a stylish, relaxing game that has you moving around a map on a load of quests! As you move your mouse, your dot follows you. You are traveling across lands, to buildings or rocks depicted on the map. Sometimes word bubbles pop-up, alerting you of your travels! These can be green bubbles when you finish quests, red bubbles when you had negative interactions with locals, or white bubbles that just inform you of new towns or gaining items. As you complete quests and travel around, you gain more XP that allows you to move onto new Acts. The maps that you travel on, as well as the items and quests, are all procedurally generated. You may not know exactly how you completed quests or what some of these items are, but exploring around and reading bits about your adventure is quite fun.

The.Green.Legion is a bullet hell that is full of life! You can pick from three different levels and see how long you can survive the waves of ships and bullets. Ships come towards you, some shooting and others just zooming past. You are able to shoot them until they explode with the words “Bam”, “Pow”, “Ka-boom”, etc. If you hold down the button in order to shoot continuously, you will move slower than if you are not shooting. This can make it quite hard to avoid the bullets coming towards you. As you get further in the game, you will level up and unlock another ship that will shoot parallel to you. If you get hit from here forward, you will lose that ship instead of dying yourself. Bosses will also need to be fought from time to time, challenging how well you have done to that point. See how long you can last in this challenging game!

Doguelike is a cute and interesting idle game that has you watching a dog try and survive a dungeon! Doggo is looking for bones in a local dungeon. He may not be the smartest, or even the most skilled dog, but he is the most determined! You can watch as he fumbles and fights his way through the dungeon, taking on traps, skeletons, and deeper levels. A log shows you everything that is going on, documenting not only Doggo’s journey but also anything that happens to skeletons in the level. As he kills enemies, he will gain bones. Once he gains enough bones, he will go up a level. You will then get to pick what stat increases! Root for your furry friend as he explores many levels of the dungeon.

ProcGenArena is a game with a lot going on. You get to create a character that will then be able to fight in battles on a randomly generated map against 199 other AI units. These units will fight against each other, but some will fight with you. You are able to move around the map during the fighting phase, avoiding or running into characters to fight. Chances are, you will not come out on top in this huge battle. This will cause you to go back to the town to see your score. From there, you can buy upgrades or level up, and then try again. Your goal is to be number 1 on the highscore table. There are lots of options in terms of names, the way the character looks, and a few other small aspects. This game is quite interesting to play around with, though it takes a while to come out on top!

Florus is a game that is both beautiful and relaxng, where you plant flowers that play musical notes.You can generate a small garden box for your flowers, and the sand comes in a variety of colors with water running through some of it. Once you are happy with a box for your little garden, you can begin planting flowers! There are three types of plants - a bush, a fern, and flowers. Each time you place one of these types of plants, a random color and size is picked and placed. You can easily remove ones you don’t like and place more around as you wish. As you plant things, it will affect the music you hear around you. Your plants bob as they make noise, to show you which one is playing when. The music that is created from this is always amazing - sounding well put together and relaxing.

Keyboard Warrior is a super challenging typing based game that has you trying to kill many, many enemies. You are an alien spaceship, looking to defeat little ghosts. As you approach a ghost, you must type the word “attack” to attack, when prompted on the screen. You can also type “Block” to block when the ghost is trying to attack. This sounds like an easy game, until you find that the keyboard changes each time you go near a new ghost. Your keys appear in a different order, shown by the keyboard on the screen. You must find and press the letters you need, in the right order, before time runs out! Each key you do get right does work to attack or block, so thankfully you might have a chance. See how many you can defeat in this challenging game!

Hanging by a Thread is a melancholy, challenging action game about life. Your life is hanging by a thread, quite literally, above your head. Your life takes the shape of a small red ball that almost works like a balloon, that blubs around as you move, via the string it is attached too. As you take steps forward in your life, you will come across trees that have bats on them. These bats will move towards your red dot, attempting to attack it, so you must shield it with your body. If a bat attacks your life, the red dot will bleed a bit and get smaller. Sometimes you can walk over sparkly bits of path to regain some health, however there are only a few of these. As you take more steps and defeat more bats, more will appear. You will also get more bits of information that makes you question life. This game is quite interesting to play - see how far you can get shielding your own life with your body.

Flower That You Love is a quirky game that has you clicking on procedurally generated plants and reading lines of text from the game! You get to pick a flower that you love, click on it, then hang out with it… until it disappears. Once you have lost it, you must find it or pick a new one, depending on what the game wants you to do. You can even throw a party with loads of plants, until they disappear too. This game is just a fun little thing to tinker around with - colorful plants, lines of text criticizing your skills, a funny game to play!

#ProcJam #Acre6 #TheGreenLegion #Doguelike #ProcGenArena #Florus #KeyboardWarrior #HangingByAThread #FlowerThatYouLove