The Simple Jam was a game jam held to give developers a break from their complicated side projects and main games to make a simpler game. There were two rules: your game may have no more than 5 rules and your game can only use 5 assets. The idea was to make something simple, fun, and fast. There were a few games entered in this jam, I recorded all of them in my video compilation series. Below are some of my favorites, in no specific order.
B.O.A.T.S is a charming pirate ship game that has you knocking other boats out of the sea! You are able to shoot your cannons at other ships to damage them. Much like Super Smash Bros, your ship will have a percentage above it. As you get hit, this percentage will increase. The higher it is, the more you get knocked back when hit. Your goal is to knock all of the other ships out past the white lines defining the area. Once a ship is knocked out, it will explode and respawn in the middle with one less life. When the ships lose all of their lives, they stop appearing in the middle. If you are able to survive against all of these other ships, you will become the top pirate of the seven seas!
Soda-Pop Sailin’ is a really nice looking game where you must collect your crew members who are lost at sea. There has been some sort of disaster and your whole crew has been thrown out along the sea. You have one lifesaver attached to your small sail boat, so you must use it to retrieve each crew member one by one, bringing them back to your main ship each time. A small arrow on your screen will tell you where to go next - pictures of your crew members will show you how many people are left to collect. As you go out to save your people, the tide will push you along faster. Its quite fun going along the sea. Once you have all of your crew members, you are able to go back home - though this home may not be where you think it is. This game also allows you to easily change the color pallet while playing! This is a simple but very nice touch.
Swipe to Toast is a cute game about toasting some bread! You are a toaster so it is your job to toast all of the sad bread into happy delicious toast. To do this, you must fling your toaster towards the bread, pushing them into the toaster. Once you have hit a piece of bread, a small bar will appear under your toaster. This will show you how long you have to get another piece of bread before the one in the toaster is burnt. Burning the bread is unacceptable and will cause you to restart. If you fling your toaster towards some bread and miss, the toaster will soon start to fall. Sometimes you can hit a piece of bread on the way down, recovering, but other times you will fall off the screen. You can also bounce your toaster off of the walls! Sometimes you will receive bonus points for things like long shots or controlling your fall. This addictive game is best played on a touchscreen device.
Stay Afloat is a co-operative multiplayer game where you must collect coins and keep your pirate ship afloat! You and your friend are both on sinking pirate ships, but that won’t stop you from collecting the treasures that are appearing in the ocean! To stay afloat and collect these coins, you must shoot lifesavers out at your friend’s ship. You can only stay afloat if you are helped by your friend, as these lifesavers will pull you up out of the water. Since you are constantly sinking, you will need to communicate and work together. You want to collect as many coins as you both can, but these coins are only there for a limited amount of time. Be quick picking them up, then get back near your friend to help each other heal up. This game is super challenging, as you must work together closely to get the highest score possible. Once one of you sink - the game will be over.
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