GMTK Game Jam 2024

After many years of struggling to get back into game dev, I decided to try my hand at the GMTK Game Jam! It was perfect timing, as I had the weekend to myself, with no distractions or obligations for the next 48 hours…

The theme was announced on Friday at 6pm, I was sat waiting for the YouTube premiere, the theme was announced and I immediately got to work writing down ideas!

The original plan was to make a game similar to Tetris Plus, where you could move blocks into place for a person trapped inside to try and escape. I wanted to make the game so you could swap between both game modes (Placing blocks, and moving the character inside), but it might have got too confusing, and I didn’t know how to program that either… So I settled on having the blocks fall automatically, and you needing to navigate them to escape.

I was experimenting with different ways to move the blocks in the level, the first stage uses keyframe animations, and the second level uses RigidBody physics. In the end I wasn’t really happy with either of them…

If I go back to this idea in the future I’ll try and tidy up the movements so they actually build a structure.

I learned a lot though, having never used Godot properly before, I focussed all weekend on making sure I understood everything I was following. I now have a notebook full of notes (see below!), and definitely feel less daunted by the engine.

Hopefully what I’ve learned here will help me get back into game dev if I decide to start back up in the future!