Tag Archive

I Made A Game About 2000s Instant Messengers Thanks To LoveJam


Posted on February 6, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Developing video games isn’t something that I can confess to have a large amount of knowledge about but alas I’ve spent the past year or so learning the basics of Unity 3D and C#. This past weekend I took part in Love Jam, a 72 hour game jam that Simeoens, Mientje and Kenny Guillaume set up to not only celebrate the theme of love but also a friend’s upcoming marriage.

Here is how the organizers described their event:

“A friend of ours is getting married and asked us if we could make a game for the occasion. 
Loving gamedev and game jams we said yes without hesitation and agreed to use the first weekend of February to do so.  

 We didn’t think of it at the time, but we suddenly realized that this is very close to Valentine’s day and wondered if there would be any interest in a jam that had ‘wedding’ as a central theme. 

 In the end we decided that the concept of a wedding might put off people who don’t believe in the tradition and so decided to extend the theme to love in general, of any kind.” 

This game jam was the first game dev related collaboration with a time limit that I’ve taken part in and it helped me learn a lot about how to keep cool under pressure during a crunch. I decided to focus on the love of friendship for my entry for Love Jam – which I called Luv.IM. Taking place in a 2000s era Instant Messenger program inspired by the AOL Instant Messenger of yore, it is not only a story of two different people meeting online but also what it is like to discuss the problems that life can throw at you with someone you might not all that well.  I made the submission deadline with only 2 hours and change to spare and an audio glitch caused me to scrap the planned sound effects for this jam, also only after publishing did I notice that some of the texts gets slightly cut off of the screen. *sigh*, I suppose that is the nature of game jams.

LoveJam saw 10 different entries from over 30 developers. I highly recommend anyone reading this post check out the entries (not just mine) because there’s a little bit of everything on offer from visual novels, to platformers to interactive greetings card – all made in the name of love.


0

Make Your Own Zombie Game With These Great Assets


Posted on July 14, 2015 by Les Major

With the latest Humble Bundle being focused on game design, your biggest problem may be if you’re not an artist. There’s even a HUGE contest on right now that you can enter! But you need backgrounds, and fast! So what do you do? Game Dev Fort has lots of content including their latest release, the Survival Horror Backgrounds Pack! After all, who doesn’t LOVE zombie games in this day and age?

Survival-SS1-s

If you’re a fan of RPG Maker VX Ace, there are even battleback versions included! So not only can you make an amazing visual novel telling the tale of friends trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse, but there are battlebacks ready to drop right into RPG Maker! There are six sets to explore with a few variations to utilize. Of course, these can be used for anything you can dream up! So go wild! It doesn’t have to be Zombies. Maybe animals all around the world have been acting strange for some unknown reason… I watch too much TV.

Survival-SS2-s

“Whoa!” You say, “That’s pretty pricy for just some backgrounds isn’t it?” Well, you need to take this with context. These assets are royalty free! You buy it, you own it to use in your game (or games, go nuts, make a couple!) So what are you waiting for? Get these assets and get making a game! Need software? Get on Humble Bundle right now for the Humble Game Making Bundle which has just under seven days left!

Survival-SS4-s

Did I mention I made these assets? Probably should. Honesty and all.

If you missed it above, this pack can be purchased at Game Dev Fort!
It’s the Survival Horror Backgrounds Pack.


0

Get the latest articles and news from BrokenJoysticks and a selection of excellent articles from other sources.

Simply fill out the form below and you’ll be on your way to getting our upcoming newsletter.