So it's been a while since I did a blog post, but with all of the exciting stuff I've been working on at Harmonix, I've been pretty busy. This weekend though, I decided to put in a few more hours of work and do something that was long overdue for me; my first game jam. I didn't actually submit my project since I had some stuff I wanted to do that extended past the deadline, but I thought I'd take a little time and talk about what I made, and how I think the whole process went.
Unity Legs
The concept of the game was really a spur of the moment idea. I was talking with some folks at work about if anyone else was doing the game jam, and two of us talked about using the project to, and I quote, "stretch our Unity legs". Another person at the company heard that, and mentioned that the term made them think of mer-people (mermaids & mermen). I guess I took that comment as inspiration though, cause that's what my game is about. And since that saying spawned the idea, I decided to make it the title.
Basically, the concept of the game is a defensive bullethell where you play as this mer-person in the ocean, and you're trying to protect the sea creatures from being killed by ocean pollution. To do this, you can whip your tail at the randomly moving sea creatures and scare them away from pollution, or using your southing singing voice to heal their ailments. Keep them alive for long enough, and you win the game.
Retrospective
I decided to do this game jam because I really wanted to get back in engine and do something. I didn't go in with making something really good or innovative, but more so to just make something, and I think I met that goal. It had been a decent bit of time since I did anything in Unity, but once I got it, the coding and the engine logic all just came back to me, and I was able to piece something together, and learn some new tricks that I didn't know before. It was also really fun making all of the art for the game in Illustrator, and I think I made a pretty solid art style. Or at least one that would be recognizable and help communicate how things worked.
Anyways, I'm gonna call this blog post here since it's getting kind of late. I plan on doing a more heavy retrospective on this game in the near future though, so look out for that. Also, I you wanna give the game a try, check it out here. Hope you like it!