Global Game Jam 2019
Goodboy Digital sent a team of creative developers to take part in Global Game Jam 2019, hosted by the Hacksmiths Tech Society at Goldsmiths University of London.
With over 200 creative game makers set up in Goldsmiths beautiful St James Hatcham Building, the brief was clear: Produce a game from scratch in 48 hours.
The biggest challenge of course was time. How do we work out what is the best game we can make in 48 hours? How does the team stay focused on achieving that goal? How do we avoid falling into the trap of feature creep?!
Goodboy Digital is a Creative Digital Agency so we are very experienced at scoping projects pragmatically, choosing our creative and technical battles realistically and delivering high quality client work to hard deadlines. That same philosophy of embracing (not avoiding) time constraints was applied here as well.
During the first couple of hours the team scoped out their approach. This included:
- Game Concept: Which game design ideas would be realistically achievable in the limited time frame?
- Technical Approach: Which tools and frameworks would be most suitable for maximising code efficiency?
- Roles and Responsibilities: How would we best delegate work around the team?
We went for a platform game core concept while adding a gravitational shift effect to add a unique gameplay twist to the platform arena.
We really wanted to create a multiplayer experience so with the time constraints in mind decided on a 4 player shared screen, shared keyboard input approach. It was therefore imperative that the game had a simple and intuitive control system: Move, Jump, Shoot!
For speed of coding we used tools that the team were already familiar with: PixiJS HTML5 Creation Engine (our open source WebGL rendering engine), Gravity and Tile Map. The decision to code the game in Javascript also meant a speedy web browser deployment process.
In terms of team member roles and responsibility, we split the core game components across the team:
- One member worked on object collisions
- One on control inputs (keyboard and bluetooth controllers were supported)
- One on visuals, level design, animation and audio implementation.
So how best to structure the limited time and protect ourselves from drifting into feature creep:
- Day 1 was all about creating the Technical Proof of Concept. The aim here was to create a stripped back playable game build that allowed us to get hands on and test the core gameplay mechanics while achieving technical proof of life. As with every game we make the goal of this POC game is simple — test that it’s fun!
- Day 2 was all about building from this - layering enhanced visuals, animation, audio and polish on top of solid foundations.
So that was the philosophy we stuck to - Less features, more polish!
The whole experience was overwhelmingly positive. The Goodboy Digital team had a tonne of fun making the game, meeting a whole host of creative game makers from all different walks of life and experienced a great bonding experience with colleagues.
A timely reminder of what can be achieved in game development with laser focus and embracing constraints. Working ‘within the box’ should never be seen as a limitation, rather it is an inspiration to get the most out of whatever is to hand. An arcade-action multiplayer party game in 48 hours? No problem!
More more information on Goodboy Digital web games, experiences and digital products please visit: https://www.goodboydigital.com
