My First Game Jam

About a month ago, I partook in a game jam at the college I graduated from that was hosted by the IGDA chapter. The weekend I spent working on the game was eventful, to say the least.

With the theme for the jame being "bubble," I went to writing down ideas, something I could feasibly make that respected the theme. I had written down ideas like a flappy bird like game, and stuff involving actual bubbles, until I realized there was something I wanted to try. I wanted to tell a story.

Once that realization hit, I settled on using the game engine Ren'py. I then tried figuring out what sort of story I could tell that tied into the theme. As someone who identifies as non-binary, I am out to many of my good friends, but not to my immediate family. It's an internal struggle for me, finding the courage to speak my truth. Which is why I made the story a coming out story of sorts.

The Writing Process

I studied computer science, and coasted through humanities classes. That made the writing process a bit more challenging than it should have been. With the concept being laid out, the first thing I did layout how it began, and how it ended. I then filled in the pieces based on how I wanted the protagonist to go about everything.

This decision made it so really the only character who would exist would be the protagonist, as the events that happen in game would be recollections by the protagonist. Other characters would exist, but they would otherwise be unseen, or use a generic portrait.

Art Direction

I cannot draw very well, and I would rather die than resort to using AI art. Fortunately, the people organizing the jam allowed for people to pitch their ideas in order to recruit people for the project (A pitch I remember was an alchemy game that was built in Unreal). As such I pitched my game, in search of an artist. The way I pitched the game was that I decided to not take the theme literally. I was fortunate to have a guy I knew in passing saying that he was interested in doing art. I gave him so directions what I was going for, mainly how I wanted the protagonist to look. The end result was a person who probably bore a bit more of a resemblance to me than I had hoped/anticipated. Needless to say I was pleased with the art, however I problem I failed to consider would come up when putting everything together.

It's a Self-Insert and the Endgame

As I regularly mention, I do not identify with my birth gender, which inspired the direction of visual novel. The more and more I thought it being a self-insert, the more I was thinking, man this is a little cringe. Thankfully I didn't give in to the cringe and abandon the whole thing. I mean, I really couldn't, after all I made a guy set aside time in his life to make some art for something with relatively low stakes. My entire Saturday that weekend consisted of me just writing what I hoped would amount to 10 minutes, it was about a third of that. Once I felt that the writing was to an acceptable standard, I went to setting up everything in Ren'Py. By the time all the dialogue had been coded in, I had received the art. It was then that problem I failed to consider reared its head on me. I failed to consider the dimensions of the art. The deadline to submit everything was looming, so left with little choice, I submitted what was made in a state that was not broken. That meant having no sound effects, or even royalty free music to accompany the game.

The end result was titled It Bubbles Up Within Basil which can be played here. The week after, the games were demoed at a showcase. I couldn't make the trip to demo my game, so I made a recording of the game to be presented. Not being there meant I could only hear what the reception was from people who attended the game showcase. I was told the game was received relatively well. They even held superlatives when all was said and done, only for me to find I ended up winning an award. The award in question was for "Most Creative Game," as I decided to not take the theme literally. Regardless, I was happpy I won an award, and in fact only recently got the medal.

The experience proved to be stressful largely because I am not a writer! Despite that, planning a project, coding it, and doing it for me was incredible. I don't see myself revisiting the game to make it more complete, but the project will hold a special place in my heart as its the first thing I've published on itch.io. Hopefully, I can keep doing stuff that I consider to be cool, and come from the heart.