A couple weeks ago I entered GMTK Game Jam 2021, a 48-hour game jam hosted by the Game Maker's Toolkit YouTube channel. There were 5814 entries, making it probably the largest-ever online game jam (certainly the largest hosted on itch.io, and also larger than any Ludum Dare to date).
The theme of the jam was "joined together." I made a little platformer game titled You Are a Strange World, in which the position of platforms is determined by (and thus "joined together" with) the position of the player. You can play it in online here.
Games were rated by other developers and by the public. The results were released today, and it looks like I did pretty well!
| Criteria | Rank (/5814) | Score (/5) |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 40 | 4.208 |
| Originality | 23 | 4.4 |
| Fun | 105 | 3.975 |
| Presentation | 156 | 4.25 |
I placed in the top 1% overall, top 0.5% for Originality, and top 2% for Fun, all substantially better than my previous Ludum Dare games (see here). The game was rated by 80 people, which is more than twice as many as either of my previous games. I also know that Mark Brown, who runs the GMTK channel, has played it (since I made it into the top 100), although I unfortunately didn't make the curated Top 20 list or get an honourable mention.
What Went Well
- I actually added sound effects this time! That, combined with sticking to the restricted palette + low-resolution pixel art approach that I used during LD48, seems to have worked out pretty well & earned me good ratings for Presentation.
- I think I picked a neat mechanic to focus on and explore in my level design, and there's still lots of puzzle-platforming potential to discover even prior to adding in other standard platforming features (like switches etc.).
- Unlike my LD48 game, my concept this time allowed me to focus on making the game fun, rather than having to balance fun with competing thematic concerns.
- I'm starting to get the hang of Godot, so I didn't have to spend a ton of time learning how to do stuff this time around.
Room For Improvement
- Multiple commenters found the game too difficult (especially the last level). I intended for it to be challenging, but I probably need to slow down time a bit and make some other adjustments (maybe going easier on the spikes?) so that it's not more difficult/frustrating than intended.
- Some players seem not to have fully grasped that the platforms are controlled by the player's position and not merely by the player's controls. This has implications for gameplay (i.e. timing doesn't matter to the extent that some players expect it to; every level could be replaced with a totally static but navigationally equivalent level). I need to better convey/tutorialize the core concept.
- When "dangling" in the air due to a moving platform being blocked, the player has very limited movement options (i.e. left & right movement but no jump). This limits the possibilities for exciting level design. Maybe I need some sort of double-jump or dash mechanic.
Future Plans
I really enjoyed designing levels for this game, and I'd like to continue working on it in the future. Of course, I have lots of actual work to do, so who knows when or whether I'll have the time to make substantial updates.