Churning Caves Game Jam Version

10/21/2024

In this game, which initially was meant to just be a small project for a game jam, I knew I wanted to add the option of rotating the world in which the player ran around in, and I knew I wanted it to be a 2D platformer-ish kind of game, no matter what theme was thrown at our heads.

The theme we got was "death is a new beginning". Here, I decided to make it so that you would start the run as a random character, and every time you died, you would return to life as a new character, but I didn't want this to be endless, and I wanted there to also be a consequence for dying/losing a hero, so I decided to give the player 3 attempts at 3 random characters (one attempt each). 

When making the world rotate, which I knew I wanted to implement since the beginning, I had some problems with how to make the map's tiles match correctly, and then proceeded to run into the problem of having stuff fall down incorrectly (since I'm using a rather unconventional method of adding gravity). I struggled for about 3 days to have this worked out, and when it did, I also didn't have many days left before the project had to be submitted to the jam.

The last couple of days on the project, before handing it in, were hectic - I'd stay up late, try to figure out how to solve a problem which, in the end, had a very simple solution, and trying to work out what I wanted with the game going forward.

I didn't think I was going to make a first game and actually enjoy the game itself, and I don't know if other creators/programmers think the same when making their first projects, but I ended up enjoying my game so much that I decided I wanted to keep developing on it, by adding more creatures, randomizing the spawn area for the creatures, adding more maps, and maybe even adding more different characters to play as, but still sticking to only having 3 random ones to play during a run. I also want to add more funny little objects, like the statue I added last minute, which can be destroyed. Why? You tell me. Why are you running around, smashing statues while on an adventure? Don't you like history? Did they offend you? Or did you simply just let your urges to destroy them take control.

(Of course, sounds and music will be added later too, but I didn't think I would be able to focus on so many things in just 10 days and still have a functional game as my first project )

If there is one thing I took away from these 10 days, it's that I have learned that anyone can create a game, and it doesn't have to be perfect at first. That's why you have updates for games and have alpha and beta versions before the final version. 

I encourage you to try out my game and give me feedback to help me improve it to make this game come to life in the end, with a full (or partially finished) version.