Anyone here playing / participating GMTK Game Jam?
I thought it'd be fun to have our own recommendation list before the final results are announced.
Here's the link to the theme announcement video (the theme is "Role Reversed") and link to the itch.io page where you can find all the entries. The default sort is 'random' but you can also change to other Sort if you just want to quickly check out some more notable examples. Also select 'Play in browser' in 'Platform' if you're worried about having to download files.
If you participated in the jam, let us know too!
Edit: since the mountain of entries is enormous, I'm thinking a way to narrow the scope and reduce choice paralysis is this: try out 3 entries that caught your interest for whatever reason, and tell us which one among them you like most (you can recommend all of them, or try out more if you're up for it). Feel free to be as loose or selective in your recommendation as you want.
So the ones I've tried are:
One Night as Freddy You play as the animatronic trying to spook the security guard to get into his office. It's a fun twist! I like the decision to give the animatronic a battery meter, which makes it on brand with the gameplay of the original. The play experience is different though. Being the monster makes the game not as scary (not that I think it was trying to be). Having to physically move between places instead of flipping different cameras also makes playing less frantic (and thus also less scary).
The Contrarian Press You sensor words from news headlines to create misleading message. Neat idea, reminds me of one of an earlier game by the "Papers, please" developer but it's been awhile since I played that one so not sure if it's actually similar.
Unforge Was drawn to this one by the quality thumbnail. Gameplay is like arcade-style fast clicking time management type games (I'm bad with description...). Could be a fun timewaster.
Moo Also caught interest by the moody thumbnail, and I think the game delivers on the atmosphere. The low res visual, having the humans on 4 legs mowing on grass and a pixelated cow as the butcher makes it very creepy. Still haven't figured out how to win yet. Trying to keep the body fat meter around 50% wasn't successful. The fence enclosing the area is also very suspicious and make me think there could be a way to escape, but I haven't found it yet.
Out of these 4 I think "Moo" has had the most impact on me so far. The atmosphere is what mostly did it for me and I'm invested in reaching its ending (though I haven't yet).
I made the music for this game:
https://zackzeta.itch.io/busters-mansion
The programmers couldn't get all the features in they wanted but they're wanting to still work on it more and release a more finished version, so I might make more music for it.
That's neat! The music is cute and spooky which certainly fit, reminds me a bit of the initial Plants vs. Zombies. As for the gameplay I was kinda hoping to be able to do things to scare the human (like moving furniture or make piano sounds) right now it's a bit hard to tell if I timed the haunting right or not. Do you know what the programmers are planning to add?
Yeah, so I think how it works currently is that you have to be currently possessing things that the human runs by, and that counts as scaring him, and if you do that enough he leaves and you win the night. The pixel artist made an animation to show when the human is spooked, but the programmers couldn't get it in for the deadline.
I think they want to add that animation and more ways to make it clear you're doing what you're supposed to do, more types of humans that will show up that can do different things, a shop between levels to buy upgrades to the ghost or your house, and different house layouts at the least. They want to turn it into a proper little indie game, which I think is awesome, and I'm hoping to keep making music for them as they do.
Yeeees, I try to do at least one big jam a year with my friend and we had a lot of fun this jam.
We ended up making Planted:
https://boltsoft.itch.io/planted
Basically, after a couple of hours of brainstorming we joked at the idea of "what if it's Stardew valley but you're the plant" and the idea grew from that.
Really happy with what we ended up with. Has been really cool to see players actually digging in and enjoying the game.
I was responsible for the visuals, SFX and music, with game design being a joint responsibility and my friend mostly handling the coding and bigger problem solving.
As for games I've played, some of my favorites:
Farming like a boss
Just a really well put together game overall, solid mechanics and presentation. Essentially you're a final boss in a dungeon attempting to grow veggies for a salad to warm the hero's heart. Cool concept, well excecuted.
https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2023/rate/2160910
The tutorial
This game was maybe not the most original of ideas, there were a bunch of "you're the developer" type games but this one really managed to make the gameplay concise and interesting and the presentation really well put together, though the levels were a bit too easy.
https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2023/rate/2152921
Left behind
Gameplay might not be anything to write home about but the atmosphere was really good. A horror game where you chase down a monster until at some point the monster might turn on you and you end up being chased.
https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2023/rate/2154033
Planted has a very chill vibe. Not sure if it's the intended gameplay experience but I find trying to keep the tree balanced trickier than expected haha. Do you guys have plans to turn it into a full game?
Hehe, that's definitely intentional. Initially the idea was to make the balancing even harder and have that be the main focus, but we ended going for a slower pace.
We're definitely planning to do a full release, but it still needs some figuring out. We'll likely announce something sooner or later though.
I made CAAAAAAAACCCCCTTTTTTTUUUUUUSSSSSSSS for the jam this year!
It's really not supposed to be much, nor does it do anything very interesting. I just thought it was a funny idea and wanted an excuse to sit down and finish a game for once. It ended up ranking much higher than I thought it would, and people thought it was funny, which was a huge win in my book.
There were some crazy good entries this year, I can't beleive some of the stuff people were able to create in just 48 hours. Some of the games I played:
Spring's Ballet I really, really liked the artwork for this one, and it looks like it ranked #2 in presentation. I spoke to the dev, and they said the felt-like look of the graphics "comes from edited scans of flecked vintage paper and risograph prints, masked over every asset", which was really cool.
Rolls Reveresed This one had a very simple concept, but I had a lot of fun playing it. I can see an expanded game coming out of it with the inclusion of stuff like power ups or different shapes or mobile support or something.
Hank Handsome in: Limb for Limb I laughed out loud at this one a few times. The artwork is obnoxious in the best way. Swapping limbs could result in some really funny gameplay experiences, I thought.
My team made a point-and-click game where you control the NPCs:
https://berry-games.itch.io/beep-boop/
I was the programmer, and also did some of the writing. My teammate did the art and music.
I feel like gameplay-wise it's a little boring, but it's better than what we've made many previous years so I'm overall pretty happy with it. I always like doing game jams; they actually get me to finish things, which is not something I usually do.