PHEW! I did it! This is the first game jam I’ve done since, well, I think college. My final build didn’t have everything I wanted, had a few bugs, and there are some definite conveyance issues, but I am still super proud of what I accomplished in the 9 days of this jam. You can find it on itch.io here:

The Summoning

I also had a friend join this jam along with me, working separately on his own project. It’s awesome, and you should check it out here:

Ritual: Blood Summon

I think he’s gonna take best-in-show. It’s easily the scariest of the submitted games that I’ve played.

One of the things I realized pretty quickly was that the “tug of war” gameplay I had designed didn’t really offer many meaningful choices to the player. There was almost always an optimal set of play which was very easy to figure out. Player skill and strategization did not factor in much, meaning there was not much fun to be had. And seeing as my game is less about “horror” in the jumpscare sense, and more about “horror” in the “well look at this fucked up shit going on” sense, I need to rely more heavily on fun than vibes. (That said, vibes are still super important, and factored heavily into this re-design!)

Me and a friend of mine both decided recently to join one of the many game jams running on itch.io - the Secret Cult Horror Jam! We’re each joining as a solo team, mostly as a way to keep our dev muscles in practice as we are both on the job hunt right now.

We’ve each been itching to make a horror game recently, and now the opportunity has arisen! This is a weeklong jam, so I decided to take my time and pace myself. I’m not going to be spending insane nights pulling this out - I just wanted an opportunity to build something cool.

This is the first video devlog for Kaiju, the city-destruction game I mentioned in my last post. Apologies for the microphone, for some reason I decided to use the built-in Vive one instead of my nice HyperX headset. Knowledge for the future.

In the meantime, enjoy the video!

It has happened to almost all of us. You have that flash of insight. That great idea. Your very own ‘Jump To Conclusions’ Mat.

And so you start working on it, maybe tell your friends about it. You are fueled by the fire of your discovery and push through long hours, trying to put together a prototype or a vertical slice, something to PROVE that your idea is great, both to yourself and everyone else. Then one of your friends casually drops the bomb: “Haven’t they already done that?”

Your immediate response is “What, no, impossible, I’m a genius and this was MY idea, all on my own!” But with a niggling sensation of doubt you head over to your old friend google, and what do you find…but someone else has already had your idea and started making it.

Next sets in the crushing disappointment and the irrational anger. You feel like something was stolen from you, something precious, and the worst part is that the half-wit who did it isn’t even aware. At this point, most people drop their idea and try to move on with their lives, feeling a slight tinge of bitterness.

I was one of those people for a long time. But this time I’m going to push through.

Hi there. It’s me. I’m pastadiablo. I’m also Dan Magnusson. I’ve been both for a long time, though the latter about 13 years longer than the former.