Hello Underflowers,

So this is the first Idea Jam update! I introduced the idea jam in our very first Semimonthly Update which went over the origins of the idea jam. Let me briefly explain how the idea jam will go.

I am going to design, create and polish a few games to the prototype phase. These prototypes will be experiments of game mechanics I find interesting. From there I am going to only proceed with one of them to build out to a release state. Those left behind should be automatically included in future idea jams.

So we have 3 prototypes to show off for our first update. We currently don’t have any statistics to share because I didn’t record any time on these projects so far. The elevator pitch for each as well as a quick video of gameplay is below. We’ll be diving deeper into each title in future articles which should go into the why’s and what I’ve learned from each project.

Note the videos represent where we currently are in the project. Lots of features are missing from each project, some core ones still as well.

Kessler

Theme: Sci-fi/Fantasy
Genre: Card and Timer RogueLike
Win Cond: Defeat End-boss

2D card based adventure through the ruins of high tech cities. Find card items and combine them to create tools to find more survivors. Turn based on actions (D&D style). Survivors join your adventure allowing you to carry more items and do more actions per turn. To win, complete the story and defeat the end-boss, becoming the hero.

Tachyon

Theme: Time Travel
Genre: Sci-Fi Mystery Adventure
Win Cond: Become satisfied with your knowledge

3D Minimalist Adventure game in which you control a person through a cyberpunk city taking on quests and learning more and more as you go through the game. Work through timelines to piece together the lore. Cope with the pressure of thousands of lifetimes.

Footrope

Theme: Sci-Fi AI Pirate
Genre: 2D Spaceship and Planet Stealth Exploration RogueLike
Win Cond: Taking over the galaxy as a faction
Win Cond Life: Taking Over a solar systems

You play as a pirate in 212x, you deceive cargo ships and war ships, pose as other factions and cause the factions to infight as the player takes over the galaxy by the influence of the player’s pirate network.

Each of these are in a very rough drafts right now and will be close for a fully playable prototypes shortly. If you want early builds of any of these games check out our Discord channel. Please also feel free to give feedback via email, discord or any other way.

So for the Idea Jam what does this mean? Well I am going to continue to polish them up. Enough that it really shows off their core gameplay adjusting that gameplay as I feel is the right path. From my first and latest semimonthly update my current goals are:

  • footrope polished a bit more focusing on some of the movement and deception mechanics of the two ships pre-boarding.
  • I’m looking at how to extend Tachyon’s gameplay by adding replay-ability.

Lastly for the next Idea Jam update we’ll be diving into Kessler and generating procedural content which will be announced in our next semimonthly update.

Thanks,
Michael Brune