Game-Preserves: Philosophical Flavour

This is the last in the series (so far) on games jams I've been to; The most recent being The Global Games Jam 2014.

I took part in the global games jam at UCS. This time I enlisted the help of Rob, who I know, but haven't worked with much. It was an unusual games jam, but I enjoyed it all the same. The games jam started at around 5-6 on the Friday; we set ourselves up, had a few talks and talked with others. Shortly after we got given the theme, which was one of the many unusual parts of the games jam;

'We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are'

The quote as I later found out later is from an american author called Anaïs Nin. I know many people were completely thrown by the theme because usually people taking part are given a one-word theme like "mountains" or "heartbeat" to work from. I'm not sure what the thought process behind it was, but from what i saw there were several reactions;

• People not being able to make head not tail of it.
• People severely limiting their time and options by trying to come up with an idea which fit the quote entirely, or near entirely.
• People taking key parts from one or another part of the quote.

I think the great thing about the single word themes means everybody can understand and interpret it, and people can interpret it in MANY different ways, and some of the great things in a games jam is listening to somebody justify their reasoning for a game idea which you can't fathom fits with a single word theme. Just imagine having the word "set" as a theme; there are nearly 400 definitions of set.

Anyway, The quote led to most people coming up with something which encapsulates the first part of the quote; "things not being as they seem", Perspective, views, illusions and other such things. We came up with many ideas, some which were very close to the theme, and some which were completely random; the first one we took a liking to was what I can only describe as a "painted room illusion" and show a picture of an example;

The idea was finding clues by looking at designs from a certain view (which reveals them). We came up with lots of settings to use such a mechanic, I liked an art gallery setting for instance, like an inspector or spy game sort of thing, but we chose an alternate theme of graveyard/exorcist type thing instead. We got quite a bit done with the game, and we sort-of got it working, but one of the main problems we just couldn't solve was that the projectors (which we were using to project the images) did not stop after they had projected onto one surface, they went straight through everything, which meant the map was just a mess of lines which had leaked through form other places. technically we could have designed it so that the designs were straight on the geometry, but it would mean we had no leeway for changes and it would take forever to line up in 3DS max. (If anyone actually has a Unity 3D projector script/shader which is blocked by geometry, let me know!)
Anyway, because our time was limited we decided to scrap the idea, and try another (this was at 5 AM on the Sunday). Our second idea was a branch of our original idea which we didn't previously take which was using lens type things to change what you can see. It was an idea originating from many sources, but it instantly reminded me of the eyepiece in the Spiderwick chronicles, or the goggles in the movie Epic.

The concept was to have lenses which only showed items or objects of that colour, so in order to "see things as they actually were", you had to switch between the lenses of the goggles. Because of the lack of time, we came up with a simple platform game demonstrating the concept, with different coloured platforms which different lenses, if you weren't wearing the lens of the right colour, you couldn't see the platform. The mechanic by itself was simple, but the ideas  and possibilities that arose from it were huge

• If you didn't have a "any colour" tile in the middle of two platforms, you had to switch colour in mid-air to stop yourself falling to your death when you switch lenses, which was a mechanic in itself.
• If you had different colour platforms next to each-other, you have to remember the colour order so you can switch to the right colour (because you can't switch to check or you will fall)
• You would be feasible do lens combinations, e.g. a blue and red lens could allow purple to be seen
• Possible to create a new era of maze games, platform games or escape/collect/explore puzzles.
• We had the lenses on a Rotary arm, instead of button for each colour, this meant you could judge which colours were next and the order, so you could switch to them by memory and pattern.

The game still in its state of when we deemed it as playable can be found HERE

The global games jam at UCS was a very strange experience, It wasn't for most people I assume, but here are just a few reasons it was unusual;

• It was a bit like a camping trip, where you make games; I had sleeping bag and everything (I think I was one of the few who didn't live in or around Ipswich, so most people just went home every night instead of staying)
• My parents came; there was an open evening on the Saturday, which meant my parents just showed up, and after not sleeping for a whole weekend I'm not sure what they thought. I still don't think they completely understand games though.
• My team-mate had a job, in a pub, so he had to work from 6 pm to 12 midnight on two of the days we were there; I didn't mind, as we still managed to contact and develop the games, it was just.. different.
• I spent a lot of the time (especially when my team-mate was at work) going around helping others code or solve problems in their games; People would usually say that I would have better spent my time working on my own game, but I find solving other people's problems usually means you are prepared for your own when they arise, and.... I was being helpful.
• Just after 5AM on the Sunday after what must have been nearly 50 hours of not sleeping, My body gave up... I don't mean I just dropped instantly to sleep; something more scary happened... and it was very hard to explain. Basically I sat in my chair for around 45 minutes, awake... but feeling like nothing was real. I wasn't particularly aware of my surroundings, and everything was a bit like being underwater. I'm pretty sure living off the huge amount of snacks provided hadn't helped. After then i took a nap every 30 mins or so underneath the desk, just to rest... though by that time I'm pretty sure it was a bit late.

And so that concludes my games jams so far; A set of fun but sleepless events with new experiences, learning and of course, games design.