Objective: create a playable game

I have started other jams before, but I can't say that I have had a playable game by the end of it, and I am glad to report that so far it seems like I'm on my path.

I am starting this devlog halfway through the jam because only now am I able to commit the time to develop Walk the Shadow. Another aspect of it is that I really didn't know what I wanted to make.

The Horror of Pixel Art (Not really)

I gravitated towards pixel art since I have been participating in Blocktober and am familiarizing myself with Aseprite. I went with a 5 color palette (GameBoy, excepting the black) to limit the amount of thought I had to put into color when creating assets. I like the result of my initial creations so far, as I think it goes a long way in setting the mood for a horror-themed game.

Despite setting the mood, I have to face the challenge of creating horror with pixels... a challenge because this kind of art lends itself to crisp and easily understandable images, which isn't exactly what you want in a horror game. To address this, I chose to introduce a game jam sized story plot: your shadow has been stolen, and you need to confront the shadow beings that took it from you. It's not much, but it fits the theme, and it gave me more direction to work with. In a game jam, having direction and tools to keep you on track is essential.

The Game Jam Process

In summary, up until yesterday I had only had time to make art assets for a game while I didn't even know what mechanic would drive the game play. Then I went to Trello, drafted a quick story, and jotted down the things I needed done despite the gameplay: the menu and UI, more art assets, player controls, enemy behavior, etc.

At the end of this exercise I decided to go ahead with the idea of using your candle as your main tool that I had thought of briefly when doing some pre-jam brainstorming.

Today, I managed to get the enemy movement mostly in place, which you can see in the video (I will try to get better, less choppy footage later). The shadow enemies can rotate to face you, then charge at you after a short preparation time. Now, I will work on the gameplay mechanic and make another entry about that tonight.

Happy Jamming!