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The Theme
Before the theme was even announced I came up with my game name. Recent world events had spawned a meme “The Mother of …”. So I thought it might be fun to have that as a game name.
I have a habit of attempting overly ambitious games for LD, so I guessed it would be quite appropriate for my LD game, no matter what I made (or failed to make) Image may be NSFW.
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As usual, I stayed awake for theme announcement, but I went to sleep soon after. In the morning I joined IRC and discussed the theme (and game name) with friends, and the idea which quickly emerged was a literal “Mother” who lives on a “Small World”, who has “All of the games”. That reminded me of mini games, and the famous C64 title “Lazy Jones”.
Because of my participation in One Hour Game Jam, I have good experience churning out mini games in a short space of time, so I had no fear making several such games for a 48/72 hour LD Jam.
So everything seemed to fall in place quickly this time: The design was well formed, it fit my skills and experience, and made use of the game name I was dying to use!
Saturday
I usually start LD by drawing graphics. And this LD was no exception. I began making a (shared) tile set that I could use in the mini games, and searching the web for inspiration for what the overworld would look like.
Day one was mostly directed at making the overworld, this small planet which would link to the mini games. This was completed on Saturday, along with all the game music and several sound effects.
Sunday
When I woke up on Sunday I realised I’d probably need the 72 hour Jam to finish. I began by coding the transition between overworld and minigame. Then started designing the mini games: deciding on their (common 20×20) size, the types of games I would have, and drafting out the levels for them all (as 20×20 bitmaps where each pixel is a tile).
In the latter half of the day I began writing the shared code for the minigames, and sucessfully completed 1 mini game with that code, which played correctly, and linked in/out of the overworld correctly.
Monday
Progress seemed slow, but I anticipated that adding more games would be faster, because of the shared code. While the progress continued at a relatively slow pace, it accelerated through day three, with the latter half of the mini games being added in the space of 3 hours!
Towards the end of the day I tweaked some of the level designs, because some seemed far too difficult, while others looked a bit untidy. In hindsight the levels feel too easy now, but I think they are enjoyable enough Image may be NSFW.
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I attempted adding particle effects, but I didn’t really have time to perfect their appearance, so I ultimately decided to remove them.
And that was my LD weekend. Image may be NSFW.
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