This mini jam's theme is kaiju, the Japanese movie and video game genre that features giant monsters like Godzilla and King Kong. The limitation is: Death isn't the end.
"This is a more subjective limitation and as such, you may interpret it however you like. Perhaps you keep a part of yourself with every death. Maybe even forgo death itself. The possibilities are endless! Just try something beyond respawning the player when they die." - mini jam 81 page
The game jam begins on Thursday, May 27th, 2021, at 9:00PM PDT and we'll be submitting our game when the jam closes at the same time on Sunday, May 30th, 2021.
Team members: Eli Cheung, Derya Gumustel
Find out more here: https://itch.io/jam/mini-jam-81-kaiju
Play as a baby kaiju in a toy city, knocking over a toy city built jenga-style with wooden blocks to get points! Probably third person, but could also be first person. This game is our first choice.
The goal of the game will be to control the baby kaiju (imagine a chibi Godzilla) and earn points by knocking over blocks - try to earn as many points as you can before the timer runs out!
We'll want to make the city large enough that the player can't destroy everything before the timer runs out, because that'd be boring. Once we have a city design we can just duplicate and mix and match sections of it around the boarder to make the map larger. That way, each playthrough would also feel more unique because players could take different paths through the city
Potential titles: “Baby’s First City” or “My First Metropolis”.
Main toy city features:
- Everything has wooden block texture/material applied to it
- Add little toy human figures
- Toy train
- Books as building walls
- Plane hanging on a string from the ceiling
- Toy boots
- Baby bottle, globe, hula girl lamp from Lilo & Stitch
- Cute carpeting for play city
- Public park
- Fish bowl with toy fish and boat and rubber ducky
- Board game
- Golf balls
- Ketchup packets
- Toilet paper and paper towel tubes
- Partially played Jenga tower
- Ball on ramp or rails that you can push down to knock things over, sort of like bowling
- Toy rocket that launches when character steps on launch pad
Player controls:
- WASD and arrow keys to move
- Space bar or other buttons to push things
Point system:
- Have a timer going, goal is to get the most points possible before the timer runs out
- Points could be dollars in damage but because it’s a child it could be pennies, adorable
- Points for total misplaced blocks
- Bonus points for certain things: train, knocking over blocks with other blocks
- Planes or other airborne objects
Audio:
- Record “pew pew pew” sound effects
- Sound for points gained
- Sound for bonus points gained
- Sound for blocks knocking into each other?
Mechanics details:
- Use flags to keep track of what displaced a block - if it’s the player, get some points, if it’s another block, get more points
Stretch goals:
- Give the baby powerups like lasers (fall down asleep afterwards)
- Make level 2! Could be the desk of the evil scientist who made you, and his evil plans are strewn about - spill his cup of coffee on them! Could also have a view of an experiment room where they’re keeping the grown up kaifu and you could press buttons to open the doors or feed it, make things choatic!
- Add hats! Could make it so that players unlock new hats with each playthrough to keep them playing longer.
Things to learn before game jam starts:
- 3D modeling and rigging - specifically want leg and arm movement and a push animation
- Audio - create and add to Unity
- Dust cloud animations for contact
We also made a basic design for a Galaga-style bullet hell where the player controls some kind of ship and fights against a kaiju version of the GitHub Octocat!