GMTK26 Game Jam: Counting Sheep

In July, I entered the GMTK26 Game Jam with a couple of friends as a fun. Our goal wasn't to finish making a game, it was to have fun. And if we ended up making a game in the process then that was the cherry on top. For those who don't know what a game jam is, it’s an event where you need to build a videogame in a short amount of time which usually needs to meet the specified theme.

The theme of this game jam was “Count Down” and with that prompt, we produced the global sensation that is Counting Sheep within the 4 day deadline. You can play it here on itch.io!

We had a really fun working vibe and that definitely reflected in how goofy and unserious the game turned out. Almost all of the artwork was custom made for the game and definitely meets the derpy aesthetic we aimed for. We had many more ideas that we loved but we didn't have time to add them the game.

We chose to build using the Godot game engine, since we all have some familiarity with it. We also chose to use a tool called Backstitch, which automatically synchronised code in real time without any merge conflicts. This made our lives significantly easier when it came to sharing and updating files, since we all worked remotely.

It was really great to step away from my commercial project and think about architecture, level design and player retention for a brand new project with a maximum playtime of 20 minutes. I even learned a couple of things by intentionally writing the quick and dirty solution that doesn’t scale. I am deeply ashamed of the code I wrote for this project. That being said, good code is code that ships!