So, this was the start. The start of something new, something that may be brilliant or something that will be more like a dumpster than a game. This was the start of Project: Zeit. 

Saturday: Brainstorming

Me and my friend wanted to compete in a game jam and what better way to do it then competing in Brackeys Game-jam 4. The theme we got on Saturday was REWIND so the brainstorming phase began. Since this was our first jam we took the easy approach and settled with the obvious answer, TIME. 

We didn´t start programming right away. We brainstormed some ideas. Bullet hell with rewind ability, puzzle game with rewind features, two player fights with rewind things and so on. But we eventually settled with a 2D puzzle game. The idea was that whenever you rewind, a clone gets instantiated that does the exact input done before the rewind. You then need to complete puzzles with the help of your clone. 

Sunday: The start

I woke up and got to work early. I created a system that stored every player input and position from a given time and made a function to rewind back. I made a player controller so that you can move, jump and press keys and such. I also made a little test scene with platforms and some physics materials like balls and boxes. I settled with a Dynamic Rigidbody type of controller so every move was made by applying forces and such. I wanted to use the new Unity Input System for more dynamic button mapping in the future so a lot of time went to learning the new system. 

Monday: Art

While I was testing game features my friend was busy creating art. The main character is a blue slime and the whole atmosphere is a lab. My friend just finished the first set of objects like the player and scene. This made it possible for me to start working on walking, jumping and idling animations. Most of the third day went to animations. I also converted the project to use the Universal Render Pipeline because I was stupid enough to not use it from the start.

Tuesday: Effects

I wanted the rewind to be special so I added a lot of post processing effects. I added a bit of UI, some chromatic filters, vignette and Lens Distortion which led to a retro VHS Rewind effect. It took a lot of time to get right but the result was totally worth it in the end. I also made a menu, some more post processing for the game and the pause menu to emphasize on the retro aspect. 

Wednesday: ...

It didn´t happen much this day. I was busy with living on a boat...

Thursday: Levels

Up until this point the game consisted of a test playground and a menu so I needed to start working on actual game content and the whole of this day was level designing. 

Friday: Finalizing

I received some props like buttons and lamps from my friend so I programmed them and drew a door and some cables to visualize the connections. I also made a moving platform and created two extra levels integrating these features. This was (for me) the last day because of real life work starting the next day so I had to get everything ready for submitting. And that was a lot... 

I drew a quick tutorial in Photoshop so the game wouldn´t be a complete mystery to play, fixed with some sounds like jumping, music and ambiance and search for bugs to fix. I also wrote a quick story about the slime and took some pictures while playing for the submission page. At 2:30 am, I was finally done and submitted the game and went straight to bed because of work starting at 8:00 am. (for your information, I was an actual living Zombie)

This is the first real game jam I´ve competed in and hopefully not the last. Hope you like the game!!

Cheers from a man who loves Curry!

//Fridens liljor...