Game Jam: Lights Out

About This Project

This Game Jam involved the creation of a game of any genre, over a 4-day timeframe, centered around the theme of 'Count Down'. I was the sole developer of this game, as I wanted to test myself on how far I could get as a solo developer. As such, most of my game assets, both models, textures and sounds, were pulled from free online sources.

In terms of gameplay, I was inspired from Star Wars: Empire at War and Plague Inc, where players must use their single ship to travel between planets, gathering food, materials and, most importantly, passangers, all the while a timer is ticking down until the sun at the centre of the system explodes. Food is meant to keep the current passengers passive and happy, as low food will result in passengers dying after a certain time. Materials are used to help upgrade the ship, e.g. larger cabins for more passengers, faster gathering for food, materials and passengers, stronger weapons for potential enemy ships (which I sadly did not get around to implement in time), etc. As the timer counts down, planets will begin panicking, which will prevent the ship from collecting passengers. To manage this, players can send in either soldiers or mediators to quell the panic, both with their pros and cons. As the timer counts down, its colour will change to indicate the time before detenation.

As the sole developer, I expected that my game wouldn't rank very high on during scoring. During said review, the main issue was how I handled the UI, which the reviewers found overwhelming. That said, those who played my game did enjoy it, depite its falws and nitpicks.