INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone! I just want to say thanks a bunch for all the feedback! I feel really happy that people have fun with what I've created in such a short time. This was my first ever game jam, and participating has allowed me to build upon existing skills I had and learn how to improve in the future.

With that out of the way, I'll discuss what went well, what went wrong and how I could improve existing aspects for this project in-future.

THE GOOD

PROGRAMMING

I did almost all the programming for N.O.W.T in the first 24 hours. The movement script was borrowed from one of my other projects, "Mighty's Inferno". However, I added the roll to give the player some more mobility. The various systems that you have to maintain within the game were quite difficult to implement, but I managed to get it to work. 

One thing that I found really fun to implement was rotating rooms. The inclusion of rotating rooms in-game allows for some outside the box thinking and add a slight risk-reward system. For example, the shins can rotate at 45 degree angles, which makes them incredibly easy to climb up afterwards, however difficult to move down.

The personal best time system was a last-minute implementation to give the game some replay value. Through my own playtesting, I found the gameplay loop quite fun in this regard as you have a motive to survive for a longer time. In

ART / SPRITEWORK

I spent most of my time on N.O.W.T here, wanting to make the game look good visually, while also remaining readable on screen with everything else. I personally feel like I succeeded in this regard. The player character contrasts most of the tiles / backgrounds, making him easy to see.

As for the N.O.W.T itself, I personally enjoyed doing the spritework for the outside areas the most. Experiencing how small the player character actually is compared to the N.O.W.T is quite shocking when you first see it. I personally like the forearms, as the contrast between the inside and outside areas really show here with the glass domes. Another area I really like is the torso exterior, as it emphasises the sheer scale of the N.O.W.T and the land it traverses.

One of my personal favourite things was to sprite was the sky. The strong red colour and red lighting really emphasises the barren wasteland that the N.O.W.T must traverse.

MUSIC / SOUND DESIGN

Most ambient sound effects I used were ripped from YouTube. Such as the running machinery sound in the head, the sound of rotating gears in the spine and the harsh wind sounds in exterior sections. All gameplay sound effects were made using the 8-bit sound maker, https://sfxr.me.

The ambient music that plays throughout the game, "Ouroboros", was something I made in ~30 minutes. A lot of the sounds were specifically picked to add atmosphere to the ingame world. I personally liked the implementation of sirens in the song, as it reflects the wasteland aspect of the ingame world. The harsh, incosistent sounds of machinery also reflect the unpredictable nature of the N.O.W.T; the limbs randomly rotate and any system can go down at any time. You can listen to the track in-full here: https://luciphosphorus.bandcamp.com/track/ouroboros.

THE BAD

BUGS

Unfortunately, the game was published with a few bugs that can make the experience less fun overall. This was mainly due to not having much time to polish the game due to having work on the weekend.

While these bugs are mainly minor inconveniences, I would've liked to have delivered more of a fresh, polished experience.

PROGRAMMING

A lot of the code I made for N.O.W.T is quite scuffed. It's quite unreadable to be honest. Again, this was a fault of my own. I tried getting most of the programming done first-thing so I could work on the aesthetics of the game more. While this payed off somewhat, I'd still love to go back and improve some of the code.

SCRAPPED FEATURES

Originally, there was going to be a lot more use for the roll rather than just traversal. You would've been able to use it to squeeze through small gaps throughout the map. While this feature is implemented in some areas, it's not used enough to make the roll feel as important as I wanted it to be.

There were a lot of areas in the map that didn't make the cut. For example, in the hand cannon, you would've been able to climb a ladder to the top of it and run along the top of the left arm. Originally, the torso was going to be 3 sections. The chest, the torso and waist. Due to time contraints however, I wasn't able to implement these. This is why the neck simply became the "spine" and the heating system displays that it is located in the "chest" rather than the "torso".

Another feature I was planning on adding was vents. They would've been a way to move around the N.O.W.T much quicker. However, I didn't have time to implement them. Even now however, I feel that they wouldn't have worked ingame, as they would make it much easier than it needs to be and kind of ruins the unpredictable nature of the N.O.W.T.

ITCH.IO PAGE

The page art was made post-jam and was quite rushed. Mainly just because I couldn't have a blank page for my game and wanted it to stand out somewhat. However, I'm working on a new version of the cover art / banner of the itch.io page. Here it is!

FINAL VERDICT

To conclude, I would like to say I had a great time working on this project for the GMTK 2024 Game Jam! It was really fun to challenge myself and try create something on-par with my other past works! I'm also happy that I got to meet so many new people with equal interests for game development. I again cannot thank you all enough for your support and feedback, you're truly the best! <3

I'm currently working on an update for this project that aims to fix bugs and add more to the game. I'd like to implement more of the ideas I didn't manage to add previously, alongside give the game more replay value. Keep your eyes peeled.

- Tommy "nameht" Roberts