As One
Brackey’s Game Jam
The As One game was developed for a Brackey’s Game Jam, a week-long jam in 2022. The theme given was “You’re Not Alone” - I took this inspiration to create a puzzle game where you control two game characters (“blobs”, as I refer to them) and need to get them to their respective goal squares.
The most difficult element of the game to create were the randomized boards, effectively guaranteeing that you won’t receive duplicate boards at any point. To do so, each board was generated and a number of blockers between 3-7 was randomly chosen and placed. Then, each blob would receive a starting square. The game would then iterate up to hundreds of jumps for each, declaring the square they ended on as the goal square. It would validate the puzzle and repeat the process if needed. The player would then be presented with the puzzle as shown on the right.
The game featured a basic save system, allowing for the high score to be saved across sessions. I created a button for a reset to the starting positions, as well as a skip button in case an unsolvable board slipped through.
The music was not my own, but found open source. The art and code were all done personally.
Updates
Following the game jam, I implemented feedback and otherwise improved the game. I updated the art, changing the color of the boards to match the opposite blob’s color. Upon both reaching the goal, the boards would both switch to the color of their two mixed. I also implemented an endless mode and an options menu for adjusting the sound effects, as well as a stats screen.
Following these adjustments and other implementations (such as a swipe function), I prepared and published the game to the Google Play store. While it only received a few downloads, it was great practice to go through the entire publishing process successfully. This updated version is available for Windows download on my itch.io page.
