JamToday Sevilla 2019 - Awarded "Best Game"

Game jams are a extremely fun way to learn how to deliver MVPs in a very short timeframe, while also learning to work as a team. This was an amazing experience for me, not only because the end result was very polished, but also because I had the chance to meet and get to work with new people, as well as face a whole new set of challenges.

The jam theme revolved around environmental awareness, more specifically about the huge amount of waste that ends up in our oceans. The idea was to make a game around this premise, while also being simple enough to be played by anyone.

What is the game about?

The game takes inspiration from "Papers, Please". The player is a customs officer in the ocean, and has to check if the different fish characters are legally allowed to enter the region.

The fish might be trying to smuggle plastic inside their bodies, so the player is given an X-ray magnifier to analyze them. However, the rules get progressively more complicated, with rules such as the following:

• Deny anyone coming from the Red Sea.
• If the fish has red plastic inside them and is wearing a black hat, let them pass.
• Otherwise, deny entry to fish having plastic inside them.

The player gets a point every time they either approve or deny a fish, but get a penalty if their veredict is wrong.

Technologies used

We were two programmers in the team, and we used Unity as our game engine. The other three members used Aseprite to design sprites and other artwork.

We ran into different challenges because of the tight time constraints, so we came up with interesting solutions such as dynamic character generation, or dynamic rules, to make the game more replayable without feeling dull. Thanks to the artists, we also had a lot of designs at our disposal to make the characters less repetitive.

Lastly, I also took on the responsibility of composing the game soundtrack and sound effects.

Made possible by an amazing team

• Ignacio Villalta (art and game design)
• Pablo León (programming)
• Paz Sánchez (art)
• Pablo Moreno (art)
• Nicolás de Ory (programming)

Bottom line

We were extremely thrilled to be awarded "Best game" out of the other teams, but the best memory was definitely getting to meet a ton of people coming from different backgrounds, not just programming.