TriJam

I found myself with a bit of free time over the weekend, and decided to join TriJam - A 3-hour Game Jam!

Trijam is a weekly game jam where your goal is to make something playable (and fun!) in just 3 hours, and our history shows that it’s more than just possible! Here’s a short video explaining how it works if you don’t feel like reading the page.

Theme: Let's Build A Machine

Ideation

I'd been toying around with three.js, but hadn't created anything playable yet. Maybe this was a good opportunity to force me to complete something. I wanted to build all of the 3D models myself, and not use AI tools to generate the code or artworks.

My initial notes were

The player builds a Machine/Monster, like Frankenstien's monster.

Replayability & fun factor is improved by having multiple choices for each part

Initially, I'll just focus on 2 parts

• Head
• Legs

But I can extend this later if I have time.

If time permits, I'd like to try to capture motion from video using deepmotion

The modelling will be rough to fit in the time window. I might go with a sculpted style ( The Neverhood is a cool style, but I can't compare)

For audio, I don't think it will be a strong point. I'll probably focus on it last

Progress

I didn't do all of this in one go. I spread the 3 hours over 6 different stages. The rules are fine with this, which gives me time to pause and think between stages

Stage 1

Midday Saturday started with some 2d modelling, for both the scene and the character.

Stage 2

Later in the afternoon I worked on the project setup, and getting those models loading into the game with a basic camera and player movement.

Stage 3

I added a basic HUD, and game items.

Stage 4

Sunday morning I added basic colour textures, and you can pick up items with E. I also added screen-space ambient occlusion, to help with understanding depth given the very simple textures.

Stage 5

You can drop off those items at the table where the monster is supposed to be.

Stage 6

I modelled and animated the monster. When you drop off an item like the lettuce, the exhumed head or the fish head, it appears on the monster

Submission

Now I hadn't reached the full scope of what I planned. You could only replace the head components of the monster, there was very little relationship to the "machine" theme (I was going to add more machine-like elements for the head).

I also wanted the sky to be more spooky, and to fill out the ground in better detail, rather than looking like platforms floating in the sky. I dind't even get time to animate the player walking.

I sumbitted what I had and left it as is for the duration of the voting period.

Rating others

I played and rated

• The Nuclear Engineer, by antijudecorp
• DRILL DIVER by Pongo
• A Moment of Truth by hyperdoxical
• 2DPrinter by AdvancerMan and Nick_Lavr
• Defusineer by Winnie
• Build That Snake Machine by CokegamingStudios
• Shape Machine by Vmpwje
• Lozo-The PC builder by samarsubhash

It was great to see what people could build in such a small period of time, and their interpretation of the theme. There were a surprising range of game types. In total 21 entries were submitted, and there were 134 ratings.

My Results

My Submission Page

(Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.)

I think those scores are totally fair for an incomplete solo game, also given that I was learning a lot along the way. I enjoyed the rush of getting something out the door, and might try it again when I have a few moments.

Post Submission

If you go to the game page now you'll see a few significant changes. I intend to tinker with this one until I get bored of it. It's currently unlisted in the search of itch.io since it is incomplete.

So far I've implemented

• A new map, without floating floor platforms
• Shadows and fog
• Dynamic camera movement, based on the area the player is in
• Building exteriors disappear when inside
• A better player model, and a player walk animation
• When holding an item, its in the players hand, animated as they walk