ThatSnail

4 Hour Jam

Jam #5 Games

Mini-Jam #6.5 Post

Wow, this sounds great!  I'm at the edge of my seat already!  What is this '4 hour jam'?

I'm glad you asked!  The 4 Hour Jam is an informal development get-together where a bunch of people meet up online via IRC to provide feedback and work on projects alongside others.  It's not a competition of any sort, so there's no rules, no restrictions, and no prizes.  Just you and your work.

Imagine it this way: Have you ever seen those game jam hostings where developers tear up a building, playing drums for soundtracks in one corner, splurging on coffee in another?

It's exactly like that.  Except maybe a little less in-person.

So uh, what would we be making exactly?  Games?
No!

I mean, yes!  But it's not limited to games.  Composers, artists, storyboard writers, and anyone with a pulse is welcome to participate.  The idea is to forge connections with fellow developers and just have a good time all around.

Enough of this Q&A bullsh-t!  How do I join!
Connect to #4hourjam on irc.boredicons.com through your favorite IRC client.  Suggested clients are on the info page below.  I'd also appreciate it if you sign up in the Google doc sheet at the top of this post.  None of the fields are mandatory, just nice as an informal head-count and especially useful if you're looking for a team.

[size="5"]What info page?  What are you talking about?
This one here.  The blog will be a running list of everything that's going on.

Happy Halloween, everyone.  Spread the word!

At The Corner of the Earth

Jam Download
Post-Jam Version (30 mins after deadline)
Post-Jam Version (57 mins after deadline)

VIDEOS: Walkthrough | Timelapse





Note: Not sure how much leeway time we're given this jam so the "Post-Jam" might be disqualified, in which case just judge the main link.  The 30 minute one makes the ending scene possible to visit and the 57 minute one includes a gfx folder I had accidentally left out.

PRESS F1.

It isn't immediately obvious why the game is related to disaster; read the storyline below for an explanation.

WALKTHROUGH

Note: Greenland, whiteland, and yellowland are not the actual names for the places but rather their descriptions for the sake of.. descripting.

Talk to the cartographer at the bottom right of greenland.  Press space and he will give you his pencil/paper and you will assist him on his map-drawing quests.

Go to the rock on the right and hit space to be magically teleported (??) to whiteland.  Press space to jump and navigate your way up to the top of the level.  Press space to pick up the caution sign on the way and use A/S to navigate to it in your inventory, then press Z to whack bears with it.  Find the map in the upper right and go up to it until the screen craps out and open your pencil/paper with A/S and Z.  You'll see that the character has drawn it on the page.

(If you want, go to the river and fish with your fishing rod.  You'll need it later).

Navigate your way back down (or be cool, kill yourself, and bug-exploit your way to the bottom).  Press space and revisit the cartographer, who will pay you for your sufferings.  Use the money to go up to the innkeeper at the top of greenland, and pay to sleep in the "inn" (yes, that's a single pillow, shut up).

Go to yellowland and fight off the bears with your caution sign.  You'll notice that the innkeeper is dead and now you get free rides to and from greenland/yellowland!  Make your way to the lower right, down the rocks, and look at the drawings the children made/buy the TNT from the kid.  The first drawing is a map of the yellowland, which you add to your drawing.  The second drawing is that of the child's mother, the innkeeper, who just died.  I hope you're happy.

Use the TNT to blow up the cave and the fence where the bears are.  Try to not get brutally destroyed by the bears.  You don't have to dodge the TNT because it magically doesn't kill you.  Just talk to the farmer and trade in your fish for money, then go back to whiteland for more fish, then go back to farmer for more money, and eventually you'll have enough to pay the guard to step aside and visit the memorial.  Alternatively, just walk around the guard.  Bugs FTW.

After seeing all three memorial posters, go back to whiteland.  On the way you'll notice the cartographer is gone and the globe is cracked.  Going to whiteland will activate the credits scene and the end of the game.

STORYLINE

I'm usually against outright explaining my storylines but this one is so poorly executed that I'll make an exception.

The game is the aftermath of an underground nuclear test gone completely wrong, blowing up the entire core of the Earth, leaving two groups of islands floating in the sky.  All of the characters have incurred a personal loss of some kind: the innkeeper loses her life, the children lose their mother, and the farmer loses his crops.  The cartographer loses his perception of the world, indicated by his disappearance and the shattered globe at the end of the game.  The guard of the memorial dedicated to the post-apocalyptic event is the only person who hasn't lost anything.  At the end of the game, the credits scene shows your character enjoying the only pastime discernable from his position in the game: ice-fishing.  And the follow-up question is, what have you lost?  Eventually, just like everyone else, you will lose everything.  You will lose your fish.

The disaster in question isn't just on the global scope (nuclear suicide) but a personal one as well.

Saga Of the Ugly 2



Downloads:
64Digits
YoYo Games
Game Jolt

Developers:
orange08
BretHudson

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Peer pressure tells me I should include this, so I'm throwing down a super dry overview of this game by category before I move on.

Graphics are generally very simplistic, drawn in a cartoon-ish style signature to orange's previous games.
Story is -- it's actually sort of brilliant. All of the characters are extremely unconventional. I'll be stressing this later.
Gameplay is a simple platformer/adventure genre, with heavy emphasis on the adventure aspect.
Sound is minimal, but that's well and good.

Alright, that's all the obligatory drudgework done. It's short, because that's not at all what I'm writing this review for. Saga Of The Ugly is a very underrated game, and it's not because of any of the reasons above.

Saga Of the Ugly 2 was made by orange and Bret Hudson for the Scary 4 Digits competition. It's a story-driven horror platformer (!) that, despite having a large assortment of characters, maintains a sense of loneliness throughout the game. The parallel follows something similar to an insane asylum.

Intentional or not, these subtleties are truly all over the game. Not even in just the story, but the gameplay as well. The game introduces some strange scenery that acts as docile plant life at the start, but after some time (after you've gotten used to their appearance) they re-establish themselves as active enemies, adding to a sense of fear and surprise when they first start to attack you. Meanwhile, on a more traditional note, the game features boss fights, maze-like exploration, and a small sense of puzzle. But despite the many twists and turns of the rooms, I never found myself "stuck." It's fairly clear how to advance in the game. It also stays interesting throughout, marked by some surprising turns that I can't directly say without ruining them. Bear in mind, they involve running. Fast.

The characters: truly imaginative. This, aside from its extremely detailed approach to conducting fear, is the crux of the game. You're immediately greeted by this monstrosity named Uvulapoz, a truly paranoid bastard that appears out of nowhere and warns you against going forward. He'll pop out of the ceiling throughout the game and make nonsense remarks about a pending threat which he refuses to identify. My personal favorite character, Glueman, has an adhesive tongue. He uses it to glue pieces of your key together. And all the while the game has an odd sort of fright to it, despite being something that's sort of absurd to be afraid of. It's the embodiment of the nervous laugh you give when entering a dark basement, or your attic. And all around it's a game that's not beautiful, not addictive, but simply interesting.

I'd highly suggest you give it a go.

Since I'm a massive jerk who picks on minor and inconsequential things:

This forum is for introductions, chatting about your favorite subject or letting of steam. Basically anything that is not GameMaker related is permitted as long as the Forum Rules are followed, especially the ones that prohibit bad language and posting links to offensive sites or media.

Should be "off."

CURRENT BUGS:
-This level is impossible; hit CTRL to skip it.  Luckily it's a filler and doesn't feature much anyways.
-Some graphics cards seem to have a problem with surfaces and the screen will be all distorted.  Sorry about that.  It's still playable but it'll look weird.
-Press S to go into doors.  Forgot to mention it in the controls.

FIX IT


Screenshot 2 | Screenshot 3

Host-A Download

Controls are in-game.
Layer-based puzzle game.
It's about autism.
Just some things to know.

Made for the GMC Jam here.  The theme was façade.  If you enjoy this game, please vote for it.  But be a good sport and play some of the other games too, because there are some great ones.  Yeah.

Enjoy.

Game Name: Fix It
Category: Puzzle
File Size: 2.40 MB
GM Version: GM8
Vista Compatible: yes
Screen Resolution: 800 x 600
Changes Screen Resolution: no
Mulitplayer: no

EDIT:

PLAYTHROUGH:


Timelapse:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=3A4NsFfAluQ