Hey there!
We're a bunch of french people making games together sometimes! We believe in collective game design, innovative concepts and having fun while making games. We're also very lazy and created a sort of methodology for making the best games we can in limited time spans without crunch. We always spend a lot of time talking about the game we want to make, and then make prototypes we test A LOT.
Some of us aren't available during the work days, so we set up a schedule allowing everyone's involvement and collectively make decisions during 90 minutes-discord meetings in the evening. We keep meeting reports and production debriefs updated so that anyone can join the process while not having followed some sessions.
This is our planning for the month:
It's the end of the first week, so we figured it's about time for a first Devlog!
NOV 1 - JAM LAUNCH - 90 min
We discussed the changes we wanted to make in this jam's methodology.
- It was decided that this jam would be entirely online and that we wouldn't have to physically meet.
- Enabling asynchronous work during the production time was defined as a priority, we'll set up tools to allow that.
- Everyone present defined and shared their personal goals in participating in this jam.
- We decided to take the Game Off Jam's theme "BUG" and join both jams.
NOV 2 - GD #1 - 90 min
The purpose of this meeting was to explore the theme philosophically:
- We spent the entire meeting freely talking about the theme ("BUG"), what topics were linked to it and what we thought were interesting directions-to-explore. We shared ideas, opinions and references in order to constitute a shared vision of the theme.
NOV 4 - GD #2 - 90 min
The purpose of this meeting was to find innovative, cool game ideas together:
- We created questions-to-be-answered-with-ideas based on our directions-to-explore, selected the best ones and then exchanged game concept ideas through a brain-storming-like process. We took note of the ones that echoed us most.
NOV 5 - GD #3 - Entire Day
The purpose of this day was to choose the game concept for this jam:
- We continued co-designing game ideas.
- We voted repeatedly for the ideas we preferred / were most innovative, until only two remained.
- We started exploring what game would come out of the two concepts remaining, and then chose one! The concept of the game: The game wants to die. As a player you will have to gradually unplug every system of it: art, graphics, physics, A.I, sound, etc.. until you remove its game loop.
- We continued exploring what we wanted the game to be, and defined some aspects of it but couldn't reach an consensus on everything: global scenario, ending, CCC, etc.
NOV 7 - GD #4 - 90 min
The purpose of this meeting was to agree on the game concept and prepare the production effort of the following days:
- We defined everything we need to begin the development of the game.
- The game will be a side-scroller with the avatar in the center of the screen, the game will start as a sort of escape game until its environment and behavior begin to change due to the player achieving goals. Some other points (camera, graphics) will be decided at the beginning of development.
- The game loop will look like : knowing the goal > moving and find clues > getting to the goal > interact / unplug a system > the world changes, allowing one to see the next goal.
- We exchanged our respective availability for the following days in order to set meeting timings.