Hi! For this jam, I'm making a game called Sun Jelly. It's a 2D, endless, zen-type game about a jellyfish that controls the weather. You collect weather elements to complete requests and make people on Earth happy.

So, here's what I have so far (graphics are very temporary):

The jellyfish follows your mouse.

Clicking the mouse gives you a temporary speed boost.

Colliding with an element destroys it. The weird collision is due to the graphics, I'll fix it soon.

More to come later! I'll have some actual graphics then.

Not too much more to share. I added some placeholder graphics, and the jellyfish rotates toward your mouse.

Elements are randomized. Some appear more often than others -- lightning is uncommon.
Rarer elements have special effects. Lightning will give you a speed boost, although it's not implemented yet.

Here's another element -- sun! The weather starts as sunny, and collecting elements gradually changes it.

Mostly worked on camera stuff and elements today. Lightning elements now give you a speed boost, and elements despawn when they go offscreen. And I messed up at one point:

Don't worry, it's fixed!

Worked on getting elements to spawn and despawn in random locations, along with making an endless world. Here's some random element spawning in action:

I also zoomed the camera out slightly and increased the jellyfish's speed.

Mostly worked on finishing things from yesterday. Nothing too interesting, so here's a fast jelly for you:

Ignore the weird spawning, it's still a work in progress.

If all goes as planned, I should be able to show some actual weather-changing soon. Fingers crossed!

Spawning is finished! Here's an example of the new and improved spawning (now with 100% less spawning on top of the player)

I worked on weather-changing too, and I'll be able to show it tomorrow. Once that's finished, the only things left are weather requests and the happiness meter. The game should be (mechanically) complete soon!

Kind of a late update tonight, sorry! I have some good stuff, though:

Weather changing is complete! I didn't show it here, but combining elements creates new weather too -- collecting rain and snow will make sleet, for example.

If you leave the weather the same for too long, bad things happen! Here, a rain shower causes a flood. When the weather changes like this, the current request will be replaced with a request to end the extreme weather.

Tonight's update: happiness is working, along with weather requests!

Here's an example of weather requests and the happiness meter. The requests change as you complete them.

When the weather becomes extreme, your current request is replaced and the happiness meter decreases faster.

Sun Jelly is mechanically complete! Aside from some final tweaks to spawning and happiness, all that's left is to make the game pretty. Assuming the tweaks don't take too long, I'll be able to show some artwork tomorrow!

Very late update today, sorry! Some things happened, so I couldn't work on Sun Jelly much. I did manage to finish the background:

I decided to use a watercolor, pastel style for the game. The background will be zoomed in and tiled to match the endless world. I should have more to show tomorrow!

Another late update, sorry! Here's the jellyfish:

I haven't had much time the last couple of days, but I should be able to work on Sun Jelly more tomorrow.

Still working on graphics. Here's a rough animation for the jelly:

The jelly animation is done! Elements are coming tomorrow.

Element images are done!

The game will be up sometime later today! I just need to make a few small fixes.

Sun Jelly is done! I had a lot of fun making it, so I hope you enjoy!