Thanks for hosting this jam! I'll try to start things off...
What do you want to make?
I am going to make a simple digital toy/game that allows you to ponder an orb. I intend to call it “Orb Pondering Simulator.”
What text (i.e., any media, fiction or not) that you want to draw from?
Two sources provided the inspiration for this project:
- Kenta Cho’s Paku Paku, which has been dubbed “1D Pac-Man.” I appreciate that this probes the absolute minimum of what's required to constitute a “game” – and it’s staggering how little it uses in the way of space, inputs, enemies, and objectives.
- Bennett Foddy’s “Eleven Flavors of Frustration,” specifically this remark: “A game that is completely devoid of frustration is likely to be a game without friction, without disobedience. Games that are perfectly obedient are mere software.” I agree with the sentiment, but I found it interesting how it presupposes that the source of friction should come from within the game. It had me wondering whether friction from outside the game could be a viable source, and set me to thinking that the presumption of playability, when foiled, could perhaps provide that friction. For example, what happens when a game has no need of you – not because it plays itself (cf. beanborg’s Endless Marble Racing), but because it does not necessarily allow itself to be engaged with like a game?
I am also motivated by a series of hermeneutics-related questions that are liable to become their own essay, and I hesitate to try articulating them here for fear of never finishing this post.
What mediums or tools you want to use and why?
I’ll be using PICO-8. It helps keep the scope of the project small, and I find its flavor of Lua a much more comfortable programming language than, say, Python or C.
Why are you scared of participating?
I am a latecomer to coding and game design, and am largely bad at them. Coding is also foreign territory for me in general. I never formally studied programming or computer science, my day job does not involve anything comparable to coding, and I have no friends who code. I’ve never really felt like part of the indie dev community, and I fully expect to embarrass myself.