The second day of the Game Jam is done.

Today I had to work so didn’t get to spend much time on my game but I think I have a better idea for what I want to make!

The inspiration came from browsing The Met’s Open Access Initiative, trying to find historic art styles I could pull from:

Source: The Met Open Access Initiative 1 and 2

These historic paintings from India remind me of Illuminated Manuscripts - books that were created with intricate painted scenes and illustrations to help explain what the text was about, as many who lived at the time illuminated manuscripts were being made couldn’t read.

I’ve decided on a story about a woman who wakes up in an abandoned temple and sees a demon on the top of a mountain in the distance. The demon is covering the world in darkness and the woman’s task is to make her way to the mountain to fight the demon. As she travels towards the demons, she encounters people and brings hope to them by doing good deeds, being the ‘Beacon in the Dark’ to fit the theme of the Game Jam. 

The hybrid gameplay I decided on yesterday works well with this premise. Each day she pulls a card which changes what she encounters on that day. If she finds an enemy or wants to help someone she meets on the way, she can roll dice and it decides if she fails, succeeds, but with some negative outcomes, or is a complete success.

A new gameplay mechanic I’m considering is having you roll for skills at the start of the game, and can use points to complete actions. For example, you rolled a 4 at the start of the game to see how much strength you have. You find a sheer cliff and use 1 of those points to climb it, which saves you time and potentially dodging a nasty encounter on the main path up the mountain… but you might not have enough strength to fight the demon now! This mechanic might make players pause and think twice about helping someone in case it harms them later. I’ve parked this idea for now but will see when I write if it fits.

I’ve started work on an outline: jotting down scenes, encounters or potential actions at locations. This will allow me to create a to-do list for when I write… which I’ll start tomorrow! The plan is to write the story over the next couple days, spend the end of the week working on the design, the weekend drawing, and then pulling everything together on the last day of the Game Jam. If I have extra time, I’ll add more drawings, implement the random card/dice system for those who don’t have the physical items needed to play, and write as many more scenes as I can.

So far, so good!