Grendel is Vanquished

• Submission for Godot Wild Jam with the theme 'Folklore'

My aim was to adapt a section of the epic poem Beowulf, which I had just read and really loved. I felt that the moment where Grendel is dismembered by Beowulf and flees into the marshes to die alone was really evocative, and so I tried to capture that experience from Grendel's perspective.

I wanted it to be visually appealing and evocative through bold use of colour and texture, a symbolic version of the world, and a stylised depiction of Grendel himself, all assisted by interesting camera framing. Onto this, I added narration of the section of poetry the game covers, and created a simple game mechanic of simply frantically running through this world until Grendel slows and collapses.

I think there is room for improvement in this game jam project, but I am happy with the evocative and simple experience I created here.

SFC-42: "The Seance Machine"

• Personal challenge to make a game within a week. The theme is 'Ritual'

SFC-42 is about receiving a message from the afterlife using a fictional 'new machine' that allows people to do so. Ultimately the game is about juggling two priorities at once. Firstly you have to adjust the 'sensors' to receive the message line by line, and secondly, you have to actually read the lines that appear. The sensors require you to keep adjusting, and the lines disappear before too long, which adds pressure to the experience. The message itself is a poem I wrote from the perspective of someone in the afterlife, and the sensor mechanic is essentially having to follow a moving point by adjusting an X and Y axis and only knowing roughly how far away each axis is from the point.

The final result of SFC-42 is an atmospheric little experience with an engaging mechanic and story. I think the theming of this one works particularly well to elevate the game's experience, and I'm especially proud of this game as one made in a week, as I think there's little I would change.

Odd One Out

• Personal challenge to make a game within a week. The theme is 'Find & Click'

During this weekly challenge, I almost ran out of time and created this game in a single day. It focuses on a simple, arcade-like mechanic of repeatedly difficult levels, where you aim to get a highscore. The game presents a grid of identical icons that are all altered in terms of scale, rotation, and colour, but in a recognisable pattern. One of the icons diverges from this pattern, with decreasing severity throughout the game, and players have to find and select this diverging icon.
Ultimately, this game is even more rushed than a lot of the others, but I am very happy with the main mechanic. It could use some tweaks, but at its core it is an enjoyable and slightly addicting gameplay loop, as you try to out-do your highscore, or those of your friends.

The Flood of Memories

• Personal challenge to make a game within a week. The theme is 'Ten Seconds or Less'

This game was directly inspired by 'The Secret Miracle' by Jorge Luis Borges, and aims to create the experience of exploring the brief memories the flash by in the moment before death. It uses a simple system of nodes with writing in them, and allowing exploration between nodes, so you can find more of these snippets, all under a time limit. This creates a sense of pressure - trying to read quickly while also trying to maintain comprehension so you can get as much of the writing as possible.
I think it was an evocative idea, and I am particularly proud of the writing of the individual snippets.

Identity

• Submission for Ukie game jam with theme 'Diversity and Inclusivity'

We designed this game together, with myself handling the programming and technical aspects of the game. Our aim was to create a short, meditative experience about how every person is unique. The main method for this was prompting the player with personal questions, then using a shader to fill a blank 'person' with those words. The final result is a person made up of many different words that define their unique identity, before the arrive at an area with other people who each have their own makeup of words.

The inclusion of art and music made by my group members results in a short experience that I think lives up to its meditative and introspective goals, with a real focus on making players think about the uniqueness of different people.