Just another Day
Race against the clock in this co-operative tree sawing game
made over the course of 3 days for Brains Eden 2017 with:
Thomas Russell,
Bethany Miller,
James Owen,
and Harris Cutting
For this project I was the Game Designer, and Programmer. Since our team consisted mostly of 2D artists, We decided to use GameMaker: Studio.
2 players must work as a team to input the correct button combinations in order to saw down as many trees as they can within the time-limit.
I implemented a similar scoring system for this game as I'd done for 'Too Many Windows'; a previous Ludum Dare entry. As the player cuts down trees, a tree counter increases but so does their timer. The real trick to this system though is the timer gets 2x as much time back when the player is below 5 seconds. This keeps the players on their toes as they're constantly keeping the timer just above a loss, but not too much.
Due to issues getting set up on the first day, time was particularly tight on this game jam. I was already experienced with game jams so I suggested we keep the scope small and centered around a core gameplay loop. I feel we got good polish on the final game but the core loop could have been refined further. More button combinations, a combo system (multiple saws in quick succession), and more precise timing requirements for inputs, all would have made this a more addictive and enjoyable game.