Created with Michael Angelotti, Amy Rose, and Sharelle Jones
Global Game Jam 2019 was a special event for me. It was my first in person game jam and I had traveled a good distance to meet up with complete strangers to make a game. This was my first major project as the sole developer in Unity and as the sole programmer.
The theme of Global Game Jam 2019 was “What does home mean to you?” Realizing that every member of our group came from completely different backgrounds, we found that we could make an entire game for each of our own interpretations of the theme. We chose to create a narrative driven game about a cat who wanders without a home.
For the duration of the weekend, we worked off a script written by our brilliant writer, Amy. The script told the story of a cat who wandered the street looking for a home. Each time the cat encountered someone, they would express a want and the cat would have to go back and find what they need, briefly gaining affection. Shortly after, the cat would be cast out again and have to move further in search of a new home. Our answer to the theme is that home is where you are loved for you, and not for what you can do for someone.
This project means a lot to me, personally. I wish I was able to create all of the content that existed in the script. Unfortunately, I spent an ungodly amount of time on the character controller and building a dynamic and responsive quest and dialogue system. It was my first time working on either and I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the other members to create quests without having to open any code files. I can achieve that easily now, but only thanks to the efforts I took to learn it during the game jam.
My largest take away from this project, however, are the extraordinary people I teamed up with. Each of them went above and beyond their own knowledge to create something simple and genuinely meaningful.