Do you ever feel like you’ve been looking at the same stack for a very long time?

I get those feelings too. When this happens, I turn to game jams for rejuvenation. I usually am not super motivated to spend weeks on a hobby project. I’d rather play games instead. That’s why for me game jams are perfect. They are usually 24-72 hours long and on the weekends. It’s a self-imposed deadline and you can take as much risk as you want. It also presents the designer with new types of problems.

Last month I entered the game jam, Ludum Dare #29: “Beneath the Surface” and decided I would use Livecode to rapidly prototype ideas. I sat down with a pen, post-it-notes, and started writing down ideas. “Underwater,” “underground”, and “subconscious” bubbled up, but they held little significance to me. I wasn’t getting very excited about any of those sub-themes. I went back to the drawing board and thought about what I would want to play with my family and friends. The two things that came immediately to mind are games that have springer spaniels and can be played by two people.

I thought about our springer spaniel, Duncan, who we just adopted earlier this year. He’s got an unfathomable amount of energy. He just keeps going. I wanted to feature this doggy in the game, and I immediately thought of the Nintendo game Duck Hunt, which came out in the US in 1985. Duck Hunt has the player firing shots at ducks in the sky with a light gun accessory. There’s a laughing dog that catches the birds for you, but he is entirely non-playable. Making the dog active was where I began.

When you try “Dog Hunt,” you will see I made both hunter and dog playable as well as put them both on screen. Make sure to click on “Controls” in the “Main Menu” to get acquainted with the buttons before playing. The objective is to use the dog to flush the birds out of the brush and then use the hunter to shoot them from the sky.

Download Dog Hunt Mac

Download Dog Hunt Windows

Once I had the idea, I started a new stack, imported sprites from “Duck Hunt,” and started to experiment with the movement of the dog and the hunter. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday programming in LiveCode and Sunday evening/Monday morning I worked on the art and music. I used Hexels, which allows you to draw with geometric shapes like triangles and hexagons. The sound effects I made using BFXR and the music came from a fan-made remix of “Duck Hunt” music. The game really didn’t come together until I tested it and found that I needed to add a high score system and fix the birds’ movement.

I’ve been getting constructive feedback from the Ludum Dare community. They’ve said things like:

“Haha! Awesome spin on a classic. Polish up the controls, throw in a few levels and this could be really great.”

 

“Liked this take on the old idea! Thought the ducks were a bit too quick and jerky to aim at very easily (mouse controls would have been nice!), but a good idea, nice art style and the music worked well.”

Judging ends on May 29, 2014, so I will keep the LiveCode community posted on the results. What I like about the voting process is that only the participants can vote. Ludum Dare encourages developers to play and rate other peoples games, so that their game will rise in the order of display.

I don’t really care if I win because the more important part is that I come away inspired and I’ve gotten a lot of helpful feedback from people. The idea of a game jam comes back to the idea of playing and experimenting outside of your current stack.

Links:
Download Dog Hunt
BFXR – Sound Effects
Hexels – Art Program
The Official Duck Hunt HD Remix Soundtrack – Music