Last weekend I had my first experience in a game jam (an event where developers, artists, musicians, and every person attracted by game development gather together in teams with the challenge of building a game usually in 48h) and I couldn´t go better. I attended the Global Game Jam 2023 site here in Montevideo and I was part of the best one can dream about. Despite being total strangers to each other the "magic of the jam" that I´d heard about was tangible and in a couple of hours, we were totally on the same page and flowing creatively. The theme for the Jam was "Roots" and while some teams pivoted around the literal meanings of the word, mine choose to have a more cultural approach, we decided that our game would be about our ancestors. I was honored when all agreed to use the “Cimarron”, an important figure in Cuban traditions and folklore as the main character for our game.
The Team
“Cimarrones” was the name given to the African slaves that could manage to escape from plantations in the Spain-ruled colonies in the Caribbean region. In my homeland Cuba they´re a symbol of the struggle for freedom. This strongly resonated with me as I had to leave my country with my family trying to achieve the freedom denied inside of it.
Technically there was another big challenge (apart from creating a game in 48h) and it was that all the team except me were fluent in developing games in the Unity engine but that turned out to be another strength. I haven’t been afraid of learning new stuff never before and this time wouldn’t be different so I took the nuts & bolts and started focusing on my role which would be to harness the power of procedural content creation using Houdini and the implementation of this content inside Unity using the Houdini Engine plugin. I have to say that the experience of using Houdini Engine it´s a lot more polished in Unity than in Unreal which is how I use it on a daily basis. There´s a better UI, a lot more functionality, and also some features that should be mandatory (like the Prefab update after baking an HDA). And also more flexibility for viewing Houdini-generated content even when not having Houdini installed or licensed.
Procedural Tree
Procedural Plant & Scatter
Procedural Rocks
The first night of the two that we spent at the site was mostly for planning and important game design decisions that would help us to reduce the scope of our game, which was an issue noticed by mentors when we pitched it to the other teams. I even took the advice of some of my teammates (seasoned jammers) and went home to have some rest and prepare for the wildness of creativity that the rest of the weekend would be.
Long story short we ended with an FPS game 90% accurate to what we planned in terms of mechanics and also with a beautiful look. I can´t be thankful enough for the help I received from my teammates regarding not only the struggles of the complexity of the task but also for making me feel at home and welcomed being a newcomer to the country.
Game Cover
Game Screens
Click to download on itch.io
Credits:
Rodrigo (RHO) Pérez - Lead Programmer
Rodrigo Torres - Game Designer / Programmer
Bruno Arnuti - Programmer
Brayan Méndez - 3D Artist
Rodney García - Technical Environment Artist
Gervasio Della Ratta - Graphic Designer/ UI Artist