Card Collector

Wow! Game jams really do push you to do more than you believed you could.

I decided to join this gm48 three hours after it started. I actually didn't know a jam was scheduled, but saw a post on reddit advertising it. I've been in the game dev world for a while, and often read comments urging novice developers to join as many jams as possible. As a result of this, I decided to jump straight in.

My game idea was originally more inline with card games like Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon, where one would collect different cards and use them to battle other players. I ultimately decided that this was beyond the scope of my programming ability within 48 hours, and settled on a more simple "match and collect" gameplay instead. Even with this change, I still struggled to implement all the mechanics I originally expected to!

The toughest parts for me were drawing the sprites, and planning my code.

I have never been very artistically inclined, more interested in dreaming up ideas than drawing them. I feel that this shows in my art assets, as they are almost all simply 16x16 sprites scaled up. I feel this gives the game too simple an aesthetic, but am happy with it nonetheless.

I am currently completing a degree in Computer Science, and usually program in C or java. I haven't really touched gamemaker in over a year, so while returning to it for this jam, I found myself unfamiliar with its programming systems. I also forgot many game dev essentials, such as state systems and parent objects. I did eventually remember them, but implementing them into a half-written code base proved a challenge.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with my final game, and may consider developing it further. I've received lots of valuable feedback, and am very grateful of all those who have tried this game! I am definitely looking forward to participating in another game jam, and hope to use my newly acquired knowledge and experience to make an even better game!