I don't know if you feel the same way I do, but when I was a kid 7 days felt longer than a year does to my now 30+ brain... So when I decided to try to join a game jam to make a Gameboy game in 7 days I had a feeling I would only really have about 10 good hours of time I could try to accomplish that. I would need to really plan and keep my idea simple if I was going to finish a submission for the game jam.

Game Jams are widely acknowledge as an incredible motivator to start and more importantly complete projects. The time crunch forces you to check yourself constantly and ask "do I really need this in my game?" The theme may inspire a new idea or mechanic you previously wouldn't have thought of. But in my opinion best of all is the game jam caused you to make something and hopefully to finish something!

There is a great importance in actually finishing projects. I have been drawing comics and writing short stories for over a decade and a half now and one of the biggest challenges is not bloating both of those two mediums down with too much. Too many words, too much story, too much lore, too many drawings and actions.  The saddest result of the "too much" bloating is that I seldom finish the project that I originally set out on despite putting a lot of work and effort into my craft.  I become almost too invested, no longer clear headed in my objective and sadly I, like many others have a lot of unfinished projects.

Well with that preface out of the way... I'm happy to let you know how I finished a new Gameboy Game in 7 days without losing my mind (kind of lol)

Here's the story of what I originally set out to make and what it actually turned into.

A key factor in how my game took shape depended on the theme of the game jam.

The Game Jam Theme for this year was Friendly. Any who participate in the jam don’t know the theme until the very second the jam starts. So as soon as the theme was announced I begin mulling over what I could do with the concept of “friends”

A good bit of passed down game dev advice is that your game should have easy to understand verbs to the gameplay. That way new players can ant an glance understand what they need to do to play and have fun. (Ex. Mario = Jump. Zelda = Explore) I tried to implement this into my game. for my starting point I thought my games “verb” is “befriend” which of course turned into “bee friend” 🐝

Day one was spent planning. I drew up some concepts and mechanic ideas. I tried to identify a simple game play loop and small story. Once I had this idea for a bee/friendship game the ideas began overflowing… too much actually which would come to be a challenge later… we will come back to that. but for now I had a mission and a plan. Time to put in the work. Everyone makes a game different but for me personally I need a character I am happy with to drive me to complete their story. Thus the stories nicknamed main character “Little Bean” was made from sketches into pixels. After that, it was time for bed. I could only give a little but that little was a big seed of motivation going forward.

Day two, I was busy most of the day and couldn’t even think about the jam or game until late in the evening. I was able to plan out the map a little and even get Little Bean moving around my Gameboy!

I knew if I kept chipping away little by little I would start to see the game come into a somewhat cohesive shape. Enough that I could at least submit it to the jam. But I was looking at my schedule and seeing I was going to have a severe lack of time. To me that wasn’t a negative thing though, it was actually more interesting because I imagined most people were going to have the same issue.

I think most indie game devs… especially Gameboy devs don’t do this full time. Most have jobs and responsibilities and other hobbies. So what could I make in the dwindling time… A lot of my ideas and even core gameplay loops would have to be cut! Would I even have a game after that? Or would my stubbornness for story drown my whole project into a walking and talking to people simulator lol 😵‍💫

I want to share here some of the cut content.

Originally one key story thread that didn’t necessarily get cut but did get buried due to time was going to be between Granny and the Mayor. The mayor of this Bee themed town is allergic to bees and therefore wants to eradicate the bees. How did this guy become mayor?! I mean the town has a Bee Train 🚆 that rides throughout!

Granny AKA Ms. Hachi (the Japanese word for bee) is a protector of bees and thinks with some wisdom everyone in town can be happy without hurting the bees or the people. Originally little bean was going to be a key figure in helping this feud to resolve positively. The end result being the mayor agreeing to set up contests that help control the bee population in a way which no people or bees or bears 🐻 get harmed. A bee catching contest, a honey harvest festival, a bees wax candle making competition etc. All these were going to be fun little arcade style mini games. Though this got cut you can see remainders of these concepts leftover in the game.

Speaking of cut collectibles, bees wax was going to be a collectible used to get gossip from towns people. If given to them they can no longer say “mind your own bees wax!” And would have to give you the scuttlebutt!

Originally I wanted to create more situations that required a specific bee count like the cone. I thought of the little worker bees helping out the town like Pikmin. This would help the townspeople favor the bees and little bean over time. This sadly was scaled down as well.

When I look back on the project, it’s amazing how much and yet how little all at the same time can be accomplished in a couple of days. I also laugh cause only in hindsight can I see the little rabbit holes I went down in the development of the game that wasted so much time when I could’ve been prioritizing more active gameplay elements 😂 These game jams give a great opportunity to refine my own game dev tendencies and streamline my process. That is really the best thing you can get out of a game jam in my opinion.

How long does a potter spin clay on a wheel before he abandons it and says it’s done? Making a game is a-lot like that! You can spin it forever and polish it forever but at some point you just need to finish it. And the sooner you let people play it and play test it the better. Even if the first time they play the game it just looks like a lump of clay to them. Even that feedback is golden.

Thanks to everyone who played the game! What would you like to see added to the game? How could it be more fun? Engaging?

The reception was overall very positive. I finished in 10th place out of 80+ incredible submissions. 

But I still see some glaring flaws in the game that I May polish up or I might just leave so I can finish a different piece of game dev pottery. We will see 🐝💫