Halloween Jam 2023- *Theme Revealed*

What’s a lasombra?

A vampire the masquerade clan lore known for not have reflection and they can’t use tech

Its funny you mention that. With the vampires in the graveyward watch the idea is to have them have no reflection BUT they have an ability where they can turn invisible to the naked eye however when the do this they regain their reflection so thats one of the few ways to find it.


With my entry I’ve actually written the first possible ending which can be triggered quite early into the game where the demon simply can’t be bothered to deal with the magi and walks away lol

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You know what I miss here in general, The lack of playing with adding visual effects to several game mecanics. You can add very easy gif to choicescript I had several demos and games playing with some visual effect to important phases.

but for instance You can easily put a gif with a mirror reflecting something that based on game lore can make player guessing what should they do.

You can even based what gif you show based on player choices.

I miss more specialized game mechanisms like sounds and or visual for smaller games more of niche.

But I digress, because I understand that it is not commercial at all and not what the audience wants at all.

Well, I’ve finally downloaded a fresh version of ChoiceScript, decided on a working title, and settled on a scenario that shouldn’t bloat into an unfinishable monster due to scope creep, so fingers crossed. I’m aiming for something between 5000 and 10000 words in total.

Is there anyone else around who started (or re-started) late?

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Yes, me, twice!

First attempt demon idea.

Second attempt doppelganger

The third attempt is a combination of the above ideas.

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I did the same thing. And this message is for the lurkers or people shier. Restarting and remade stuff is really common in early plannin. Don’t be afraid of doing so.

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This is a callout post to myself, who has not worked in my game for over two weeks. Very bad of me to squander all that free time I had, but alas no use crying about it now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince myself to actually work ton it his week. It would be really nice to hit the 20k words mark, so I’ll shoot for that.

Considering my pacing, it’s a guarantee I won’t finish the game in time for Halloween, though I would like to have at least a working demo with the prologue + chapter 1+ interlude 1 on it. Though, I don’t know if unfinished games can be submitted…

Anyway, hope everyone else is having a good time writing their games :))

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Well, I have 1300 words including code now, which is 1300 more words than I’d expected to write, so it’s going great this far :+1:

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To everyone… myself included.

The goal both a jam like this or stuff like Nanowrimo is not deliver a final polished product. No the goal is make a project and execute it. the polish and aditions are matter for later.

So don’t feel bad or obsessed with finishing or tie all ends.

that is not what the jam ia about.

You are doing and alpha. that you can turn it in a fine project or not. Even if you do not work further on it you have learned or practice the idea of a deadline for something public.

At least that is what I hope helping people to try and learning to end projects. If you end one game you can learn to end everything you try to.

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I love this energy, thanks Mara! :smiley: I was getting a little overcritical of my piece the other day and this is a lovely reminder :sparkles:

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Well, I know how much it cost not erasing and how much we see flaws in our work as writers.

In fact for me having a deadline helps as motivator to not be harmful fo my own work.

I see a date limit and focus on that instead on something harmful.

We all have to learn what work for us as a way to keep impostor syndrome at bay.

If you have impostor syndrome , remember you are not alone.

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I love these Jams. But like NaNoWriMo’s November, I always seem to be at the wrong stage of the writing cycle.

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I tried to do a Saint Valentine jam as well first year but I only have a participant and people wasn’t interested on a jam. So since then I only do the Halloween one.

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My entry is set over five hours of in-game time so my biggest challenge is translating that into real-world time without it dragging.

Currently using the metric of each “hour” should consist of four main choices that directly affect the story.

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Fun fact a Spanish very early 80s computer adventure game La abadia del crimen based in umberto Eco bestseller Had the monastery hours prima tertia nona as a game mechanic.

It is regarded internationally that game due it has a very rudimentary Scumm system like system several years prior to Maniac Mansion many think it was a inspiration.

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Oh, I played that one, it was a great game! (very atmospheric, but I think I never managed to finish it!)

Ok, let me start thinking about what my entry will be… mmmmmm… twisted mirrors… mmmmmmmmm… I think I could manage to use this to shape some random ideas I had floating in my head…

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My entry has now passed 13,000 words and I’ve got some fun choices for players.

Such as Summoning an Imp and allowing players to either get it to attack the barrier or use it as a literally club against the barrier!.

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Sounds like a barbarian or a cricket player choice lol

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I’ve realised that three of the abilities are practically the same with different flavouring manipulate, obsess and dominate are all ways of controlling the magi. So I’m combining them into a single ability and revising the system to make it cleaner and easier to code. Otherwise it’d feel like bloating the code.

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