Game Jams have always interested me but after receiving such positive feedback on my game Messier’s Bridge, I thought it would be fun to do a few more. Never did I intend for this to become a challenge but I found myself interested and participating in a new game jam every week during my 2019 Fall semester at NYU. After some time, I decided to continue designing and producing new games for 10 weeks straight.

Every game in this list was made within 48-96 hours for different game jams on itch.io or at the NYU Game Center. Most of these games were made alone though a couple were made with a team. All of these games are playable at https://kevin-ray.itch.io/.

The first game I made in this challenge was Malchemists. It was my first week back in New York and I asked some friends if they would like to participate in a game jam with me, just so we could get back into the swing of designing and coding. We spent a lot of time on the design of the game and had a lot of fun coming up with playing cards for our digital board game. I didn’t know at the time but Malchemists would be the first game jam in my challenge and a decent benchmark to see my improvement in the following weeks.

DEFINITELY JUST SPACE RACE…

For a class I was taking, we were tasked with creating a mod for the 1973 Atari arcade game, Space Race. The mod I made was simple yet still redefined the goals of the original game. However, I was unhappy with the project. People wouldn’t enjoy the game as just a slight change to the base game; eliciting laughter and emotional responses is what I truly want from my games. A few hours before class I decided to make my game jam games more complete, more fun, from this point on. For Space Race, I quickly added a meme boss fight to the game. Upon the reveal of Sans interrupting the relaxing game of Space Race, playtesters were ecstatic and laughing, truly enjoying the game I made for them. This is why I make games. I love seeing people’s reactions to my prototypes so why not make a new one every week?

Cube Sweeper

I originally planned on making only 6 games in 6 weeks but I was enjoying myself. Friends, classmates, and others online left me with such positive feedback I decided to keep participating in these game jams. After playing other developers’ submissions to these jams, I found myself inspired by their game ideas as well. I got to try out some different designs for my games without worrying if the mechanics didn’t feel perfect in the end. The best part of this challenge was the community I found within these game jams. I was able to not only learn from the experience of making these games but also from the other developers.

Sembliance

Some of the projects turned out so well, that other devs and I continued to work on the games after the initial release. Players began to ask for full versions of the games on social media and in public playtests but luckily, I had a lot of projects to choose from.

Little Forests

Reaching the end of my 10 games journey, I decided to stop making games for others and start making some for myself. I made Hearth because I had been going through a rough patch and needed to create a space where I could feel at home with my emotions. I created Little Forests because I was inspired by the #TeamTrees initiative where every dollar donated would go to planting a new tree. My good friend Samina Trachier helped me with the 3D models on this project. Contributing to this cause and working with Samina felt like the perfect way to end my 10 Games in 10 Weeks Challenge.

Click images for full articles on each game.

Hearth

Queen B.

Harbinger

Special thanks to: Samina Trachier, Annamaria Koshy, Rilee Horowitz, Matt Cutts, Sean Park, Isa Deu, Colin Hernando, Maddy Sutton, and Adam Goren.