We’re making a video game about a fake trading card/miniature table top game. The jam theme is to make a game that uses pieces from a Y2k gross creature collectible miniature game packaged with holographic stat cards that no one knows how to play.

Jamming

My group and I are making an auto-battler Pokemon-style where kids battle each other. Here are some of the WIP (work in progress) game pieces I made. I’m in charge of environmental art, the monster game, tile set, and other interactive art. The game setting is a sewer/trash dump so I made trash bags, trash cans, and trash piles so far.

For those that don’t know, a game jam is where you make a complete video game based on a preset theme and in a limited amount of time. This jam has 30 days.

Reflections So Far

I really wanted to stylize the fake game so I decided to reimagine the 8 monsters rather than use their premade assets.

The biggest struggle so far has been figuring out how to stick to the art style with the tile map that needs symmetrical lines to match up on each individual art tile for the walls and floors so that the game engine can easily copy/paste the asset.

I enjoy thinking through the DAM complexities to game design. Making art for indie games is an underrated form of digital asset management. Alone I’ve made 80 assets; combined with the voice acting lines, music, SFX, player animations, and more - we’ll probably end up in 200+ assets in the end that all have to be coded into the game engine amidst lines of text for the story.

WIP (Work in Progress) Art

robotjam_gameminiatures Above: Skremplet miniatures.

robotjam_trashpiles Above: Environmental assets like trash bags, trash cans, and more. robotjam_carddeck Above: Cards with buffs and mysterious powers. A core jam rule is that no one knows how to play Skremplets.