CHAD CABLE

There's nothing quite like a Game Jam to cleanse the ol' palette. Having only 72 hours to come up with and idea (and then implement it) is a great reminder that games can be simple, and that you can get a lot done in a short amount of time!

This year's Ludum Dare had the theme of "Start with Nothing". I wasn't immediately captivated by the theme, so I decided to add another constraint for myself - "character". While simple, this constraint is immensely useful in creating a satisfying, full-feeling experience. Once you have character involved, you jump to stories, which lends themselves to beginning, middle, and end. Besides, writing text is maybe the best bang-for-your-buck when it comes to prototyping.

The main mechanical concept here was having indirect measurement tools. You're able to directly measure the subject at hand, but then have to translate that to a flat piece of fabric. While the tools technically allow you to measure each and every fold, in practice this is more frustrating than not...kind of by design? The whole process is definitely more fun when embracing the chaos.

With the core conceit in place, the rest of the 72 hours was about trying to twist and fold and nudge the mechanic as far as possible. That meant having cloth with holes you need to cut around. Or having misshapen cloth requiring you to hobble together the final patten. Or having the cloth offset from the model, so that you need to relocate the rulers. Having so much time to design and iterate levels was terrific, putting a lot more meat on the proverbial prototype bone.

One last minute change was adding the "final results" image. Originally this screen just showed the percentages - this was extremely frustrating in practice. None of the terms provided enough clarity quickly enough. The color coded texture was far more direct.

Overall this was a great exercise. I got to reuse some line drawing tech from BaristAHHH!, while still tackling some new problems in dynamically splitting up images.