DurJam Re-Sources

Summer 2020

During the four-day DurJam event, our team of four embarked on the creation of a survival resource collection game, drawing inspiration from titles like Terraria and Oxygen Not Included. The core concept involved traveling between compact planets, each brimming with diverse resources.

JavaScript

P5

Custom Gravity

Teamwork

Key Features

• Custom Gravity: A unique mechanic for this game was the ability to walk around the planet, necessitating relative gravity. However, as the game evolved into a sandbox, we had to use tiles, which resulted in the planet being square. This meant that the gravity had to change at the corners, which worked reasonably well on the surface. However, when you were close to the middle of the world, it did not work as effectively, as the gravity change became too sensitive.
• UI: We used UI elements to display various survival stats such as oxygen, food, and more, along with an inventory system for collecting materials. Originally, we planned to implement crafting in this inventory system, particularly for crafting fuel to travel to the next planet. However, in the end, we opted to allow free travel to the next planet, which is randomly generated and features two biomes.
• Sound Effects & Music: Having a non-programming team member with experience in music offered us an excellent opportunity for back-and-forth communication regarding the kind of sounds we truly wanted for different gameplay situations.

Challenges, solutions and lessons learnt

Participating in my first game jam was a significant challenge and provided valuable experience in handling issues such as scope creep and collaborative coding. The type of game we attempted to create, a sandbox, wasn't ideal for a game jam due to its complexity and scale. Initially, we tried using Glitch for collaborative coding, but it led to issues because we could only test code if everyone else's code was incomplete, which slowed down production. To address this, we ecided to create individual copies on GitHub and merge versions later. This allowed individuals to test their code as they wrote it.