Monster Sauce

My first Global Game Jam was the 2014 one, which I only attended after receiving strong recommendations by my friends at Electric Game Sauce - veterans of game jams. After that, I attended every year of GGJ for the following 4 years. But it wasn't until 2016 where I would join the EGS team, as a humble 3d art intern. Basically I learned how to use Blender during that very weekend.

Under the jam theme "Ritual" we brainstormed some ideas. Somewhere along the way someone suggested monsters summoned to destroy a city, but as a complement the summoning ritual would require certain components that would dictate the order of actions they would be able to take. This seemed to be very experimental and fun, but most importantly doable within the time limit. And so, everyone agreed to do it. The name Monster Sauce was given to the project.

After selecting one of three monsters, the player then fills in a queue of components. One component would mean "turn left", another would mean "turn right", and a third and last one would be "use your special power". After being summoned, the monster would just walk forward and damage stuff by contact, unless the "Action" button is pressed. Pressing this button would pick the first element of the component queue, translate it into the appropriate action, and perform it. When the queue is empty the monster remains walking, until recalled or until defeated by city defense forces.

Everyone was happy during development and confident that the final result was good. During the final hours of the event, every group and solo developer would bring their devices to a hall where everyone, including visitors, would be able to check out all what was created during the weekend. And it was then that my friends would find disappointment.

While the component-based ritual mechanic was indeed fun, our players would complain about two major things on the game design. First, the time limit imposed to destroy the main building, hidden behind a gate, that required picking up a key at the opposite side, all while facing enemy units and destroyable buildings blocking the way. Second, the fact that you weren't able to see the city at your own pace before sending out your next monster, which meant that you either had to use the ever-rotating city view provided during the ritual screen or keep track of everything happening during the gameplay.

This did bother my friends who again were veterans with previous well-received games, but it didn't bother me. In fact, I was the only one still happy after that event. That was my third Global Game Jam, but in fact the first one where I managed to deliver a fully functional product. Besides, one kid that came to play all the games just ended monopolizing my notebook and playing all by himself. He didn't seemed to be that annoyed by the time limit or even the lack of a better planning phase, and he was the one that almost got to the "You Win" screen. After around 30 minutes of watching him play and talk about the game he had to leave, because his father had to move on.

It was very satisfying seeing someone enjoy so much the game I helped produce, even with all its design flaws.

Here is the original project, made during the event:
https://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/monster-sauce