EnLightening - Post Mortem

Feenix Games, a new up and coming Publisher hosted a week long Game Jam (All Feathers Game Jam) from April 3rd 2020 at 6:00 PM to April 10th 2020 at 6:00 PM. The theme? Light and Darkness.

Howdy Tavian here, programmer for Enlightening. I'm going to be writing about the process of making this game with the excellent team that was Team Meep!

Judy Kong: Character + CG Artist

Selvyn Bell: Character + Environment Artist

Brian 'Sucellos' Piert: Music and Sfx

Tavian Bell: Animation + Programming

I'll be using a Q&A format once more since it'll be easiest to write and read.

Q: How did we all come together? 

A: Me (Tavian Bell) and Selvyn Bell are acquainted with Pepi Dubois the Founder of Feenx Games and we joined in with several others in order to make a game with others that had heard about the Jam he was hosting. In the Discord server for Feenx Games we met Judy Kong shortly before the theme was announced and Brian Piert the day after.

Q: What was it like doing a Game Jam over the internet?

A: Not too difficult thanks to Discord we were able to communicate together very well and share info and progress in specific channels as well. We shared a Google Drive Folder to exchange assets for the game when needed.

Q: How did you you come up with the concept of the game and how long did it take?

A: Before the theme was announced we all got together to talk about games we were playing and what genres we liked. We settled on the idea of making a 2D platformer. A familiar genre and concept we could all get behind, walkin and jumpin!

It didn't take long to figure out the genre of game we wanted to make, yet when the theme "Light and Darkness" was announced we had to think hard on what the game was about. We had a few ideas early on, from a story about a character having to swap between a world of light and a world of darkness to Mage and a Necromancer joining forces to stop an Imp from terrorizing their land.

We almost went with the latter idea but had to change it due to the way we initially wanted to implement co-operative play not working out.

So the Necromancer became the antagonist and the second lead character would be a friendly ghost.

During all of this Judy put together a mood board and Selvyn made a list of Assets we'd need for the game before we started production.

Q: How well did the team work together?

A: Surprisingly well, although we all had different issues to overcome during the Game Jam admittedly. The All Feathers Jam was Judy (A Graphic Artist) and Brian's (A Music Composer) first game jam and we were all making a game with high resolution 2D graphics for the *first time.  

*The only other time(s) we made a game with high resolution 2D artwork was with visual novels which have an entirely different workflow and gameplay than a  2D platformer.

Q: Advice for others that may have to do a Game Jam online?

A: Communication is still key! Unlike being at a location in person we have to compensate for the time we can't be at our computer. Be sure to let your team know when you're available and when you have to leave for a while to take care of something important.

Always make sure to save and backup your work of course.

Q: Reception of the game?

A: If you haven't read the reviews on the submission page: https://itch.io/jam/allfeathersjam/rate/608045, 

People that played it loved the art style, gameplay mechanics, and especially the music! Check out Brian's Soundcloud for more of his amazing songs: https://soundcloud.com/user-83126241/tracks. 

We had a glowing reception if I do say so myself and getting featured on Feenx Games website: https://www.feenxgames.com/post/all-feathers-jam-recap and on Nexus LA: http://www.nexusla.org/q1-impact-game-jam was such an honor that we will cherish and remember. We can't wait to participate in another Game Jam with Feenx Games again.

That's it for this post mortem, please feel free to ask any questions or let us know what you think of the game!