Let the Gummies Die

About the Game Jam

The "LTGD: Let's Talk Game Jam!" was a 10-day competition in which contestants must create an original game based on a specific theme. Development must take place during the allotted timeframe, after which contestants play and rate other game entries to determine a winner. For this game jam, the requirement was that games must be submitted with a title that follows the acronym "L.T.G.D." and have gameplay that is based on that title.

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After 10 days of work, there were 80 submissions. With ranking based on creativity, audiovisual presentation, execution, and overall game design, we achieved 12th place.

My Role in the Project

In a team of three, I programmed and designed the project. I created some of the 3D models, and textured all of the models. A 3D modeler provided many of the models, and a composer provided the music.

Programming Tasks

I created scripts for the following:

A third-person character controller which allows the use of one or both hands to pick up and throw objects.
Game management, including menus, UI, music, and sound.
Enemy management and wave management for spawning enemies in waves.
Weapons that dynamically attack enemies and require maintenance from the player.
Systems for easily creating new weapons, enemies, and enemy waves.
A system for purchasing weapons and traps using physics objects as currency.
Various other utilities to make development and content creation efficient.

What's Unique About the Game?

In "Let the Gummies Die," the player's objective is to defend a group of helpless gummy creatures by purchasing towers and traps. These are purchased using "gummy coins," which can only be obtained when one of the gummies is killed by an enemy - the very thing the player is trying to prevent. This "backwards design" is what I wanted to experiment with. The player must prevent their gummies from being attacked, but also allow it, as it's required for progress. The challenge for the player is to find the balance and not go too far in either direction.

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There is a strong emphasis on interactivity. All of the interaction happens in the world. For example:

Towers are purchased by picking up physical coins and placing them into a machine.
Towers are placed by picking them up and dropping them.
Ammo remaining is shown on each tower, and refilling ammo requires inputting physical ammo packs.
The game features no UI. All needed information is found by looking at objects in the world.

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Other Projects

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Hologram Phase

Church Remodel

Jadon Mullinex

Work With Me