The Project
I entered the 2nd annual Global Game Jam at the University of British Columbia in early February 2010, an event where amateur game designers from across the world create and collaborate on a video game in just 48 hours.
The theme of this year’s jam was “Deception,” and the game had to involve “A skunk, a monk or a punk.”
I lucked out with a great team, and we set about trying to rapidly prototype an idea that fit these parameters. Working non-stop from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at 3 p.m., we fleshed out a game inspired by Peggle (who doesn’t love Peggle!) that involved two skunks stuck inside the belly of a monster. They find a tumor-like outgrowth named Mr. Pickles who shoots them out from his mouth, and they try to break out of this monster’s belly by ricocheting themselves off dead cells and through the monster’s “uvula,” in the hopes he will “vomit” them out.
What makes the Mr. Pickles game different is that two players can play simultaneously, fighting for control of Mr. Pickles, to see who can get out first.
My Role
We had four members on our team, two artists/designers, a programmer and myself, who worked largely on creating sound assets and in co-designing the game. I recorded most of the in-game sounds via my laptop’s built-in mic through Soundbooth, from belching to the “whees!” of the skunks flying around.
I also created five different soundtracks for the team to consider in GarageBand and Soundbooth, but we ultimately went with a score available via a Creative Commons search. It was the right call – none of mine fit the game as well.
What I learned
Honestly, even though we were there for just 48 hours, there were large chunks of time where I felt entirely useless. I’m an amateur artist, so I couldn’t be of much assistance for art assets apart from basic Photoshop work, and I have no programming experience, so I couldn’t help in the Flash coding either.
But I learned that by simply being there for moral support and helping my team mates with whatever menial task I could, that I could make things easier for them. And that ultimately led to a better game.
We didn’t manage to finish Mr. Pickles Dunks Some Skunks – unfortunately our programmer fell ill on Saturday evening, and we had a few hours of panic trying to determine whether we should abandon the project all together.
But we got a huge helping hand from a local game designer named Andy Moore, and he brought us to a stage where we at least had the mechanics of the game working by the deadline.
Play The Game
You can play Mr. Pickles Dunks Some Skunks via the Global Game Jam’s official site here.
The Team
Brian Ford, Alice Tai, Nick Lewis, Anshul Goyal, Andy Moore.
Tools
Adobe Flash CS4 (AS3), Photoshop, Illustrator, GarageBand, Soundbooth.