I have two videos that are almost finished for my video essay channeland I've been working in secret on a big project I need to release on Halloween - all on top of trying to finish up a big move and working a draining day job. 

I had a lot of fun last time I got to do one of the GDU game jams, but I told myself there's no way I'd have the time.

Then I was doing chores and zoning out (like you do) thinking about the theme and I was hit over the head with the idea hammer. "Anti-cozy" could be a lot of things, but you know what makes me feel the opposite of calm and cozy? SPEED! TIMERS! SHOUTING! 

Now, I'm a speed runner - I like going fast and racing against the timer, it's lots of fun! But it's not cozy for me at all, it's intense and exciting (and also super frustrating sometimes lol.) 

Those things were kicking around in my head, along with the desire to mess around with some platforming that had been itching at me for a while, and then I saw it. A tower.  A tall, weird looking tower. Lots of platforms around it. Get to the top quick. When the timer runs out you die! Maybe you can get power ups that make you faster but being faster isn't necessarily better because you become hard to control?

I kept going about my chores and other responsibilities throughout the day, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone. 

Then, with an hour to go until what should have been my bedtime, I finally couldn't take it anymore so I sat down, popped open an Unreal project and got to work. 

First person controller - check. That always stresses me out more in a platforming context. I did some quick tweaking to make it fast, jumpy, and feeling like you'll lose control any second. It felt good - I think I can tweak it to feel even better. 

Then I grabbed some assets from the wonderful Kenney to start sketching out the level, and got a basic tower and platforms set up. 

I made the game reset if you fell out of bounds, and gave it a restart key.  And then I kept playing - I didn't even have the end level goal or timer set up but I furiously kept trying to speed jump my way up the platforms to the top of the tower. 

It was like two hours after I should have been in bed, I still had to finish feeding all the animals and getting all the end of night chores done - but I knew there was no way I wasn't doing the jam now lol. 

The scope is small, just one level for the jam - I'll put my favorite pixel shader in it later and that should give it some visual personality - I think I can have the basic skeleton done for this no problem by end of jam. One week off from my other projects won't hurt... right? 

It's the next morning , September 8th 2024. I have until September 15th 2024 at 4:00 AM to get a working prototype finished and submitted. 

Should be easy enough, right? Fingers crossed!