Gameboy Showdown 23 Post-Mortem

Last week I participated in the Gameboy Showdown 23 game jam - my second game jam this month and my third in total. It lasted seven days, and the theme was “Friendly” (which was tricky to work with). In the end, I completed a fairly simple game: Ms. Hazel’s Flower Garden.

In my last blog entry, I talked about my experience during the Pixel Game Jam earlier in the month. In short: I overreached, I underestimated my scheduling, and my game for the Pixel Game Jam flopped. But I regrouped and took note of what I had accomplished.

Which, when I set my schedule for May 2023, was the entire goal of back-to-back game jams.

I had just shy of a week between the end of the Pixel Game Jam and the start of Gameboy Showdown 23. My intent was to use that week off to reflect on what I had learned - what went well, what fell short, what I could do differently - during the Pixel jam, and apply the lessons to have a smoother (and more successful!) experience during Gameboy Showdown.

I met this goal, which is a fantastic feeling. Here’s what happened:

First, I knew I needed a goal for Gameboy Showdown. What did I want to get out of this game jam? Keeping in mind how much I had pushed myself and how much I had learned during the Pixel jam, my goal for Gameboy Showdown was to complete a game. Which meant I needed to keep it simple.

Even though Gameboy Showdown was seven days instead of six for the Pixel jam, I had more happening in my personal schedule for the week. So really, I had less time than in the Pixel jam.

With this in mind, I REALLY needed to dial back my ambitions. My initial idea - before the theme was announced - was to simplify a couple of the ideas I used in the Pixel Jam and vamp on those, mainly involving the adventure genre and a sidescrolling format.

When the theme, “Friendly,” was announced, I had a difficult time fitting that with the design ideas I had in mind. So I scrapped my idea.

But then what do I make?

I spent the entire second day of the jam hashing out - on paper - an idea that was basically a virtual pet mixed with survival mixed with turn-based strategy. The player plays through the life cycle of a tree, starting as a seed and allocating energy each turn (season) to either grow or protect themself from threats such as disease.

After planning out the game on a couple of pieces of paper, and while I liked the concept, I 1) had a feeling that I was overreaching, and 2) wasn’t “clicking” with the concept. I didn’t foresee myself making a finished game that was also fun to play. Not with the time I had. So I scrapped my idea (again).

But then what do I make?

Now on day three of the game jam, with little to show that pointed towards my goal of completing a game, I hunkered down and went back to the basics.

A brief sidestep: alongside these two game jams, this month I’ve been compiling and creating resources about game design: theories, terminologies, work flows, development stages, etc. This is happening more on a macro-level, to help my development process going forward.

One of the resources in my collection is the design concept of the five-room dungeon. Simple enough to create a simple game, especially when you’re on day three of a seven-day game jam and starting to fall behind.

I stuck with the concept of nature. Remembering the theme, “Friendly,” I thought walking around watering wilted flowers fit the bill. 

But then what do I make?

How do I fuse watering flowers with a five-room dungeon? And how do I make it fun?

I thought back to earlier Zelda games and how those used puzzles in each dungeon to make the game more engaging and more rewarding. Many Zelda games use lock-and-key puzzles and block-pushing puzzles.

Good enough for me!

Again with paper and pencil, I sketched out the basic layout of the dungeon. Only, the dungeon would be an expansive and cheery garden instead of a dark, damp prison.

To save some time, I decided to include the act of watering the flowers as part of the block-pushing puzzle. The player would need to move planters out of the way in order to reach the water faucets, which could then be turned on to water the flowers.

Hey, this is starting to be a game!

Development was going rather smoothly. I quickly made a working prototype (with stand-in graphics), and I realized I had time to add two important features. With a game this short - only taking a few minutes to play - I felt it needed something more.

When I play any given game, I always consider its amount of replayability: how different and still enjoyable it can be on multiple playthroughs. This is where my mind went.

The game has four main puzzle areas. To add replayability, I decided to create three variations for each area and, on each playthrough, the player would have a different combination of puzzles to work through. I calculated there to be a total of 81 possible combinations.

Taking it a step further, the player can walk through flower beds and even ignore turning on the faucets altogether. However, I implemented a hidden scoring system that tracked when the player turns on a faucet and when they walk through a flower bed. At the end of the game, they will either get a good ending or a not-as-good ending, presented via dialogue.

During the last half of the game jam, while on my lunch break at my day job, I reflected on my development processes for both the Pixel jam and Gameboy Showdown. In a matter of about 10 minutes, I was able to codify and write down my own personal game development process. This was an incredibly important breakthrough.

On the final day of Gameboy Showdown 23 - a Saturday - I spent the day on the last-minute details: color palettes, finalizing art and graphics, writing the last bits of dialogue, and making sure everything was working the way I wanted.

With four minutes to spare, I submitted Ms. Hazel’s Flower Garden: a completed game about helping an elderly neighbor tend to her garden for one final summer before she moves away.

I may update the game in the future with a few elements I wasn’t able to include. Aside from that, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished during Gameboy Showdown 23 and during May 2023.