My GPCv4 game: Wot I Think
You may have seen my GPCv4 entry, Sunshine Hurts already (If not, go play it!). Developing it was an interesting experience, so I’m going to write some words here about the whole process and Wot I Think about it all.
First off, this is my third project using my “Jam” platform engine, which I originally started during the Global Game Jam in January. Considering the entirety of its development has been during a 48 hour game jam and a couple of week-long challenges, I’d say it’s pretty technically robust at this point.
As in GPCv3, I ended up with a basic platform game with some mechanics and effects in place, but little in the way of level design. The engine, at the moment, is very awkward to create levels with, as I have to place down each individual object by hand with a line of code. It’s not very intuitive and takes freaking ages to just place down a few crates (crates return in this game, you may have noticed).
What I need is an editor.
Sadly, coding an editor is a pretty big undertaking so I wasn’t able to get one done for GPCv4, but I have every intention of building one to be ready for GPCv5. My goal is eventually to have an engine so robust that I can create platform games just by dropping graphics in, tweaking a few mechanics to fit the theme the game is going for, then just building levels in the editor.
However, after looking through some of the other entries, I think I may be focusing too much on gameplay mechanics and ignoring the possibility or just telling an interactive story (as some other dudes did). I could have dropped some NPCs or other story objects in the game to tell some kind of basic narrative, but I didn’t think of that until just now! Maybe next time. 
You can always make up whatever story you like about the game as it is. Perhaps that’s more fun, letting the player’s imagination go wild? Who knows.
I flexed my pixel art muscles again for this project and I’m quite pleased with the result (I have no illusions about being any good at pixel art right now but I think I might get pretty good, given enough practice). I’m also surprised with how much I enjoy drawing pixel art; I’m enjoying it much more than most of the programming work I’ve been doing lately. Perhaps I’ve missed my calling!
The colours used for the artwork are very deliberate. I wanted to use colours fairly true to life and, in fact, the beigey colours used for the environment are based on images I could find of the International Space Station’s interior (white for the astronaut and fiery colours for the sun should be obvious, I hope). Also, the colours in the foreground are deliberately muted to emphasise the brightness of the sun in the background and the danger it represents (also it’s very pretty).
The film grain effect from GPCv3 returns to cast a dark ambience onto the game, to great effect I think. The game feels quite dark and gloomy because of this. Added to this are the glitching TV screens on the wall, offering instructions. I had originally planned for there to be more of these, but alas. The gloominess and glitchiness along with the fact that your character is all alone hints that something isn’t right here. Come to think of it, the fact that loads of wall panels have been torn to pieces might also indicate this.
Another effect I added into the game was to use this glitching effect from Soulwire. When you die, the game renders the current screen to JPEG data then runs it through the glitching effect, which corrupts the data to warp the screen. Why is the screen glitching out like a computer when the player dies? I’ll let you ponder that one.
As for the themes “burden” and “sunshine” I should think my implementation of sunshine is obvious. 
I had plans for the player to have to carry a second astronaut (who would be unconscious) throughout the level. Carrying someone else would slow you down and reduce your ability to jump. That was going to be the (literal) burden in the game, but time restraints and all that!
All in all, I’m quite happy with what I ended up with and I think I’m going to develop this game further (at least until GPCv5). I smell potential.
