Cycles of Change - PBBG Game Jam 2024
The PBBG Game Jam 2024 is a game jam primarily for the PBBG discord community in conjunction with the Couch Cat gaming team.
Registrations for the game jam opened on 14 October, 2024 and then the development/participation period ran from 21 October, 2024 to 12 November, 2024.
Entries were to be submitted in full before the deadline and the voting and winner announcements scheduled to be completed by 21 November, 2024 but ultimately announced a day late on 22 November, 2024.
What was the theme?
The theme for the game jam was "Cycles of Change" and was intended to be broad enough to spark ideas across many different categories and possible mechanics.
Some of the examples given to help people envisage ideas were as follows:
- Political cycles: change in the form of the rise and the fall of empires and civilizations
- Environmental cycles: change of in form of the effect of seasons, weather events, and natural disasters
- Technological cycles: change in the form of periods of time where technology is discovered, adopted, then replaced by the next wave of technology
- Social cycles: change in the form of societies changing as a result of player interaction
What were the voting categories?
The game jam was split into two categories; game design documents and playable games.
The original game jam criteria saw that participants were to complete a game design document and complete the game development for their submission.
This was later relaxed as a result of community feedback and the game jam was subsequently split into two separate categories where participants could submit a design document, a game, or both.
What were the winning entries?
Winning teams each received the role of 2024 Game Jam Winner in the PBBG discord server.
Playable Game Winner
The entry Cycles of Change (aptly named after the game jam's theme) by Deez took first place in the Playable Game category.
Game Design Document Winner
The entry Phoenix City by Cylentwolf took first place in the Game Design Document category.
What were the submissions?
Cycles of Change
Cycles of Change by Deez (aka andz) was a game only entry that secured first place in the playable game category.
The game was named after the theme for the game jam and it took the "cycles" aspect of it to the point where the game was about cyclists racing and changing over time.
It was written in Elixir using the Phoenix framework and it was made open source at the conclusion of the game jam.
Phoenix City
Phoenix City by Cylentwolf was a game design document only entry to the game jam and came in first place for the design category.
The design of the game is centered around city management on a planet that should not have been the most likely candidate for terraforming.
In order to fit the game jam's theme, a core mechanic of the game is intended to be that an ice comet event would strike the game world once per real world week.
This ice comet event would be more destructive to those with higher levels and would ultimately be a soft reset/rollback of progress each week.
The Mad Factory
The Mad Factory by team Mad LADS (consisting of Sharqy and Lincord) was a game only entry to the game jam and it came in second place for the playable game category.
The game was centered around a factory/production type gameplay where you needed to secure raw and processed resources in order to produce goods; the twist was that conditions were constantly changing (hence fitting the game jam theme).
Smokescreened
Smokescreened by internals (aka Zac Olden) was a game only entry that secured third place in the game jam.
The game focused on the player joining one of three factions and traversing a map to complete missions, gain skills and items, and participate in combat.
The theme was satisfied by having game locations controlled by factions seeing them cycle through changes of ownership.
Additionally, paths connecting game locations would change and there was a soft reset system that would result in a cycle of change on an individual basis.
Detective Case Maker
Detective Case Maker by The Cobblestone Crew (aka VanderLaken) was a game only entry that came in forth place.
The game was one of utilizing detective skills to try and solve mysteries based on evidence and clues available to you.
It featured a system that allowed players to create and share their own scenarios and mysteries.
It could be argued that it only very lightly satisified the game jam's theme.
Dialog Hunter
Dialog Hunter by Mans Best Cat (aka Scott) was a game design document and playable game entry that secured second place in the game design category and fifth/last place in the playable game category.
This entry ultimately did not meet the criteria by which the game jam was to be judged, instead the participant ended up submitting game tooling to allow for node-based editing of dialog trees and branches.
What games were worked on but not submitted?
Booksoul Saga
Booksoul Saga by Team Insert Name Here (consisting of RocketCat, lohayo, and Rogarth) was a project by the team that ultimately never saw submission.
From what was divulged by the team, the game idea was that you had inherited a library from your grandfather and that you were now responsible for maintaining that library and the collection within.
The theme was intended to be satisfied by the books having spirits and shifting narratives and secrets that would see your collection cycle through changes.
No indiciation of why the game progress halted or was never submitted was given.
Truffle Hunter
Truffle Hunter by Team David (aka Dave) was another project that never saw submission to the game jam.
From the progress shown during the jam, the idea of the game was that you were to be dealing with the life and death cycle of your companion dogs and the emotions that come with it while you hunt for truffles as a core gameplay loop.
The project appears to have made only minor progress and a note was left indicating it would not be submitted as is.
Revolve
Revolve by crosdaledev (aka Crosdale) was a project that was never submitted to the game jam.
The game was intended to be one of population management across four core sectors; education, safety, health, and economy.
The theme was to be satisfied by players voting on policy every forth game year that would be enacted and applicable to all players globally and cause change.
The project appeared to make it into a semi-playable state before the game jam deadline ran out, but was ultimately never completed nor submitted.
Untitled Game
An untitled game by lupuloid was a project that did not get submitted to the game jam.
The game was to be set on a spaceship where players would perform actions to keep the ship running and then the ship would cycle through locations causing a change in available actions.
The project appeared to be primarily an exercise in learning some new technologies for the participant and some tech demos were shown in the update channel but the game was never completed or submitted to the game jam.