"Space Robots, The Shape of Love", is a fast paced, coordination puzzle game developed in Unreal Engine 4, at the 2019 Indie Galactic Space Jam, in Orlando Florida. Over the course of 2 days, developers pitch space inspired game concepts, form teams, and produce a playable game for all to enjoy.
Click HERE to play on Itcho.io
THE NIGHT BEFORE: GAME PITCHES
Space Robots started off as a napkin concept just hours before the event began. My good friend (an amazing level, game and audio designer, Christine Wright) and I were hanging out at the local happy hour, chit-chatting about different space topics, when the concept of Space Robots, popped in to our heads. In no time flat, and with three drink napkins in hand, we headed over to the jam site ready to make the pitch!
Our hilarious game pitch that night to try to recruit others to work with us haha
THE NIGHT BEFORE: MEET THE TEAM
UE4 can be quite scary for people that have never used it before. We turned off a lot of the attendees at first because of our engine choice. But what we didn't expect was that offering to teach was that little dose of bravery that people needed to take the dive.
DAY 1: PRE-PRODUCTION
We ended up with a decent size team which my friend and I split into department leads. My friend was in charge of the art pipeline and overall project task management, while I took charge of the programmers, system integrations, and source control. Perforce was our source control tool of choice and I was happy to teach the newcomers how to use it as well. The team followed a routine SCRUM which really kept us organized and on tack. This made updating the game design much easier when time was not of the essence.
DAY 1-2: PRODUCTION
At this point, we were ready to hit the ground running. Along side developing new systems and delegating tasks, I was able to teach the newcomers in my department what they needed to know in order to complete tasks in UE4 and how to check them into P4V. I'm happy to say that there were no merge conflicts, and the team got the latest version always.
GAME-WRAP-UP: CONCLUSION
I've done quite few game jams, but this has to be one of the best game jams I've done. The communication was strong and the process was smooth. I was surprised with how many systems and art assets the team produced in such a small amount of time!
