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Jon Nielsen

@encifer.bsky.social

470 followers 160 following 180 posts

Artist, cartoonist, indie dev creator of WitchHand, Lost Nova, and Mechanibot! Beware of the occasional Dad Tweet · (He/Him) Mistpaw Ravine: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3735490/Mistpaw_Ravine/

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Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · May 15

Big announcement!! My next game is on the way!

Mistpaw Ravine is a city builder where you give cats jobs and bring magic back to the world! 🐈✨

Wishlist now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3735490/...

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 2h

The latest Mistpaw Ravine demo update added little story moments. This one's my current favorite :)
#screenshotsaturday

Screenshot from Mistpaw Ravine that reads:
"After sending this relic to the Capital, a cat appeared in its place. They claimed to be from the future but had originally been from the the past. That was before -- and after -- they arrived in the present. Which was now.

A second, identical cat appeared, thanked us for detaining the first cat, and they both vanished.

A pile of food was later found at the scene. No one could agree if it came from the past or the future. It definitely wasn't from the present. Which was no longer now."

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway that's it! I could talk about this stuff forever.

Go play my game! It's free!!

encifer.itch.io/the-sun-keep...

The Sun Keeps Exploding by Jon Nielsen

Repair your ship and escape before the sun explodes! Again!

encifer.itch.io

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

2: I had the entire game designed and planned out before I started programming. There was no "I'll figure it out when I get there." Some things were tweaked and changed during the process, of course, but there was a direct path to the finished product

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

Some final thoughts on what worked for me:

1: I led with a "name and pitch first" approach to designing for this. These game jam games need to be immediately understandable and fast to pick up

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

After a much-deserved rest (and celebratory pizza)... I then spent the following day designing the full version of the game 😅

Will The Sun Keeps Exploding be my next game after I finish Mistpaw Ravine?

I don't know. But I know it'd be a blast to make.

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

And so, even with taking my time committing to the jam and starting late, I submitted my completed game 4 hours before the deadline.

I did it :)

My first game jam, my 5th game ever, made in about 4 days.

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

Progress was amazing but I was really starting to feel the burnout and exhaustion at this point. I pushed really hard on what should have been my days off but the finish line was so close! It was so beatable

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

The final day of the jam started with my game basically done. I put in the final win condition and victory sequence, and spent the rest of the day making the cover art and store page with gifs. My two daughters playtested the game for me, even finding some funny bugs

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

The asteroid-spawning system was based on the card-spawning system from WitchHand. The player movement and feel was based on Mechanibot.

By design, every aspect of this game was varied yet fully within my wheelhouse and it was a joy to create.

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

Programming-wise, even though it was an intimidating mountain of work for one guy, it was a ton of fun pulling bits and pieces from my 5 years of game dev experience.

The claw works a lot like the laser from Lost Nova. The menu functionality is from Mistpaw Ravine

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

I got permission from the sound designer of my first game Lost Nova to reuse those sounds for this game, which was a huge time saver. He even kindly made brand new sounds for the claw and the Victory guitar sting (thanks Topher!)

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

The next two days were a whirlwind of non-stop programming. It's a small game but there's still a ton of moving parts and features

- claw shooting, retracting, grabbing, upgrading
- buildings, the ship
- particles, effects, sound
- menus, browser version

bsky.app/profile/enci...

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 7d

Making progress on the game jam game!

Lots left to do of course but look! It's already a game! 🫨

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

Halfway through making the color concept art, I'm like, all right I guess I'm making a game 😤

That first full day of work (which was actually the second day of the jam) I finished art for every asset, set up the project, and got player movement and the claw working

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

This all took me 2 hours. I wasn't going to make this game but this was a fun design session and at least I got it out of my system.

I didn't work on the jam any more the entire first day!

But then the next morning came. I couldn't get it out of my head that I WANT to make it

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

You play little robots trying to fix your ship and escape.

Each robot's death is an opportunity for the next robot to maybe save the day.

I wrote up a whole design plan and sketched out some concept art

bsky.app/profile/enci...

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 10d

I spent the day designing a game for a game jam. It's pretty bad timing and I don't think I can commit to making it but it was a fun way to procrastinate on the million other things I have to do, at least.

It's called "The Sun Keeps Exploding"

concept art for a game where you use a claw hook to grab floating asteroids and use them to upgrade your base and fix your ship before the sun explodes (again)

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

the new pitch came quickly:

The Sun Keeps Exploding
"The sun keeps exploding! Yank asteroids out of space and shove them into your explosion-powered forge. Build your extremely explodable base just enough to repair your ship and escape before the sun explodes! Again!"

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

also, sacrificing yourself over and over had a kinda icky connotation that I wasn't super fond of

So... new idea!

What if the sun keeps exploding and destroying you and all your stuff EXCEPT for what you can stuff down in your bunker??

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

I still think this is a fun idea. Everyone's had a boss fight go bad and intentionally die just to get another try in faster.

My problem was, as I was designing it, it turned more and more into a puzzle game that was too big of a scope for me to make in such a short time

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

My initial brainstorming got me to:

sacrifice simulator
- be the best sacrifice
- you're covered in armor and need to keep running into danger

which turned into:

Respawn Simulator
"This run is busted. Just respawn and get it over with."

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

For those who don't know, the theme of the jam wasn't revealed until it started on the first day.

I was actually fully intending on not participating unless the theme really sparked a great idea. I have so much on my plate right now! But "Death is an Opportunity" really got me

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 1d

The jam is over and my game The Sun Keeps Exploding got into the top 100 of #jamsepticeye. Out of over 1000 other entries!

I've never done a game jam before so I thought it'd be fun to write a thread breaking down the whole process 🧵

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 2d

My game has little cats who collect mist and turn it into water but sometimes you don't want to do that. Sometimes you want little wizard cats to blow it up with lightning instead

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 5d

Phew!

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 5d

1. grab asteroids
2. get killed by the sun
3. spend money
4. repeat

Play for free in your browser: encifer.itch.io/the-sun-keep...
#jamsepticeye

Jon Nielsen @encifer.bsky.social · 5d

I just finished my first game jam game: The Sun Keeps Exploding!

- grab asteroids
- repair your ship
- turn your claw into a drill
- die when the sun explodes (again)

Play it now on itch: encifer.itch.io/the-sun-keep...