I think using these verbs as indices for game feel would be a productive way of identifying the kind of game experience a player is looking for. Example: Give me a radar chart showing me how much Jumping v. Shooting is in this platformer; or how high the Observing index is in this horror game.

Shoot then applies to proactive expressions applied to other entities or the game space itself. Any kind of attack or projectile fits under this category. Move and Select are basically the same concept of altering either entities in the game space or abstractions in the game space.

Of these, Jump and Shoot do a lot of heavy lifting, but I think of it like this: A verb that equates to a Jump is a reactive expression of a controlled entity in a game space. This would cover jumps, dodges, parries, quick time events, and so on.

This post elicited a hell yeah -> let's go -> dudes rock before I even read the text.

And play DOZE, a not so good but definitely relaxing blockish puzzler: jonah-srg.itch.io/doze

My #fallingblockjam game is complete: DOZE.

A lazy puzzle game for catching some zzzs.

jonah-srg.itch.io/doze

Things are coming together! It's not fun though. Worry not, I will make it more complicated than it needs to be and not fuss with the make-it-fun bit. #fallingblockjam

I could go into much more depth on procedural v. OOP, the oddities of TIC-80's sprite mapping, the insane sfx sampler, and multiple features I didn't even have time to use. But for now, this is all I've got on sproqet. Let me know what you think. Also, send me your GMTK games!

It also gives me a bit more perspective on using an engine as well. GameMaker is really, really great at what it does! I hadn't realized how much I took for granted clock timing, alarms, animation speed... It will likely continue to be the main tool I use when prototyping or shipping out games.

The results of taking on such a challenge are, as I'm sure you can tell, mixed. The considerations and limitations of a fantasy console are super inspiring, and I can now approach the amazing games in the pico8/TIC-80 scenes with so much more perspective.

If that weren't enough, this is also the first game I've ever written in python. TIC-80 supports lua as it's default or recommended language, but after having worked with the Playdate SDK earlier this year I wanted to challenge myself to add a new language into my game portfolio as it were.

But I do feel ever so slightly proud of it anyways; as a first for me, I have picked up a new game making framework entirely in the course of one jam for this one. This is my first game with the utterly charming fantasy console, the TIC-80!

The self-consciousness comes from my own standards, but primarily weighing sproqet against my previous entries to GMTK or similar length jams. I would go as far to say it's not any good.

It's a rigid little snake-like game in which you follow a color series, rinse and repeat. Nothing special.