Resolution Jam 2024

Theme: "Special Delivery"

Explore a vast map via Dogsled!

While I didn't put the time into this that I would've liked to make it really shine, the project served its intended purpose. Perfect for the new years resolution jam, it was a good excuse to work on "shipping" a smaller project. Also, we had several personal accomplishments:

McKenna Sandell: Her second game jam, and first time 3D modelling. She made the sled, the dogs, and some terrain features. I was really impressed by her ability to tackle Blender as a first-timer and successfully model, rig, and unwrap multiple pieces. She's excited to do more, and I'm super excited to have a 3D artist for future projects!

Our Friend Nick: Nick and I have both been itching for a project, and I am somewhat convinced game development is up his alley. This was intended to be his first game jam, and he contributed some initial ideas I really liked and hope to explore further. Timing around the holidays made it difficult to properly collaborate (my fault).. but, he got up to speed with some of the tools and I'm hopeful that he will be contributing even more next jam.

Myself: At some point, my main focus for the jam became less to "win," and more to recreate a somewhat immersive dogsledding experience. One aspect of accomplishing that was getting the dogs to move somewhat correctly. I had never done any sort of procedural animation before (nor any 3D animation at all).. so I invested a good chunk of time in that. While the result is far from it's potential.. the fundamental features are there, and I look forward to tweaking it further and adding the tidbits I didn't make time for. Additionally, I have some better physics-based sled setups that were too unstable to use. I'll be returning to that approach, and hope to end up with a fairly enjoyable sledding mechanic that we can potentially build some gameplay around. VR? :)