New game drop!
Shout out to Game Dunk for being one of my favourite gaming events...
Hey everyone!
July is nearly over and I’m here with more tid bits to share on birds and games.
Birds first!
Yesterday I went to get a new tattoo, the one I mentioned in the first issue of this gamesletter. No photos yet I’m afraid, we didn’t quite get it done before I had to dash off to watch the Barbie movie (no spoilers: it’s a wild ride and jumps from ‘very silly’ to ‘too real’ and back again super fast).
I did tell my local Dusky Moorhens that I was getting a tattoo in their likeness, though stylized. I wonder what they will think? What would I think if I was just hanging out day-to-day, and a neighbour of mine got a portrait of me inked on their skin? Well, it’s not a perfect portrait, but it’s definitely a Dusky Moorhen. Maybe that layer of separation is enough. Or maybe the Dusky Moorhens will all fight over which of them wants it to be them on my arm! Who knows…
Ok onto games
Last weekend was Game Dunk, my favourite game jam event of the year. Each year, Game Dunk has gotten cooler by keeping some things the same, and adding newness too. Lemme show you what I mean-
Things that stayed the same:
A widely interpretable core prompt
Wacky and intriguing bonus prompts
Talks from various people in indie games
Short and fun activities in the discord to boost creative juices
Community bouncing ideas and helping each other out
New cool things:
Partnering with SEA creatives!
A talk from a fiction writer (turned ttrpg writer)
I feel like there were more talks this year overall?
Retrospective streams looking at games from Game Dunks past
Lee has a cat now and I could hear it on stream 😻
So cool right!?
I’d been looking forward to Game Dunk all year, and was stoked that the Host team and talks team expanded to include SEA creators. There’s so so much goodness coming out of SEA.
And of course, I was super keen to make a game! Last year I made Breaking Serenity as my Game Dunk entry, and I’m actually pretty proud of it. I’ve taken it to cons, and played it / seen it played on streams at least twice.
This year, my entry is called Babbling Stream. I used the core prompt (Crossing Streams) and 2 bonus prompts (Uno cards, language barriers) to fuel me. Inspired by the LARP Sign by Thorny Games, I set out to make a game about communicating needs with a limited shared vocabulary.
In Babbling Stream you play as either a Protector or a Pilgrim of the Stream.
The Pilgrims wish to cross the stream on a sacred journey, but they need something from the Protectors as part of this pilgrimage.
The Protectors tend to the stream, and anyone who wishes to cross must abide by its law, which the Pilgrims do not know.
Throughout the game, you use Uno cards to share and shape your language, ultimately trying to communicate your Need or Law to the other player(s).
But in the end, whether you succeed or fail, the aim of the game isn’t to ‘win at talking’. It’s about having the experience of trying to communicate when you have so few words, and what happens when we really try to talk to each other.
You can check it out here (if Community Copies are out, please let me know!): https://breathingstories.itch.io/babbling-stream
Plenty of other games were made during Game Dunk too, and I can’t wait to check them all out here: https://itch.io/jam/game-dunk-2023/entries
Ok that’s it for now. I have more Thoughts cooking, but they’re stilling a little while off.
Thanks for reading,
Logan