The Development Story

"Jingle Hell" became a favourite project of mine due to the limitations and the frantic team I worked with. Due to this project being a Game Jam, our team, the theme of the game, and special object necessary was not finalised until the Game Jam went live. 

Over the course of seven days, myself and my four new friends fleshed out the ideas for the project. This included how we could weave in a narrative into such a small game. In the end, we settled on Santa and his Elves being mischievious. 

The development process began with myself building a three-room level to really sell the idea that you were inside Santa's Grotto. I would strategically place the character into a warm environment, misleading them on the danger that would soon await them. 
 

As with any good game, a tutorial room awaited next, filled with presents, and the Special Object of the Game Jam - anvils. This taught the player that utilising the anvils as a weapon was their only key to success. While it did come at the sacrifice of a lone elf, the player soon realised that these elves would want their revenge. 

Upon stepping into the final room - the Boss Room. You instantly are aware that Santa is not happy with your presence. I wanted to keep Santa's mechanics simple, so decided to give him three different attacks. His standard attack is a ranged attack when you're far away. This puts the players dodging skills to the test. His next attack was an area attack called Present Barrage, this would drop presents from the ceiling in a 3 x 3 grid, and if the player was near or under them, they would take damage. His last attack, the stomp, was designed to stop the player from circling the boss and avoiding his ranged and area attack. 
 

Throughout the development journey, one of the most valuable lessons I learned was the importance of collaboration. With little to no time to get to know one another before working, working together on forming a collaborative idea everyone could achieve in such a short period of time set the team up for success. Through constant communication via our Discord server, we consistently iterated on various parts of the game until we were satisfied with how the player would engage with the content.
 

In the end, I am really proud of how well Jingle Hell did in the Game Jam, coming #13th out of almost 300 submissions! It is a project that I personally put a lot of love into, and it was very rewarding to see it come together so efficiently and have people genuinely enjoy their experience when playing.