Agent D6: No Time to Dice
GMTK Game Jam 2022 GMTK Game Jam 2022
Roles:
Team Lead
Game Designer
The GMTK Game Jam is an annual game making marathon, where individuals and teams try to make a game that fits a theme, in just 48 hours.
GMTK Game Jam 2022 - Agent D6: No Time to Dice
The Theme
Roll of the Dice
The Pitch
A top down logic puzzle game where you control the dice and you must solve levels by stepping on a number corresponding to your dice face.
The Game
Agent D6: No Time to Dice
The Team
Jeremy (France), Jim (Malasya), Colby (USA), Adapron (Czech Republic), UneTortu (France), MzModez, Pedro Poblete Lasserre (Chile).
Design Process
I joined the team last minute. None of the members knew each other from before, and this was their first game jam. We didn't have time to have an initial meeting, but I facilitated a discord conversation where everyone shared their expectations for the jam.
Once the theme was revealed, I once again facilitated a process of ideation, exploring what the theme meant, pitching game ideas, and selecting one to work with.
The idea of a logic puzzle stuck with the team, and we jumped immediately to discuss possible mechanics. We came up with the idea of rolling the die with every step over a grid, and opening a door by stepping on certain tiles with the right number.
As the team had a large number of developers, we splitted in two teams: art and development, and mediating between both was design.
During the art ideation, the theme of Spies and Heist Movies was chosen, and this theme guided the art, and the prioritization of game mechanics for developers.
My Role
Like the previous year, I decided to focus on the role of Team Lead, but with an emphasis in Game Design, rather than Project Management.
As before, I facilitated all sessions, but I focused more in coordinating the teams and help them solve their issues, while also looking at the larger picture of the game by always keeping the design aspects in mind.
I created a game design document that summarized all of the teams discussions in a single place, and I also tested a paper prototype to show developers how the game would actually play.
Once the paper prototype was validated, I created the 15 levels of the game in paper and shared them with the development team.
Probably my favourite part of the project, though, was naming the levels with puns about dice and James Bond movie references.