Overview
Hoarder’s Curse was developed over the course of a weekend for the Ludum Dare game jam. The theme of the jam was Running out of space, which we interpreted through a 2D platformer built around constrained inventory management. Players progress through the game with a limited number of inventory slots and no ability to discard collected items, creating a trade-off between resource collection, survivability, and long-term planning.
Our team consisted of four members, split between two artists and two programmers. This was my first fully online game jam, and I organized both the team workflow and the overall development setup. On the implementation side, I was responsible for all major gameplay systems apart from enemy AI, including game state management, input handling, and player control systems. The visual assets, audio, and level design were created by the two artists. Because the art team was primarily experienced in illustration rather than 3D or pixel art, we chose a hand-drawn 2D style supported by tile-based levels and custom animations.
Impressions
Conclusion
This project was a useful exercise in rapid prototyping, remote collaboration, and mechanic-driven game design. In addition to the implementation work, it was my first experience organizing a distributed game jam team and structuring the development process in a fully online setting.
The final result was a playable prototype with a clear gameplay concept, a distinctive visual style, and a functional core system. While additional development time would have allowed for further balancing and bug fixing, the project successfully translated the jam theme into a coherent mechanic. The game is available for download below, and the source code can also be found on GitHub.
