Overview
The game “Prop am Berg” was developed during the “Semester Games Jam” during the winter semester of 2019/2020. The topic of this game jam was “Freeze”, which is why our team opted to recreate the well-known game “Ochs am Berg” (which is roughly like red light – green light). This idea combined with the popular Call of Duty mod “Prop Hunt” makes for a fun, asymmetrical multiplayer game, where one player controls a drone and up to four players play as gnomes. The gnomes can transform into and select from a variety of props, which are distributed across the level as well. The drone, which can only shoot once before having to recharge, is tasked with uncovering what is persistent and what isn’t..
My responsibilities in this project were manifold, as I was the most experienced programmer in our team of six. I implemented the control and input systems, some rendering related work as well as the prop systems (selection, creation, ..). The game is supposed to be played on one system with two monitors, so this also had to be done properly. While everything did somewhat work, sadly the controls weren’t optimal and there were a few bugs which made the game quite frustrating to play at times. A little bit of additional time to iron out the bugs and polish the gameplay probably would’ve made a big difference and was a key takeaway of this game jam.
Impressions
Final Words
All in all this game jam was a lot of fun, with an interesting concept and lots of gnome related jokes. The artists certainly delivered, given the limited amount of time, amazing assets and one adorable little gnome. The most important lesson was definitely that fine tuning and play testing matters. Working until the deadline and handing in a game that lacks the final polish is hardly ever a good, as a cool idea can become a mediocre one if the players do not understand it.
The game is available to download bellow, it does however require two screens and at least one controller to play. It also should be noted that, due to an input related bug, the game has to be restarted after every game. The whole project can also, as always, be found on GitHub!