Over the weekend of March 30th- April 1st, GameSalad had the honor to take part in the international game jam event, Moly Jam.
Inspired by British game designer, Peter Molyneux, the Moly Jam game jam explores the question “What Would Moly Deux”. Game ideas were chosen from a list of curated tweets from Molyneux exploring fun and zany concepts such as:
- Imagine living in a world where all anyone can do is hurt each other. You on the other hand, your only ability is to hug those around you.
- Would love to make a platformer where you play as a thing with a microwave for a head. You have to grab enemies, put them in your head. Etc
- Game in which you control a waterfall and must travel the world hiding outdoor passages from adventurers.
GameSalad was delighted to be chosen as one of the recommended platforms for this game jam. On Friday March 30th, GameSalad hosted a webinar to all interested Moly Jam participants teaching the basics of game design with the Creator tool and the potential for rapid game creation.
Also, on the local level GameSalad sponsored the Austin Moly Jam game site and provided dinner to all the hungry game designers.
Several notable GameSalad developers were involved in the game jam. GameSalad developer, @HoneyTribeStudios, attend the London Moly Jam site and was able to even meet Peter Molyneux himself. HoneyTribe lended his audio talents to a team of developers creating a Xbox controller Kinect game. Together they created a game designed off the tweet: “Game where you must hold onto your mother’s hand. Let go for more than X seconds and it’s game over.”
Another GameSalad success story comes from a developer team in crisis. During the first day of MolyJam, one developer team dissolved with their programmers dropping out of the event. The two artists were left wanted to continue lacking the programming knowledge that they prior teammates had. Luckily, they were able to pick up GameSalad and with the ease of the drag-and-drop functionality make a game to enter in the competition. Upon presenting their project at the end of the jam, they received a standing ovation from the attendees.
Their game was based off the tweet, “Imagine if you had to secretly support your family via complex ventilation passages in your large industrial home?”
In their game, Secret Dad, you are Pete. A difficult divorce split you up from your wife and kids, but all you want to do is spend time with your family. So you hide in the ventilation ducts of your old house doing menial tasks for your family as you try to win back their love.
