There are a ton of game jams happening online at any point during the year. Many of these jams follow a theme and a timeframe, giving developers the challenge of creating a game within a specific jam’s restrictions. I am able to record loads of these games for each and almost every game jam. As I record them all, I pick out games that stand out to me and games I love from each individual jam. This article contains the games I love from the Movie Game Jam.
The Movie Game Jam is a reoccurring game jam where developers are inspired by a scene from their favorite movie. I don’t tend to actually watch movies, so I haven’t seen most of the ones that inspired these games — but I enjoyed the games nonetheless. I’ve played through each of the submitted games in my compilation video series and below are a few of my favorites, in a random order.
Swordfish by Sebastian Lague
Swordfish puts you in the role of a hacker, looking to take all of the money from a bunch of bank accounts to get rich quick. As quick as the task may be for skilled people, you will have to take on several trials to get the money you are seeking. The first trial is a lot of typing, as words fall across a number of screens. These screens are where you are working — but if any of the phrases hit the bottom of the screen, you will have to completely restart. Once you have ‘released the hydra’ you move onto the next trail — a snake-esque game where you get bigger and bigger, collecting dots along the way. Once again, if you hit your tail or fail, you will need to restart this area.
Then, you need to avoid rockets coming at you and lead them off the screen – destroying them without getting hit once. From there, you must decode a text file and guess the password to finally hack these bank accounts. Hacking is very challenging in Swordfish — with no room for mistakes. You will need to spend quite a bit of time to get this hard earned cash.
Fury on the Road by Juan Francisco Mora Palomino & Sergio Font Gomez
Fury on the Road puts you in a badass vehicle out of Mad Max — spikes on the front of your car, a giant gun attached to the top — and all you need to do is survive. You drive out into the area, facing various other enemies all with similar cars. As you move around the environment, you will need to avoid rocks and landforms while shooting other cars. These cars will not attach each other and instead seem dead set on destroying you. Running into the environment or others will cause you to die.
The longer you stay alive, circling the arena, the better your score will be. Each time you destroy an enemy with a few shots of your machine gun you will gain a multiplayer, increasing your score as time goes on. Although the gameplay is simple in Fury on the Road, the graphics and general feel of the game are truly wonderful. From calling your car a badass to telling you that you are trash when you die, this game is well thought out when it comes to themeing.
Between the Worlds by Devsaur
Between the Worlds has you following a funny narrator, making your way through a large number of different movie references! As your story is being told, you are able to more around each set, exploring and trying to figure out what needs to be done. You can either listen to the narrator and be patient as they talk through the story, or you can rush ahead and get whatever you need to do, done.
Finding your wand in a Harry Potter inspired set or moving across boats in what must be Pirates of the Caribbean will force various reactions from your narrator. They expect you to be doing things according to the movie script, which you have never seen, so you’ll need to make up what’s going on. Each of the various worlds you get to explore have different upgrades, like boots that make you jump farther and a wand for moving large objects. These can be used in all the sets, allowing you to take on whatever comes your way. You are the main character of this story, so it’s up to you to play by your own rules or listen to the narrator — you’re the star!
REPLICANT : The Search by Léonardo Montes, Valentin Serri, & Maixent Bouteiller
REPLICANT : The Search, inspired by Blade Runner 2049, sees you exploring a seemingly empty world, and observing what pops up around you. Nothing is left of this world apart from the holograms from previous times. You are looking for someone specific, but only have these holograms to guide you. These images don’t talk or directly tell you where to go, but seeing them will show you what had happened in this place.
REPLICANT : The Search is very open in the way you explore, having you see whatever part of the world you wonder to; showing advertisements and the people who use to fill the space around you. The world is slightly eerie even with these holograms, showing you a place that use to be very full of life and is now completely empty. I couldn’t help but continue to explore the world, looking for an unknown person in hope of finding them.
Release the Midi-Chlorians by Jack Le Hamster
Release the Midi-Chlorians is a story-driven game full of humor, inspired by Star Wars. Unlike in Star Wars (I’m guessing, I’ve not actually see it), this game has you play Kylo who is hardcore crushing on Rey. Rey is trying to convince you to join the light side, when really you just want to introduce your new girlfriend to Snoke. Introducing this new girlfriend of yours doesn’t go well, so you get to decide how to deal with the sudden hate from your family.
If you decide to not kill the only girl that gave you the time of day, the game changes to a platformer, having a mini-version of you attempt to save the day. The Star Wars universe is weird and it is going to be a rather big challenge to save this girl from her fate and keep her your girlfriend. Good luck with whatever you decide — it’s your own version of this movie after all!
Interested in reading about more game jam highlights? Why not check out our archive?
Thanks for reviewing “Release the midi-chlorians”. It’s one of my favorite work.
You should watch “The Last Jedi” if you haven’t yet. But for the record, while the mid part of the game’s story in the game was completely invented, the overall plot does match that same scene in the movie 😉