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 World MytholoJam.
The World MytholoJam was a game jam that inspired developers to create a game around some sort of mythology and culture that is important to them. I went through and played as many as I could in my compilation video series and below are a few of my favorites, in random order.
Rei_carnation by Kigyo & JaviCKP
Rei_carnation is an adorable RPG that turns your normal human body into a ghost who lives in a world full of friendly and not so friendly demons. You’ve just woken up here after previously being in your own home, playing on your computer past midnight. Unsure what’s happened, you quickly make friends with Oni, a demon. After a bit of bonding and trying to understand your new world, you end up getting a job with Oni at a local government agency that has you running small tasks.
Some tasks are easy, others are more challenging, but all need to be completed or else you die. After the first training task is done, a third friend joins your team, rounding you all out nicely. Rei_carnation is a game with lots of personality. The story writing is wonderful; from the characters you work for through to the awkward flirting between Oni and yourself. Following your own interesting story, without a care in the world to getting back to your own life, there seems to be a lot to love in a world full of demons.
This game was actually removed from itch.io before this article was published.
Leonidas Wants a Spear by Karu & Adel Faure
Leonidas Wants a Spear is a striking ASCII-styled adventure game where you have been made into a blacksmith for the gods. You were just a hobo trying to get out of the city, but you ran into a powerful god who needed a spear. Now you need to figure something out or probably be killed. Who knows, you were just a hobo moments ago. A mushroom gatherer gives you a spear recipe, for whatever reason, and shares some materials, so at least that’s a good start.
It turns out, that shroom gatherer is actually a salesman hoping to buy the weapons you make off of you and sell you stronger materials, but that’s getting ahead of yourself. First, you need to make a spear. In Leonidas Wants a Spear, nothing is predictable. You can make a spear by talking to a giant, lonely furnace god. You can sacrifice materials to them, before going deep into the center of the Earth to work for another god trying to make the actual spear. Whichever order you put thematerials in will dictate the order of the mini-games you will need to play in Hell. Chopping trees, dodging swords, hitting rocks — you wouldn’t want to lose your three lives in any of these levels as your spear just won’t be finished.
Once you have a useful spear you can go to town and sell it or present it to Leonidas who asked for it, but chances are it’s not a very good spear. Good luck making one he likes! Leonidas Wants a Spear is a very polished, amazing looking game that also is well written and contains great music. I really fell in love with it.
The Haunting of Guildford Castle by dslibs
The Haunting of Guildford Castle is a mysterious narrative adventure game where you need to figure out who the ghost haunting Guildford Castle is. You are given three potential theories to work off of in this mystery, each naming a different person and their relation to the town that the castle is in. From there, you must explore, follow leads, and listen to reports happening in the town to solve the mystery. Along with newspaper reports, you also are shown a social media stream of rumors, often with things that the chip shop owner said or reactions to someone directly seeing a spirit.
There isn’t much interaction beyond reading the various bits of evidence and watching the screen move around the map, which shows you where each thing takes place. There isn’t an end person that you accuse, instead, once you have read all of these strange mysteries, the game asks you to think about who exactly did it. The Haunting of Guildford Castle is very captivating in the way that it presents this spooky story and is good for anyone looking to read a bit of ghost theory in a different way.
Bacchus Made Me Do It by Ash
Bacchus Made Me Do It is a game that looks mysterious until you start getting towards the ‘edited’ pictures. This is basically an exploration game where you walk around, looking at the influence of Bacchus and the effects of drinking. There are a bunch of statues that work as guides, telling you to find goblets both big and small.
The larger goblets have pieces of history, telling you about Bacchus, while the smaller goblets have edited bits of history, created after the developer and their friends were drunk, which provide a pretty funny narrative to try and follow. Bits of poems and words can be found parchments to add to the story – but it is one ultimately for you to figure out. It’s worth walking around, but be careful of falling from heights, as you can die in Bacchus Made Me Do It.
Last Arc of the Raiders by Dja_Redona
Last Arc of the Raiders is a stunning narrative adventure game where you get to explore a mysterious temple in the middle of the mountains. This town seems to be full of scholars and people interested in a bunch of different demons and gods, but you seem to just be wondering where the comic book section of this massive library is.
No one seems to have known of this town, many of the people there are confused about what is going on there, but it is a beautiful place to explore. Last Arc of the Raiders is a very short experience, being just a preview at this time, but the art alone is worth exploring and look at! This is a great example of what can be created in the Bitsy Engine.
Interested in reading about more game jam highlights? Why not check out our archive?
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