The Eclipse: Polishing my game jam submission for a full release.

Taking the advice I received from a portfolio review I’ve put my other work on pause to dedicate time to releasing my first game. The Eclipse was my game jam submission for Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023 and I’m quite proud of the original trick taking combat I designed. So I will be spending the next few months implementing scope that was cut during the jam and polishing it up for a full release on Steam.

Game Jam Criticism and Expanding Scope

After Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023 ended the criticism I received didn’t surprise me. Players wanted to see more dungeon exploration and interaction. I had spent so much energy into the combat that there wasn’t enough time to flesh out interesting level design. I had cut most of the exploration ideas from the scope due to the jam’s time constraints. So I’m bringing those ideas back! The full release will have traps, puzzles, hidden walls, and more interactables.

New Environments

I’ve started blocking out new levels that will each have distinct visuals, enemies, traps, and puzzles.

Improving Visuals

After the game jam one of the main criticisms I received was the visual style. The pixelation I had used offered aesthetic flair that was inconsistent. If often looked good up close, but it became quite a visual mess when viewing anything from a distance. The first image shows the pixel rendering I used during the jam and the following image is the new rendering. To evoke the retro theme the new rendering pushing a CRT theme and reduced the pixelation. The increased visual clarity will improve level exploration and for traps, treasure, and puzzles to have genuine interactions.