Planetary Assault is the third global game jam game that I have made with a team. For this GGJ, I have teamed up with 3 students: Robert Broer, David Elout and Max Weijers. ‘Repair’ is this years GGJ theme. It’s an interesting theme if you ask me. I don’t think I have seen a lot of games that uses the word ‘repair’ as a focus point.
Concept
Like usual, we went to our assigned room, dropped our stuff and brainstormed until we came up with a concept. We came up with a tower defense shoot em’ up game where you have to defend your planet from the aliens (poachers). One way to do this is by firing your ship’s cannons at the alien ships but the aliens will overwhelm you eventually. This is where the tower defense part plays a role in the game. You have resources to spend on the planet which allows you to create buildings on your planet. Either you place an attack turret which increases your planet’s firepower or choose to place a gather turret which allows you to get more resources.
The alien’s goal isn’t to destroy the planet but to steal the planet’s natural resources. There are two types of alien ships. The first type is a crack ship that shoots at the planet’s vulnerable spots in order to create a cracked crust in the planet. The second type is a ship with a gravity pull cannon equipped. This allows the ship to pull the cracked crust from the planet and eventually will fly away with it if it’s not destroyed in time. Fortunately the player have the ability to repair these cracked crusts. This can be done by flying close to it and press the repair button, but beware that you cannot move during that time.
Thoughts after GGJ 2020
It seems GGJ 2020 were doing things a lot different compared to the previous two GGJs. This time there was no jury, instead the jury is the audience where people can vote by giving it a sticker. There were two type of stickers; one for the overall best game and the other one for the most unique game. At the end, these stickers were collected and 2 winners were announced.
If you ask me, I do miss the old categories like the best student game, best narrative and best graphics. There were a lot of games who focused on these categories but ultimately they felt flat when you look at the overall game. Despite this, I still think they do deserve a spot in the spotlight.
GGJ Game Site: https://globalgamejam.org/2020/games/planitary-assault-8
