Inspiration
After the theme "Shaping the future" was announced we sat down to brainstorm. We had several quick ideas. But after throwing out all the obvious ones, we soon stumbled upon a good one. The idea that we can't change what's happened in the past, and we can't predict and live in the future. The only thing we have is the "here and now." These words reminded us of the practise of meditation. During meditation we sit down and as soon as we close our eyes we are met with an overwhelming amount of thoughts and chatter. The key is to, one by one, silence these thoughts and voices until we are only left with the present moment. And that is all that we really have. And here is where we can shape our future.
What it does
From our spark of inspiration, we decided to develop a game in which you, the player, would wake up in this noisy room. An 80's inspired bedroom accompanied by a synth-pop track playing in the background. So this game is about silencing these noises, like in meditation, one by one until you are only left with the present moment. The soundtrack consists of different layers that are linked to different objects in the game. By tapping on them, the music and ambient sounds will fade out. And that is the goal of the game. Find your peace, or you could enjoy listening to the sounds around you.
How we built it
So this game was the first time we have ever made an iOS game, let a lone a game build using only Xcode and SceneKit. 3D assets were all created in Blender and then textured in Photoshop. The music was made in FL Studio.
Challenges we ran into
Trying something for the first time is a surefire way to run into challenges. Our game relies a lot on sounds and music. What a surprise it was to find out that SceneKit has some bugs when it comes to its AudioPlayers. So for instance, you can't change the volume property on a AudioSource once it has started playing, which made it really difficult to fade out sounds. In the end, our solution was to move the sounds away from the AudioListener "faking" a fade out. Our time constraints just didn't allow us to get stuck on one problem for too long, but hey as long as it works! We also had problems with shadow artefacts, sadly we did not have time to solve the problem fully. But our art style lent itself nicely for a minimalistic look and we ended up relying on camera and rendering effects to get an appealing look.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This is our first game jam ever and the first time we met Adrian. So to have finished a game in a weekend is something that we are really proud of.
What we learned
During this weekend we have learned how to quickly collaborate, also with new people. And be able to create something and push ourselves. It has also given us greater proficiency in our technical abilities.
What's next for Morning
We think this is probably where we will leave Morning. Feel free to download the source code and compile the project for yourself. We appreciate the value of having been here and developed a little game to completion, but there is also value in moving on to something new. Something that might some day shape the future :) Thank you all for a fantastic game jam!
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