To play the game, click on the Itcho.io site and click the "Run game" button!
Once we knew the theme of the Jam, we as a team immediately got to concepting. We came up with over 20 concepts and narrowed it down to our top 3 in our first sprint - which was a 90-minute sprint. We then had a lot of debate over the core gameplay loop - so much so that all we did before sleeping was iron out the details.
We started back up in the morning with a Game Design Document and Visual Design Document to guide our decisions and get everyone onto the same page. We were most inspired by moths and their attraction to light. We combined that idea with collecting light for a lighthouse to create our main gameplay loot of collecting moths who carry light to your lighthouse. In order to create an in-scope concept, we added an upgrade system to our game to increase the defensive mechanics of the Lighthouse. With 3 programmers, we quickly went through the main gameplay loops and spent the last hours of the Jam bug-fixing and fine-tuning our game.
As an in-person team, we learned a lot about boundaries and how quickly iterations went through. After sleep, we went through our concepts 10 times faster than when it was early in the morning. We spent a lot of time debating mechanics and trying to define a concept with a hard plan of what it was beforehand, so once we had a plan and everyone could be on the same page, progress was very fast.
We built our project in Unity 2026.8, and used the Google Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, and Logic Pro to create our assets and documents. We started by getting a base for the AI system, a base for the lighting systems, a diagram of the gameplay loop, a rough concept document, and rough thumbnails of the art. Moving onto the next day, our programmers kept similar roles, working on AI, light, and then the Upgrade mechanics. Artists split between creating creatures and their animations and creating the environment. Designers started on Design Documents and defining the upgrade tree, all while the producer kept the team on track with consistent meetings, sprint plans, and 1-on-1 check-ins.
The Team (In Person) Barb Brien - Artist Lain Lebel - Artist Selina Funk - Programmer Owen Manchek - Programmer Luke Hinojosa - Programmer Annika Fuller - Designer Jessica De La Cruz - Designer Devin Riley - Producer
