A seven hour game
This game was our entry in to Boise State University's 2019 annual 7 Hour Game Jam - known as the 'GIMM Jam'. GIMM is an acronym for Games Interactive Media and Mobile, my B.S.
Game jams are timed competitions in which teams must fully design a game based upon a prompt given by the judges. After a set amount of time has passed teams must hand in their games for judging. For the 2019 GIMM Jam we were given the prompt "whatever floats your boat".
Concept & Design
We spent time thinking about what direction to take our game in. We wanted a strong concept since we wouldn't have much time to iterate (7 hours is a very short time to develop a game). While a boat theme seemed like an obvious choice at first, we really wanted to delve in to the spirit of the phrase "whatever floats your boat." It's something one says when you don't agree with someone's opinion but you aren't going to judge them.
"Oh, you like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches? Whatever floats your boat."
So we developed a game in which the player controls an employee of a root beer float stand on a seaside pier. Your customers are an eccentric bunch who have strange float requests, but you fulfill them without judgement. We have cute ice cream and soda flavors like poop, sea water, tar and pee. This game even featured an original score.
Awards & Team
From left to right: Keegan Provo, Travis, Nicholai Cascio, Brenan Leman.
We were awarded the title of Most Creative Game.
You can find Whatever Floats Your Boat, open source on my GitHub.