Forge!

The jam's theme consisted of two Dixit cards. The first card showed a demonic creature coming out of a die. In the second card, blacksmith was forging a heart shaped object. We decided to include the die, demon, heart, forge, and fire in our game. The main game idea was to try and keep the heart alive as long as possible. The heart stays alive as the fire burns.

The player must complete small tasks assigned by the face number of the die in order to keep the fire fierce. All in all, there are 6 tasks for the player, 5 of which are neutral and 1 task risks the heart with a possible fatal result of the game ending. The fatal task is always assigned by the 5th face of the die and is so tied to the demon card as the demon emerges from the 5th face. The neutral tasks include forging metal, heating metal, adding coals, pulling rope, and sprinkling magic sprinkles. The 5th task opens a portal on the side of the hearth that starts pulling the heart toward its void. Completing a task correctly causes the flames to flash with a color specific to each task. The longer the game goes on the faster the tasks need to be done.

Development

The core idea consisted of many moving elements, so we decided to start developing the game with 3D assets. We needed simple 3D models for the heart, die, rope, anvil, a box for the coals, the coals, sprinkle shaker, hammer, and forge. I created the 3D assets using Blender. Previous experience in 3D modeling and the simplicity of the required assets made the work relatively easy. For the rope, I used a screw modifier and created a bone structure to enable its movement later in Unity.

After modeling, I created textures for the assets. The die was textured directly in Blender by assigning different colored materials to it, but other textures were created by using Krita. The textures included simple wooden, metal and stone textures. For the sprinkle shaker, I created a more specific texture which required more detailed UV unwrapping in Blender. In addition to the textures, I also created normal maps for the assets for more realistic look. This was eventually achieved simply by using a filter mask.