The Making Of BeamStalk (Jam Version)

And... submitted!

BeamStalk is my second game created as a submission for a game jam. Now ive submitted the game (A few minutes ago as of writing this), I can finally have a relax and write about how the whole experience was! To sum it up: slightly stressful, very fun! In this devlog I talk about the making, my opinion of and the future for BeamStalk!

Jam Version History - A few of the Ideas & Prototypes

The 29th Jame Gam has just started, and the theme is revealed to be falling. As well as a theme the game must include,  a 'special object' must also be included in a meaningful way. The special object this time was 'Bean'.  This was going to be my submission. My first step was to try and think of a unique, interesting way of combining the two concepts. The first idea, of course, was using baked beans to stop yourself falling, or 'fly', using a certain gassy process that occurs within our digestive systems. I decided that this idea, whilst humorous, was too simple for my liking. I then thought of a fairy tale - Jack and the Beanstalk - and that reminded me about the fact beanstalks exist. Then, it came to me:

What if it was a part of the level you had to stop from falling instead of the player by supporting it with beanstalks? This idea went through several iterations. One large difference between the earlier prototype and the final game is the size of the beam. The beam used to be as wide as the entire level! The beam worked similarly, but ultimately I decided to shrink it down to its current size as having it wide as the level essentially blocked off an entire region of a level before the beam reached under it and therefore reduced how creative each level could be. 

Behold: the original beam!!

With the beam shrunk down, I began to create the plant areas and the beans. These stayed the same throughout development, although the plan was to have many more bean types. These were lost due to time constraints, but the most memorable ideas included 'cool beans' that could freeze the platform for a while and string beans that would grapple the player to the plant area. Art wise, almost all of the art is original and created for the jam, the only exception being the player character. The player is a small, green and accidentally but very topically bean shaped character. They do not have an official name as of now, but I call it 'Squi' and they were animated and created for my very first published game, Skulljumpr.

Look at them go!! :D

Finally, the art and music were created by me and downloaded respectively on the last two days. It was quite tight finishing up, doing some music and UI last minute but the game was submitted with an hour to spare!

My Thoughts On BeamStalk

I am VERY happy with how it turned out! The game has a cool atmosphere, working audio for once and its gameplay is fun, unique and engaging. This is helped by my level design skills improving since my last platformer and game jam game: Die, Skull, Repeat. I think that BeamStalk is just as fun, if not more fun, than that game whilst only being made in 4 days - 10 days less than I had for Die, Skull, Repeat! 

The future of BeamStalk

The version as of making this will be known as 'JAM' version. I am planning to release a small polish update, 'POST_JAM', which will contain small bug fixes and updates to controls etc. to make the game slightly smoother whilst also improving the manageability of the games code. After that, I wont make any promises but I will consider making more updates - maybe a few more levels, maybe a lot more. I've had ideas already, so make sure you are following me here to get updates! ;)

Thanks for reading! - Skull