The Secret Behind the Storm - Our Unreal Spring Jam Submission

Hi everyone!

As it happened, we joined the Unreal Spring Jam with our fellow gamedevs from Spelkollektivet! It was an intense jam, we got so many things done and achieved much of what we envisioned at the start of the jam, in some cases, achieving even more.

The game was made in 6 days by:

Simon Ulander - Programming / Gameplay Design
Ott Madis Ozolit - Programming / Gameplay Design
Dennis Kurzeja - 3D / Technical Art
Leene Künnap - 2D / Concept Art
Adam Bow - Music / Sound Design

Leene came up with the name: The Secret Behind the Storm, at the very last minute. But that's what our submission is now! And we're really happy with it.

When we first started brainstorming ideas, we had 3 main candidates. A non-euclidean puzzle game, a game about anxiety, nuts and gliding around in an open space, and a game where you are an office drone snorting substances and being depressed. So, in retrospect, we probably made the right choice when it came to the game fitting to the theme.

We wanted to tackle anxiety, the "Rat Race" and how to cope with stress. We also wanted to make it in a vibrant soft-coloured universe with squirrels. And nuts. We joked about nuts way too much. Anyway. Squirrels are cute.

Eventually, ideas started rolling and on the second day we reinforced a lot of the anxiety theme. The aim was to make a game that would reveal itself by the gameplay, which was our interpretation of the theme. To reinforce the theme and to be a bit more literal, we have both winter and spring themes incorporated with mental health issues as well. A lot of thought went into allusions and allegory to what a challenge, character or mood spot in the game could mean.

And I got to do a lot of math. Like a lot.

Pro tip: don't try to make your own 100% fully custom movement for a game jam.

Or, do, like me. And find that it's actually super fun and satisfying when it works! It was still committing every cardinal sin about programming ever. But it worked. In addition to that, Dennis and Leene came up with an amazing visual style, combining their collective knowledge about 2D and 3D design. I really love how the game looks. Simon went ham with all the underlying gameplay systems and level design, giving each area in the game a bit of an unique feel and to make exploration rewarding. I'm still playing it and enjoying how chill of a game we all made :3

In the end our rag-tag team of VIDEO GAME NERDS managed to make something both aesthetically and mechanically pleasing (to us, at least), which felt extremely inspiring.

So, yeah! Another game jam wrapped up. Now to wait for the next one!

Much love!

-Oak @ Placeholder Gameworks