This theme is about worlds, so I've pretty much spent the whole first three days doing some world building. Still putting my thoughts together, but aiming towards an idea based on a sort of 5D space Myst-like exploration game between two worlds that occupy the same space, but in alternate realities.

I've been running at a pretty hectic pace, so haven't had much time to write anything. I'm working on a 3D first-person exploration/adventure game set within two worlds connected via portals that transport you between simultaneous positions in space but in different worlds. This years theme was my top pick, so I was pretty happy; had a basic idea of what I would do with this theme straight up at the start.

Day 1-3: pretty much spent all of this time world building: created a little beach with a bit of audio atmosphere and critters. I spent most of day 3 figuring out how to get pyopengl to load large obj files quickly (well quicker than the default implementation I started with).

Day 4: started implementing teleportation mechanics, interaction with world objects and control panels etc.

Day 5: fine-tuned the audio and composed some background music, implemented nuisance stuff like title screens, pause screens etc.

Day 6: started designing puzzles and building levels, additional 3D modelling

I think I'm pretty much on track for finishing on time, but as usual, it will be a marathon stretch to the finish :).

Finally got the game all finished and wrapped up at about 6:45am after a marathon night pretty much non-stop from about 8pm. I'm pretty happy with the final result: there are one or two niggly graphical bugs I couldn't rectify before release, but nothing major.

Spent most of Day 7 implementing about 60% of the game levels and puzzles: the results are OK, but I was hoping to implement a bit more variety, but just did have enough time. I'm happy with the overall feel of the game.

Play through video of the game now available (Warning: Spoilers!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxXKugd5VZQ&feature=youtu.be

Don't have access to a windows machine at this moment, so hoping to build an exe release tomorrow, but probably won't get it done until after the deadline.

I've uploaded a Windows exe version of the game (doesn't require python) in case anyone has issues installing dependancies (or can't be bothered):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x7WyIMIwOvCQHfanSnPUGPuIE81IxCZ8/view?usp=sharing

I still haven't been able to get a standalone osx app working with pygame/pyopengl, but will keep trying.

Thanks to everyone who played the game and left feedback! I had a lot of fun this comp ... there were some really entertaining games. Congrats to Cosmo and Enigmatic Archer for the team win. A few notes/after-thoughts about the game:

I was reasonably happy with how the game turned out: I had a lot of fun doing the world design and was happy to get a first-person perspective game to work well in python (I learnt a lot more about using OpenGL, and the wonders of Google poly :) ). I was happy with the visuals and sound, which I tried to put a lot of attention into this comp.

I wasn't really all that happy with the puzzle designs, and didn't really find the game "fun" to play. I had the idea of "portal-like" spatial puzzles from day one, but didn't really have a clear idea of exactly how I would implement these. I think I spent the first 5-6 days just so immersed in the fun of world-building that I got to day 6/7 and was like "oh yeah, I forgot this is supposed to be a game with like an objective and stuff ..." so got caught in the classic trap of not planning the levels/game mechanics out properly from the start. I also wanted to have more objects/mechanics that you would interact with (like switches that control things etc.), but ran out of time in implementing them. I built the entire final maze level in literally the last 1.5 hours, so super rushed at the end.

Congrats to everyone who participated and finished a game, particularly those competing for the first time: make sure you come back for the next comp! I love that this competition exists! Thanks too Mauve for running the ship, much appreciated!