RustyCruise LabsOverview
This is my second attempt at GMTK game jam.
The first game I ever made “I am Bullet” was also part of GMTK challenge.
This time around, I managed to complete about 80% of what I originally envisioned — 4 days is still a short window, and there are definitely bugs and incomplete features in the submission. That said, it was a great learning experience! I’ve become more confident in development and picked up some new techniques, especially around working with 3D objects.
Do check out the game page on Backfire.
Development Phases
I can roughly break the development process into three key phases: “Ideation”, “Asset Creation”, and “Gameplay Programming”.
Ideation (Day 1)
This phase was relatively simple. I did my initial brainstorming with ChatGPT to generate and validate ideas, especially to make sure the scope was manageable for a 4-day game jam. One of the key lessons I learned from past jams is that I often get overly ambitious and end up running out of time. So this time, I made a conscious effort to keep the scope small and achievable.
The theme for this year was “Loop”, and I wanted to create something that could tie into my future projects. Since I’ve been planning to develop a top-down 3D hack-and-slash game, I decided to explore an idea that used a similar camera angle and featured run-and-shoot mechanics.
After a few iterations, I landed on the concept of “looping back your shots” — a mechanic where every projectile you fire eventually returns as a ghost shot that can damage you. It fit the theme well and added a layer of chaotic strategy that I thought was fun and unique.
Creating Assets (Day 2)
PS: There’s a Free Cartoon Tank model available on the Unity Asset Store that you might find useful!
I started working on Day 2 by creating the assets I needed using Blender. It was a really fun experience and a great refresher on how to use Blender after some time away. Here’s a preview of what I ended up with:
It wasn’t until I was almost done that I discovered there were already free assets on the Unity Asset Store… 😅 So lesson learned: always check what’s available before you start building from scratch!
In hindsight, I spent a bit too much time on asset creation — it ended up taking nearly a whole day, which could have been better balanced with gameplay and polish. Thankfully, the model imported into Unity without much trouble, so I was able to jump into gameplay development right after.
Gameplay Programming (Day 3)
After several years of game development, I’ve built up a number of reusable scripts, which helped me quickly get the project up and running. However, one skill I realized I was lacking was level design.
I spent Day 3 researching how to create engaging levels and environments — starting with whiteboxing and greyboxing techniques.
I learned quite a bit from “Conradical” — highly recommend checking out the two videos below to understand the workflow for whiteboxing and building out your environment.
One useful tip I picked up from a video was the idea of using LOD Groups in Unity to optimize performance when working with 3D assets. It’s something I plan to experiment more with moving forward.
Next, it was my turn to build the world! During one of the Unity Asset Store sales, I had picked up the Ultimate Low Poly Mining Cave asset pack.
Due to time constraints, I decided to use this pack to quickly assemble the environment. It definitely sped things up — but one challenge I still haven’t fully figured out is how to properly layer and arrange the models when building the world. It’s something I’ll need to explore more in future projects.
This is what I ended up with which I am pretty satisfied.
Gameplay Programming (Day 4)
The final day was mostly spent on polishing the game and setting up the enemy spawn waves. Due to time constraints, I had to settle for using simple red capsule enemies as placeholders.
That said, adding sound effects, VFX, and a basic GUI really helped bring the game to life — it added a surprising amount of personality and energy despite the minimal visuals.
For some reason, WebGL builds take forever to complete, so I highly recommend allowing plenty of time for this step. I only had about 2 hours left before the deadline to build and submit, so in the end, I settled for a Windows build and submitted whatever I could.
With that, you can check out my submission on Itch.io (Backfire). Please feel free to leave any feedback — I’d really appreciate it!