Over the weekend of September 8th and 9th, 2018, our team participated in a Game Jam hosted by the Nashville Game Developers and The Adventure Science Center in Nashville, TN.  The event kicked off on Saturday morning with introductions and our challenge for the weekend: create a science-based game with an educational spin.  Given that The Adventure Science Center had dedicated September as "Make It Month," creating a video game based on the science of water seemed perfectly in sync with that idea.  

Through a bit of brainstorming and ideation, we came up with our theme: Water.  Water is one of the most interesting substances in the universe with a host of properties and uses.  We wanted to use our game to teach about the 3 main phases of water - solid, liquid, and gas.  The player would be tasked with navigating a 2D puzzle environment using game mechanics to heat or cool their water character to make it through obstacles and finish the puzzle.  Following a ton of online research on water, we all got a little bit smarter about how water acts, what it can do, and why it's such a versatile substance!  Now, to make that into some interesting and educational gameplay.

We knew we wanted the experience to include the player having to change between the various phases of water to complete the level.  The challenge became how to do that in an educational,  yet fun way.  We decided to utilize the idea of a Bunsen burner to heat the water into a gas to be able to float.  We would use a freezer to turn the water into an ice cube to be able to break through obstacles.  And we'd use the idea of time and friction to turn the gas or ice back into water to navigate grates in the floor.  From there, the team began pulling together assets, coding, and building the game level.  By the end of Day 1, you could start to see the results of the team's work.

For Day 2, our goal was to put out a finished game that would be fully playable start to finish, while also providing some polished visuals and gameplay.  One of the aspects added during Day 2 was our water molecule character, Mo L. Cool, who would serve up interesting facts about water or helpful hints to get the player through the puzzle.  Seth, our artist, came up with a very cool, unique take on the water molecule, showing the hydrogen atoms as headphones on the "head" of the oxygen atom.  Mo L. Cool would live on the game screen and pop up with info every so often throughout the game, triggered by keys the team placed in the level. 

By mid-Day 2, we had some Adventure Science Center guests come through to see what we were working on at the Game Jam.  We decided it would be a perfect time to get some outside opinions on the game and let them play test the current version of the game.  With an Xbox controller in hand, the 2 guests gave the game their best shot while providing us some helpful insights into where we could make adjustments and fixes to make the experience even better.

By the end of Day 2, we had our completed prototype game, which we dubbed "Mind Over Matter."  While we were able to build a complete game level and experience, there are still a few tweaks we'll be making for the final product.  We'll be putting it out on our social channels plus this and other gaming sites for folks to download for free to play (very soon).  It was great to see at the end of the weekend what all the other developers at the Game Jam had been working on.  Each of them showed off their science-themed gaming creations to the group. Some had been working solo on their project, while others also worked in teams.  Everyone had amazingly creative ideas and were able to get completed game experiences built over 2 days.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and look forward to future game jams!

Here's a gameplay video showing our completed prototype from start to finish (that first part is tricky)!