On desktop, I love using a library called Allegro, and they have their own game jam community called TINS; and along came the KrampusHack, which is a secret santa game jam thing. I thought it might be pretty interesting to join in...

Each participant submits a "wish list", and at the start of the jam, you are presented with one of the other participants wish-list. None of it is "required", but it is encouraged to try and fit the brief. The one I've got has some bits I think I'm capable of, and within the limits of the GBA too...

But wait... why am I annoying the GBA community with an Allegro jam... Well, Allegro is preferred, but not required, and whilst I am using Allegro, my game engine builds for both desktop and the GBA! So you'll all be getting a little Christmas game at the end of December, start of January.

Dev logs are encouraged on TINS, so I thought I'd kind of double-key and give you all the exciting news of my production too...

Wow what a cool idea! And very well thought out too what with the whole reassignment system in case someone drops out.

Excited to see what you come up with!

oh sweet, yay!

Not overly thrilled with the snow falling, but that can be tweaked later, but here's the opening sequence

https://youtu.be/xp1LT-md8MA

I grabbed some usable assets from itch, and modified them to give a christmas theme, but you won't see them until I get into the gameplay. The wish list gave me something which I think I'm capable of doing, so I won't reveal too much about that yet.

I kind of regret entering this jam, considering the amount of work I've got on, but you know what they say... if you don't try...

I've ditched the modified assets, just to prevent any issues; and reworked my own. You can now enter the "game", but not do anything yet.

Am moving away from the wish-list in terms of gameplay for something that fits the style a bit more

I like where this is going! Something like original Mario Bros or Super Crate Box? Also curious to know what items were on the wishlist, but maybe that's private info x)

I've indicated I'm dual logging on the TINS site, so yes, I can't reveal anything from the wishlist really.
I've been away for a few days, so not much progress (other than some thoughts on gameplay); and yes, it's going to have a Super Crate Box style of gameplay to it, just winter themed 😃 and you've got to protect the presents from the goblins.

Got just a week left, and not sure how finished I'll get, hopefully I can at least get the player in the level so you can pickup, drop and throw presents and snowballs.

After a bit too much family time over Christmas 😀 I've managed to struggle my way through getting an object system running.

You can now control the player, though can't really do much more, and the jump height needs adjusting so you can actually get up ledges

https://youtu.be/JE7o5KeSt_Q

Yippee... Snowballs incoming
https://youtu.be/pXNYaS7oZrM

I now have presents in the level, and goblins! The goblins don't have any AI (other than every 16 frames pick something new).

An unintended "feature" I found out whilst testing was that you can be picked up by the goblins, and vice versa. Could lead to some interesting gameplay, so I'm going to leave it in for now.

I need to start thinking about finding some public domain music and sfx for the game.

All in all, I'm actually quite happy how this is working out. I don't know how "playable" or fun it will be, I guess we'll find that out, but I'm running out of time.

https://youtu.be/AReGskgp_wo