Harry Robertson

Waltz Of The Faceless by outism, loewenmaul, discolexia, Jim milton, WobbleBlast, YamiMao, moonshews Craft artistic masquerade masks for the most exclusive macabre party in the afterlife!

Did another game jam recently, this time doing dialogue for this fun, spooky Halloween game! outism.itch.io/waltz-of-the...

I took some inspiration from Hades where you only get quick dialogue from the gods that also isn't a conversation but you need to establish character and sprinkle in some plot

God I just heard how Laufey is supposed to be pronounced and I'm so glad I didn't say it before today

Say You'll Be There 'Millns draws strong female characters and writes punchily engaging dialogue’ The Sunday Times 'This captivating book is a remarkable and moving te...

One of my fellow C4 screenwriting alumni has written a book! www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Say-Yo...

Nina is such a talent, go check it out!

The cover for the Sony Playstation game J-League Prime Goal EX by Namco. It features a circular shape that is half a soccer field populated by soccer players in the middle of an active game and half a CD-ROM.

A new addition to the list of Games with Perfect Cover Art

I've always loved Papers Please so maybe it could be a mystery game where the objective is to find what exactly your business does by digging through email chains and asking questions. Maybe too much like severance

But more seriously, I think there's a reason the Empire and the corporate world share this kind of abstract speak. It becomes easier to forget that this is two humans communicating.

Has my admin career devolved into me writing increasingly convoluted responses to emails until someone realises they are a cry for help? Maybe.

a man talking to another man with the words calibrate your enthusiasm on the screen Alt: A scene from Andor where Anton Lesser's character says calibrate your enthusiasm

One day I want to do a text based game focussed on corporate language over emails. Today I found myself writing 'Thank you for the insight into your working processes. I'll make sure to align our correspondence going forward'. That's not how a human being talks and I gave myself the ick #andor

Ran into Shadowheart at the post office a few days ago! Even god's favourite princess needs to use royal mail. I love how Shadowheart's narrative weaves a storyline about chronic pain and memory into the game and Jennifer English brings her to life in such amazing detail. I was very starstruck

Sisyphus' Revenge by outism, katieotten13, MegaBrainSK, YamiMao, loewenmaul, moonshews, WobbleBlast, Jim milton, Bianc0re, TripleA096 As the gods of Olympus, defend your home with a variety of godly powers against King Sisyphus and his army.

Another game jam completed and this time we placed #3! I was just doing writing for this one and I finally put that classical civilisation degree to good use. Finding quotes for the power cards and writing a Homeric introduction for a fully voiced cutscene :)

outism.itch.io/sisyphus-rev...

YouTube video by Alchemisstic "HEART OF STEEL" steals MY heart!

One of the coolest things to come from the latest game jam was watching superstar streamer @aleisdoran.bsky.social play our game! She brings the characters to life so well and it's such an invaluable experience watching someone play. You can watch the edited stream here :)

youtu.be/NIjmN92-sko?...

And it actually kind of worked by limiting the Player's avenues for communication, it identified the Player with the mech more closely. We've all been there when the dialogue options you've got don't give you the one you really want. That's exactly the conundrum Knight Alpha 01 has too!

I think it would have benefited from voice acting for the lines where the mech plays recordings of the previous pilot but I'm glad from the comments people responded to it and enjoyed it. Definitely made me think about narrative in a different way

Something I found particularly challenging was the idea of making the Player POV the mech instead of the pilot. Initially I was in favour of the pilot POV but my team won me over and I liked the challenge of it.

Judge feedback: This game is beautiful, and is a great adaptation of the theme of "You Are The Weapon." As the titular vessel of weaponry Knight Alpha 01, assisting your pilot to keep them in a calm emotional state is a fun way of interacting that helps make the game feel more compelling. Especially fun is the ability to influence the pilot's emotional state to make the game more or less challenging. The reloading minigames are fun to manage, and not punishing. The art is clean, clear, and consistent within the style choice. The story is also compelling, though short. The UI is well laid out and easy to understand, and is very easy to read. One suggestion I have is to make the Laser Shotgun reloading minigame a bit more visually indicative of when the Laser Shotgun is reloaded. Your GDD is well laid out, and I like seeing that you have your different developer roles listed by name. However, you should include all the people in your group in the submission of your game on itch.io: the artist should also be a part of that team. Otherwise, your GDD is very well done, and very descriptive. I would like to see more inspiration for stylistic and musical choices in the game. Overall, excellent job!

Judge feedback for Pirate Software Game Jam 16 is in! Very pleased with it and excited to hear the results on the 18th. It would have been nice to make the game a bit longer or perhaps added in an 'endless' mode as they said but I don't think that was possible in the time frame.

Learning about this in your book 'Writing for Games' was such an eye opener! It is one of my favourite books on the craft of writing and I'm always recommending it to people

@piratesoftware.live

Heart of Steel by outism, moonshews, WobbleBlast, YamiMao Heart of Steel is a 2D arcade shooter where you control a mech battling enemies and its pilot's emotions.

Pirate Software Game Jam 16 done! You can play our entry here. The theme was 'You are the Weapon' so we thought it would be fun if instead of getting in the mech you are the mech...

I love robots and retro futuristic HUDs. I will not be taking any further questions.

outism.itch.io/heart-of-steel

to get the player to instantly grasp what they are being asked of when you are creating the puzzle from scratch. I don't want players to waste time figuring out what the premise of the puzzle is before they even have to try and solve it! Anyway, props for reading all that if you did, I appreciate it

a bit longer if they've come across the game by itself. I still need to learn more about using environmental hints and how to set up what the 'question' of the puzzle is effectively. In Skyrim you can almost instantly guess the 'question' is turning the plinths around but it can be a bit trickier

Something I did think about was designing puzzles for a jam versus a stand alone game. I was worried about putting players off with tricky puzzles if they are playing lots of games from the jam and don't solve them after the first couple of tries. But we could trust in having a player's attention

Crucially, we also now allowed players to go back and explore the rest of the mansion before having to make their choice on the final puzzle. This was based on some feedback and allows players to make a more informed decision. Also fixed some small technical issues that we didn't have time for

Currently working on our game for Pirate Software Game Jam 16 but we've also gone back to Mansion of Mirrors and incorporated some feedback about the game. For narrative design/writing that involved making one puzzle a bit tougher but spreading out more clues across the game for the final puzzle

Rudolph's Round Up by outism, YamiMao, WobbleBlast, moonshews, loewenmaul for Secret Santa Jam 2024 Play in your browser

Another month another game jam! We were each given a secret santa who gave us each an individual request for the type of game they wanted this xmas. Sadly, a lot of us got ill and couldn't work on the game but I think we had a pretty good go at 'Christmas Vampire Survivors' itch.io/jam/secret-s...

this game has no business being so good for a first time game jam

The Mansion of Mirrors by YamiMao, WobbleBlast, outism, moonshews, loewenmaul, aamakuruu Trapped in The Mansion of Mirrors, explore a twisted reflection of reality to escape its arcane secrets.

Took on a narrative design role in a game jam for the first time and we came 1st for the @godotwildjam.bsky.social! Coming up with puzzles was very fun but working with such a talented team made it even better. You can play the game here: yamimao.itch.io/the-mansion-...