SLEEPYHEAD*

A game about Clownacious the evil clown wizard, and a little crocodile with insomnia.

Well, it WAS about that, so let’s talk about it!

Getting ready

I wanted to join the jam because while I did actually join some previous ones in the past (from which there only came a single game), I never could get to a point where the game could actually be considered a game.

So I got to work, I prepared myself a stripped down version of an engine i’m developing for an entirely unrelated project, as a way to test it out and iron out the imperfections.

I did not know what game to make honestly, but I remembered an old game I had planned for school but I never got to make, a game about a funny crocodile going through an impossible, infinite castle of evil creatures.

“Here it is!”, I said and started making sprites, behaviour code, figuring out how to structure the thing, and invented a whole new story.

Concepts left behind.

Originally you’d go through this horrifying, maze-y, almost non-euclidean construct of a “castle” where you’d figure out puzzles to not be caught by the evil creations of Clownacious, an evil clown with a twisted sense of humor, trapping the innocent in balloons.

I never got to implement the actual monster AI, but it would react to light, switches, and other things in the game, as a distraction.

The game would end with the player getting an oversized needle and rushing through the castle, popping everything, to the epic final boss scene, which would then be interrupted by the player simply popping Clownacious effortlessly, playing a hilariously anticlimactic “pop”.

Our little sleepy crocodile would suddenly wake up to a new day, realizing it was all a dream, for the credits to play.

Emotional turmoil.

Over the course of the days I got super stressed out and felt awful, my head hurts at the time of writing this (last day of the jam).

Somehow, I got trapped in doing meaningless tasks all day, getting interrupted by absolutely everything, while peaking on ADHD drugs and suffering crippling anxiety.

Crippling anxiety of not finishing another one of my projects.

… But, I can say that even though the game is not finished, and probably will never be, I enjoyed coming out of my comfort zone and make a kind of game I do not usually make, pollishing my engine for my future games :)

Thanks everyone for reading! Hope you enjoyed the “game”, even though it was such a short experience, I hope it stays with you in one way or another.

Have a nice day!

PS: Write “scrunge” in the game’s window.