Hello everyone and happy August! Last week the four of us and our wonderful Discord community took part in the first-ever Not a Sailor Studios Game Jam. Now that it has finished, we couldn't be happier with how everything turned out! Let's take some time to showcase the wonderful games everyone came together to create and reflect on the game jam as a whole.

Friendship as a Theme

One of the most important and interesting parts of a game jam is the overall theme each team has to follow when making their game within the set time limit. With this being a game jam for our Discord community, it was easy to decide on a theme. Something that everyone has experienced one way or another is friendship. Friendship comes in many forms in many aspects of life. Buddy Simulator 1984 helped explore some of the more toxic friendship traits as well. Because of that, we decided to throw a surprise theme into the mix on the day of the event, betrayal!  This theme was a lot less explored. 

Parallel Partners

Team 1, or Propapoma Fohakri, worked together to create a platonic Dating Sim/Visual Novel with a partner that gets lost in a different world. You get to meet their different versions of them in different dimensions, get to know them, earn their trust, and find out why this all happened. https://propapoma-fohakri.itch.io/parallel-partners

Josh: With such an incredible storyline, an extremely unique take on using different artists with different art styles, and loveable characters, this game has some amazing things to offer. The dialogue is super well written and fun as well!

Vince: The mixture of mediums in this game is absolutely crazy when you first play it. such a wholesome and interesting concept. the writing really reflects a nice relationship between two people and it makes you wanna see how it evolves. the music is top-notch and makes an overall very impressive jam game.

Brandon: This was such an entertaining experience! I loved the story and the different world-building. Every time the level would change I was excited for what was to come next. The music was also spot-on and completely elevated the game's narrative. I appreciated the different art styles and fonts for the different worlds, it made the game feel like such a unique dating sim. Amazing work!

DeMarco: Oh my god I loved this. The dialogue was really hilarious and clever, and I was holding back tears laughing at the friend standoff at the end. This was amazing, and the music was incredible too! Every area having a different feel and art style was a really clever idea for your artists, and the different character designs were each wonderfully done! I love that they all had different personalities too! The subtle detail of the eye colors being different across the universes matching their dialogue boxes was very smart too! Really really amazing job here guys :)

SystemSoft

Team 2, or TeamToast, worked together to create a fun retro-style game where you are writing an important essay on your computer, but your desktop assistant is here to keep "helping" you! Are they REALLY here to help though?  https://teamtoast.itch.io/systemsoft

Josh: This wonderfully adorable game has a team behind it that you can tell is very passionate about their work. The iconic-looking fox character is so cute and the humor in the game is done so well. I adore everything about this game!

Vince: Just off the bat, the visuals and aesthetic in this game are so unbelievably on point. The way you mimicked the old computer style desktop is insane to me. and the concept reflecting that just makes it so much better. For the amount of time you all had this blew me out of the water.

Brandon: You guys absolutely nailed the aesthetic of an old computer, which I'm sure was not easy to do with the time given. I loved the concept of a "Clippy" gone wrong, such a neat idea. The chaos and the build-up was really impressive, and also the extra layer of using your computer's real files was a really nice touch for immersion. It added to the horror element of privacy. You guys killed it :)

DeMarco: Very short and sweet! :) The old look for the game was really really cute, with the nice sound effects to match! The character design is also adorable and was really fun to watch without the sprites! Just the whole idea of trying to write an essay and a Clippy-esque character bombarding you with feedback/edits. The ending with the awesome music and little minigame of trying to quarantine the program is incredibly clever too! I loved moving the windows around, trying to get to the one at the bottom. Good stuff, massive kudos to the team!

Eggcelent Friend

The last community game was actually developed by a solo developer from the Discord named Venelona! Their game, Eggcelent Friend, is simply described as: You are lonely, and in search of a friend... and get a chance to get an egg! And you know what they say about eggs...they make the best of friends! https://venelona.itch.io/eggcelent-friend

Josh: It's a beautifully short clicker game with 9 different egg friends to experience with different personalities! This game is phenomenal. From the story to the art, we were blown away by every aspect of the game. Who knew you could become such great friends with an egg?

Vince: Being the only solo dev team in this jam you showed a game that stands right up there with the rest in terms of quality. I almost couldn't believe the amount of detail and variations there were depending on your choices. So so so impressive given the time frame. Absolutely amazing job.

Brandon: This game was so wholesome! I am so blown away that it was developed by only one person. I absolutely loved all of the artwork and the different egg variations, which I'm sure took quite a bit of time to implement. I also really enjoyed the mix of "cookie-clicker" mechanics and narrative. The music was really great too. Awesome job!

DeMarco: I got the flame buddy at first, and I was very very happy with his design and personality! I love how each buddy has their own unique appearance and even dialogue changes! I am blown away by the amount of dedication put into this project by a solo developer. I was also very impressed with the UI and saving mechanics. Very very awesome job, I'll definitely return to this one from time to time if I need some cheering up :)

Ram n' Oodles

Finally, we finish out this showcase with the game that the four NASS guys created. In a post-apocalyptic world full of flesh-eating bugs that have eradicated humanity, only one--no--TWO can stop them. Join Ram n' Oodles as they defend their overrun noodle shop. https://notasailorstudios.itch.io/ram-n-oodles

We are so happy with how the game turned out for our first ever NASS Game Jam! We debated a few ideas for a bit, but ultimately all agreed on this fun little bullet-hell roguelike game about two unlikely friends trying to save their little noodle shop. We also surprisingly agreed on a lot of game elements and were soon just pounding out assets like crazy! We hope you enjoy it!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first-ever NASS Game Jam and thank you to everyone here right now reading this and checking out these wonderful games! Give them some love and some feedback if you feel like it. We couldn't be happier with how everything turned out first the jam and Discord held it all together which we are extremely thankful for. We hope to do something like this in the future as well! Maybe with an extended time limit and more teams to join! Until then, enjoy these games, your week, and the wonderful community on our Discord server who made this all possible. If you have not joined it yet, the Not a Sailor Studios Discord is a great place to hang and chat with fans of our projects as well as participate in fun events like this. The link is below!

Discord: https://discord.gg/akYZgNbe3q

Thanks,

Not a Sailor Studio boys <3