How I (Almost) Won My First Game Jam

An overview and documentation of how I made my submission 'The Dating Game' for Ludwig's 2021 game jam which was community voted #1 original concept and #4 in presentation.
Twitter: / acerola_t
Twitch: / acerola_t
Discord: / discord
Code: github.com/GarrettGunnell/The...
Music:
Gold Falls Casino - HuniePop OST
New Game - World Of Horror OST
Title Screen - Zero Time Dilemma OST
Dearly Beloved - Kingdom Hearts II OST
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:43 Day One
06:08 Day Two
09:40 Day Three
10:22 Day Four
11:48 Day Five
14:50 Day Six
20:16 Day Seven
25:17 Day Eight
27:40 Day Nine
28:50 Cut Content
30:00 Results
Thanks for watching!
This video is dedicated to my friend, Alotryx.
also please subscribe haha please man please just subscribe dude please just like one sub I swear I'm not addicted please man please just one sub please
#ludwig #acerola #gamedev #ludwigjam #gamejam #unity #unity3d #unity2d #madewithunity #indiedev

[@Acerola_t]

I originally wasn't going to post this video if I didn't make top 10, but people asked me to post it. This video was really rushed and I think it shows, but I hope you enjoy!

[@TowelGard]

This game is honestly more of a dating sim than pretty much any other in the genre. Or have I been doing this all wrong and I should bring puzzles to my dates to impress girls.

[@Acerola_t]

finally someone that gets it

[@wpwscience4027]

"Accidentally going too far and revealing the void." There's a skill to add to the resume if there ever was one.

[@psophilsalva5888]

"she looks a little bit like Ludwig how her right eye is one pixel above her left eye" 💀

[@priyadarshanpradhan8387]

Watching this to get prepared for the coming Acerola Jam!! Lets Go 😂😂

[@CTSSTC]

I know different game jams have different rules, but I know that some folks leverage a huge boilerplate from another game they've worked on, which if you were to make something like that from scratch it would take the whole time or longer. Great job doing so much from the ground up, as a solo team, and learning some new stuff along the way 👌 turned out pretty great. The first virgin playthrough is such a unique meaningful experience and then afterwards you're stuck with memory conflict on what's been said or not D: there's still room for original content but eventually you'll have experienced it all, but then there's room for so many permutations :)

[@Acerola_t]

Thanks Cody! It was a lot of work and my next game jam should be even better I hope with my new knowledge and experience.

[@Blockmaster987]

Watching this video has made me realize how much overlap I have with your cultural/media inspirations. Neat to see! Sending encouragement your way.

[@varunramakrishnan7676]

That's probably how we found a gem of a channel like this

[@k_otey]

huniepop? 🤨

[@dgoosen4878]

I know it's a tangent but I always love seeing your comment because of Get To Heaven

[@d-man4485]

I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but when I saw the girl that you drew, I though she looked like she was ripped right out of a Junji Ito work (popular horror mangaka.) And when you mentioned you wanted to include horror elements, I found it extremely amusing with that.

[@Acerola_t]

The art is inspired by World Of Horror which is itself heavily inspired by Junji Ito, so not a coincidence!

[@yogurtroyale831]

really cool game idea. i did my first game jam not too long ago (i'm an artist so the programming side was way harder for me) and we had really similar experiences haha. not matching the theme well enough, even though personally thinking it did, was the factor that kept me as just an honorable mention as well haha. it's difficult to get people to see the same way you do, especially when your perspective could be considered unique. i loved the 1 bit art btw, as a pixel artist i think you did a really good job selling a consistent and pleasing 1 bit style. you did a lot of work turning a simple trace (which can look uncanny easily) into something stylized and your own. was cool seeing your inspirations too. anyway congrats on finishing a game, that must have felt really good.

[@nfdgoisn]

It’s really cool to see how you adapted to a lot of these unforeseen game design challenges with simple yet elegant solutions. People say something to the effect of art being the intersection of creativity/skill and available materials/resources, and this was pretty inspiring example of that. I especially liked limiting yourself to 1-bit art and more abstract sound design that fit the aesthetic well but also worked within your skillset and time constraints

[@ast_rsk]

This was a really nice in depth look at your project. Congrats on completing it and getting a special mention! That's a huge feat for having worked on so many parts of the game for the first time ever (at the time). Be proud, it turned out awesome :)

[@spiderqueen537]

This video rocks. Especially the planning phase, I always have trouble with that.

[@yummystuff238]

Bro how do you only have 130 subs these vids are top tier. And a good game idea too. Your gonna have 100k subs one day I guarantee

[@Acerola_t]

Thanks! I hope I hit that someday.

[@TankorSmash]

@@Acerola_t 59k subs a year later, not doing too shabby!

[@MrChokoAnt]

This comment aged like a fine wine.

[@clonkex]

You weren't wrong!

[@thereallukezilla]

169K subscribers now!

[@Shadowfolk369]

Hah, recycling the start screen for game over or victory states is such a classic game jam move

[@petrsokol588]

This actually really inspired me to get into programming more - with a goal of making a simple game myself! I really like the 1-Bit aesthetic, and I have to say that you have a good taste in design over all. Big fan of yours.

[@benjattkk]

this is SO good. The art, the systems, the idea, everything

[@lucbloom]

Congrats on having the versitaility and follow-through to finish a project on your own. That alone deserves high praise!

[@CotyCondry]

great video, I liked following the whole plan and implementation. I think your pixel art is great, 1-bit is a cool medium

[@MrPhantomBadger]

Great video! Loved the final product

[@KumquatChampion]

Great job dude. The circle of watching this and your newest video is wild. Stay inspirational

[@davidslater1811]

Another great video. For sure you're becoming one of my favourite creator's on yt since discovering you recently. Informative, funny, good vibe. Keep it up Ace 👍

[@stephenmontague6930]

Adding pure horror would attract some and repel others. Humorous horror might walk a middle line. It's your game, though, so what you want matters most. I'm selfishly glad you ran out of time, though, because the sweet n fun dating game draws me, and horror would repel me, but that's just my place in life. As is, it looks fun to play even with my kids, without worrying about giving anyone nightmares. Awesome to see how you coded the core mechanics in like 2 days and spent the rest layering and polishing on that. Drawing on an image to bypass a lack of art skills is another good idea. The Audacity sound tip may be useful too. Thanks for the quality video, which doesn't happen magically, I'm sure.

[@AMSASH]

At 20:23 that edit of Ludwig was actually made by me for a Reddit recap submission years ago lol

[@Acerola_t]

thank you for your service

[@gangsta3011]

You did great! Game looks awesome would love to give it a try

[@generatorrex6196]

Humilde demais esse acerola, talentoso pra kct boas vibes ae

[@amolnk]

Man, I love your videos!

[@nix3l_]

been obsessed with your videos the past few days. definitely earned this sub! i love that you provide the code, always great to dissect more experienced people’s code

[@bigmiraclewhips]

love the art style

[@Tom-lw8qk]

super inspiring stuff. Your quality and polish really shine through on this one. I know this was ages ago, but now your channel is popping off, when are you gonna host your own game jam? 😄

[@func_e]

i would _love_ an acerolajam one day :D

[@user-uo1yn4se8r]

Cool game, i think what's missing for it to be truly foddian is weird controls. The mouse is look mechanic is cool, you could add lose conditions if you stare at her too much, if you don't look at her enough, if you look to the left too much, if you wiggle your mouse too much, if you don't move your mouse, if you don't answer in time and if you answer too fast.

[@steluste]

19:05 finally! This is the Acerola that I know

[@KnutAnimations]

Absolutely fire vid! I guess we can all agree that the real winner in the end was always Super Auto Pets

[@Acerola_t]

Super Auto Pets is goated for sure, easy #1

[@djupstaten2328]

Coincidentally these are the exact calculations one should crunch the weeks leading up to an actual date and ultimately tattoo on the inside of ones eyelids.

[@NKCubed]

glad you got to hold you own "game jam" :)

[@I2ed3ye]

This immediately brought me back to playing Electronic Dream Phone with my sister when we were kids.

[@sans5955]

20:09 Ok I've been binging all your videos and marking down all the Monogatari references I see, but this is literally the author of Monogatari so now I'm 100% sure you've watched it

[@lees-pic]

tbh i feel you deserved top 10

[@Acerola_t]

Thanks! You deserved it way more though for sure

[@youngbloodbear9662]

Your old dithering stuff doesn’t ruin it for me- it looks good here

[@bepisenjoyer]

I feel called out by this game for not being able to remember anything about my friends

[@salvatoreocello]

25:28 the coolest video I’ve ever seen

[@mrlime1]

Good video

[@Acerola_t]

Thanks!

[@theonlyigg4811]

I love you Areola

[@Ziraya0]

I saw that Solanin you can't slip a Solanin past me and it's in a list with Journey? 10/10

[@nanto6865]

Acerola game jam when?

[@marking12200]

did you put android notification noise sometimes in your vids or im just high af

[@voizeh7140]

nice vid as alvvays

[@aaronriggs4430]

HEYY HEYYYYYYYYYYY MARRY ME ACEROLA

[@Acerola_t]

If you're a cute girl sure

[@TokenChineseGuy]

I love how you used Molly Rankin for the example waifus. You have impeccable taste.

[@samuelgrahame3617]

"About what ever"

[@discussion210]

Unity has native image handling for button states if you had used the unity UI buttons and you could just have set the button active or inactive and it would have auto handled hovered and clicked

[@Acerola_t]

it's ok it took about 30 seconds to do my raycast approach

[@wpwscience4027]

So, where can we get this list of bad questions if we want to try and work them all into conversations with coworkers?

[@mystifiedoni377]

"Umm Nisioisin" Marry immediately.

[@salvatoreocello]

29:44 oh my god

[@ganglians]

10/10,Komaeda

[@codingidiot6754]

my first(and last) gamejam ended with me at 3rd to last place

[@Maddogs1]

Your videos are awesome, but I can't watch them at normal speed

[@ryanreed4698]

Honest to god surprised about the "face reveal". I thought all these irl still images of you were instead Adrien Brody from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

[@Acerola_t]

It'd be really funny if someone used specifically adrien brody from the grand budapest hotel as their png tuber self

[@ryanreed4698]

@@Acerola_t I saw it as such a power move. Completely didn't even question it, I was like, "cool, I guess i'm learning about gooch shaders from Adrien Brody today".

[@johnmcway6120]

Try Extra texture the times

[@MrSonny6155]

Wait, so THAT'S where Super Auto Pets came from? That's awesome.

[@Acerola_t]

no the joke is ludwig kept playing super auto pets instead of doing the game jam stream

[@MrSonny6155]

@@Acerola_t Oh. Yeah, I guess that sounds like a Ludwig.

[@miningcow]

This video taught me how to talk to girls

[@meepwagon8031]

interested in 3D rendering AND a ludwig fan? How do you keep the ladies away my man?

[@Acerola_t]

my dms are open for any ladies that read this comment

[@Empika]

are guys allowed too

[@hudsonator7259]

Super auto pets was from ludwig jam? Ive played it and never knew that

[@Acerola_t]

no this was a joke because ludwig repeatedly played super auto pets instead of doing the game jam stream

[@hudsonator7259]

@@Acerola_t oh lol

[@hudsonator7259]

It actually sounds like something he would do

[@spectrecular9721]

Maybe to make more people deem your game to better fit the "Foddian" theme, you should've had all question selection input to be from a half broken, upside-down controller 🙃

[@twistedsim]

Please connect this game with a GPT model!

[@charmzon]

Bro looks like he aged 10 years while working on this 10 day project

[@micweis]

Lol bro did you just remake Hot Pot Panic? I'm only a few minutes in but we'll see 🤣 Edit: okay okay, it's different. Check out Hot Pot Panic if you haven't already, it's a cute idea.

[@Acerola_t]

Lol this is a very cute game, thanks for showing it

[@crossf2351]

I query her hash until she responds

[@kwelski9665]

yo

[@Acerola_t]

hi

[@mashrien]

Holy shit, that camper.. do you know a kid named Evan/Scotty? .. It's the exact same looking shit his grandparents gave him and his gf/fiance (also his 1st-cousin)

[@Acerola_t]

I'm not sure who my parents bought the camper from lol but it has unfortunately been sold off again since my parents didnt want the camper anymore

[@ilyam.1872]

It's a comment about whatever.

[@sofia.eris.bauhaus]

Fake Response

[@psydyl]

whatever