Anneta built a game!

Hi, Anneta here! For those who don’t know me, I’m a web developer at Studio Locale by day and a hobbyist game designer by night. Recently, I participated in a game jam where my friends and I created a small game called Gobble Grid.

For those unfamiliar, a game jam is an event where multidisciplinary teams—programmers, designers, animators—come together to create games within a short time frame. This year, I participated in one of the largest jams on the internet, hosted by Game Maker’s Toolkit. Our challenge was to build a game in just four days around the theme “Built to Scale.” None of us had prior game development experience, but I like to think our biggest strength was not knowing how hard it would actually be to build a game. Because if we knew how hard it was going to be, why on earth would we do it?

Our concept? A dragon that gets fatter by eating larger and larger items. The player must arrange these items in its belly until they’re all consumed, following some puzzle rules. My partner Zula brought the game to life with her art, while our friend Franco, based in Portugal, handled programming and cleverly worked with Unity’s grid system. I designed the puzzles and wore many hats, from production to sound to emotional support.

One of 7,000 submissions, standing alongside games from incredibly talented creators, Gobble Grid has its quirks, but we’re so proud of our little dragon game. It’s been amazing to receive feedback from the gaming community, and I want to give a shout out to everyone at Studio Locale for playing (and struggling through) our puzzles. We’re already excited for the next jam!