FireFighter is a game where you dodge enemies and trick them into crashing into each other, then clean up their mess after them.

You can play it now on itch.io in the browser, on Windows and on Linux:

Making of

The LOWREZJAM has always intrigued me. I already make tiny games (both in size and resolution), but I’d never made a game in a size this small. How much could I cramp in such a tiny space? So this year I finally decided to participate.

The start was a bit rough. For the first few days, I couldn’t find an idea I liked AND that could be feasible to make. Workshopping ideas was also distracting me because sometimes you just gotta be a lil bit silly:

This idea could be funny for another game, though.

So after thinking I just wasn’t going to participate, I decided to give a last idea a try. The vision I had in mind was one where you would be flying around stopping fires. That’s the only idea I had, so I started with that.

This felt fun and like it had potential, so I kept working on it. I decided some enemies to distract you and pressure you could make it a bit more challenging.

While working on visual polish early on isn't usually recommended, I find it helps keep me motivated.

This felt SO fun. Fun fact: that explosion animation was supposed to be a placeholder but I liked it so much I kept it. I was feeling confident this could turn out good, I was playing it instead of working on it, but that’s a good sign, right?

When playing, I noticed the fire was kind of distracting. Like in an annoying way. And it felt easy to lose track of it. At first, I tried removing it, and that’s what I thought I would do for a bit. I even added an enemy with a laser that could kill other enemies. But the next day, when playing, the game felt empty without the fire. The fire made it feel more unique, while without it I was on track to making another generic action game.

So I re-added it, did some balancing tweaks and made the previously enclosed arena infinite. I posted a gif on my Discord server (join here) and then sirmilkman basically saved the game.

Go check out sirmilkman.

I decided to try it out, not super confident. And it changed the game entirely. Now both main mechanics, which previously felt disconnected, made a cohesive whole and a pretty fun game loop. Dodge enemies, let them kill each other, then clean up their mess. FireFighter’s main mechanic was completed, and with still a lot of time left of the jam (at the time of writing this it hasn’t even ended).

The next few days came with a lot of iteration (and I forgot to record most of it).

• I first had a water tank, then removed it because it was too limiting.
• I added health, but then noticed having 2 lose conditions (too much fire and losing all HP) was terribly annoying; so now when you get hit, you make a big explosion of fire and get stunned for a second.
• I added a splash of water you could activate when your water tank was full, then later changed it so you could get “charges” of this ability with crates falling from the sky.

The HUD was also really cluttered in this version which I didn't like.

After a few days (where I entered the zone a few times), I had the final product:

That music you hear in the bg is from opengameart.org!

I actually added a LEADERBOARD!!! and 2 more enemies after publishing it (fast small lil guys that spawn in groups and what’s basically a Creeper), but I don’t feel like recording footage of them I’ll keep them a secret so you go play the game ;)

Conclusion

I’m actually really proud of this game. I don’t know how it’ll do in the jam, but I’m still really happy to add it to my roster.

Playtesting was CRUCIAL in the making of this game. It’s not always doable to playtest in a game jam due to time restrictions, but, if you have the time, it can really elevate the quality of your game.

Sharing progress aswell. I’d always recommend that you have at least one person you can share progress to. It’s motivating and, like what happened this time, you can sometimes get ideas from others that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

Finally, don’t be afraid to iterate. Your first idea is not always the best. Of course, like playtesting, it’s not always easy to do so in shorter game jams, so take it with a grain of salt.