Prepping for Catjam 2026
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Trying more of a casual style for my posts, I usually try to write professionally like I know what I'm talking about and I have something to share. Not sure really why that is because I don't often know what I'm talking about and I don't really have anything insanely insightful to share, I just want to put something out into the world, so here goes.
I'm looking forward to participating in Catjam 2026 starting next month. I'm a fan of the uxntal, so I'll be using that to make a game.
It lasts whole two months, which is 8x the time as a 7drl. Hopefully that keeps the stress level down and I can putz away on it more leisurely.
I have two ideas, both inspired by mossmouth's games (Founded by Derek Yu), in particular UFO 50 and the Spelunky series.
Something hits different about those games, they're growing on me a bit as an obsession. They are kind of hard to get into, but are so satisfying to master. (I had purchased Spelunky HD which sat for years before I really picked it up to play and beat it)
What interests me about these games is just how deep the rabbit hole goes, despite such a small game footprint. Spelunky HD for example is 200MB, which is 5x smaller than slay the spire, and about 1000x smaller than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I think this arises from how every element in the game is complex and feels dynamic.
Derek writes about this in his Derek makes games series where he talks about the idea of "bigness". Derek talks about how bigness can be accomplished in one of two ways, either just by making a literally big game, or by composing complex aspects that multiply the "problem space" of a small game.
Another excellent game which contains elements similar to this is Downwell
I want to try to recreate a bit of that with my own game.
My first idea is to make a climbing platformer, where you jump off of rocks that are crashing down. I hope to add abilities and items exhibiting complex behavior, making it hard to master. Maybe by involving hats of some kind?
In addition, I'd like to experiment with making the main "win" easy. This actually diverges from the norm for games like Spelunky, which are crushingly difficult. My hope is, as long as you provide difficult goals that are optional (such as alternative endings), a regular win can feel like a nice accomplishment and a stepping stone to other goals, and I won't be asking too much of playtesters that might not like games they play to be so difficult.
My second idea is to make a game pack. Not sure what number of games makes sense, maybe like 8 or 12? This of course takes inspiration from UFO 50, which I think knocked it out of the park in terms of quality and consistency for each game in the pack, and demonstrates what's possible in the space.
The games would be original, but inspired by classic arcade games. This idea is driven just by the desire to have a pack of good games you can get all together and dig into, especially if I can make a playdate port…
Well that's it! If you have thoughts on what idea I should go for for just to chat let me know by emailing me at kyle [at] periks [dot] net