Jam Entry

Entering the Game Jam

I initially wasn't going to enter a Game Jam at this time, as I had a variety of other volunteer activities that would keep me busy during the period when the Game Jam would need a lot of time.

But when I heard the theme was Road Safety, I decided to enter. 

I have personally lost a close friend to a single-car crash many years ago, the likely cause was Driver Fatigue, so I do think the National Road Safety Message is an important one.

Coming up with an idea

This was unexpectedly difficult. Trying to invent a game that was plausible to do in the time constraint, while also sticking to the theme, was fairly challenging. Eventually, I came up with a theme to be "Drivers & Dragons". 

Sticking to the problem of driver fatigue, I have often played games at my friends place where we've had late nights and had to drive home after. So I thought a decent game would be to try and use some D&D mechanics where your characters build up fatigue while you play. 

Note, I've never actually played D&D, so this was much more of a generic inspiration than any actual implementation details.

The goal would be to have a game that could be played on pen-and-paper. You would draw a map, drive from area to area, read mission cards and fight dragons. All the time, you build up fatigue and have to manage it, keeping it off the driver.

The "Dragon" in this scenario is a metaphor akin to the short story: "Slaying The Climate Dragon". In that story, there is a dragon with a very real cost in lives, but it can be quelled with the right focus and ambition. Similarly, the "Dragon" in this game is the fatalities and injuries sustained from people driving.

Implementation & Execution

Overall, a ton of features were left on the chopping block in order to get the development time down to reasonable levels. I'm quite happy with how some areas of the game turned out, and feel like other areas need a ton of work. But that's how Game Jams play out. There's a series of technical blog posts outlining some select features that were explored and difficulties found along the way. 

I hope you enjoy the game.