hey there how's it going from september 10th through the 20th we held the second annual vim jam
participants had 10 days to create a game with the requirement of boss and a theme of on the
edge the turnout was absolutely incredible with over 2 200 people joining creating over
400 games i spent the entire week after the jam playing games submitted to me on my live streams
and after the community voting closed i played the top 50 overall scored entries
and in this video i'm going to showcase some of my favorites the quality of the games were absolutely
astounding and i sadly won't be able to talk about every game i enjoyed if you see anything
you like in this video the game names will be on screen and there's a link in the description to
play all the submitted games before we get into it i want to thank retro indie josh and 8bits to
infinity for teaming up with me again this year to run the jam 8bits to infinity is a community that
runs regular game jams focused on making games and giving constructive feedback to one another
i credit taking part in these events over the years as a key factor that helped me grow as a
game designer thanks to their mission of respect inclusion self-improvement and experimentation
the format of having a requirement or restriction as well as a theme
is their format that i absolutely love so if you enjoyed the way vim jam worked check them out for
more jams like it throughout the year i've been told by so many people that one of their favorite
things from this jam was that they received good quality feedback and how awesome everybody was
to each other and honestly i have to say that is the best thing that i could ever ask for
thank you all for being so great and making everyone feel welcome and encouraged this jam
would be nothing without you and i'm grateful to be able to be a part of it in some small way
so without further ado let's jump in and see what you've made we'll start with the top three
community voted games and then i'll share some of my other favorites in no particular order
the community vote winner is joy shot by novel this game is
beautiful and a real testament to how much audio can add to a game
you play as a card carrying a cannon that can only be fired after the music reaches its peak
the minimalist design carries into the controls the whole game being played with only one button
pressing space will change the direction you travel around the path and if you've reached the
peak of the music it will fire the canon however if you change direction before the peak of the
music to avoid taking damage you'll reset your shot timer and have to wait for it to charge again
the goal is simple on each stage you must destroy all of the enemies without losing your last heart
the tension of waiting for your shot to be available while avoiding enemy fire makes
for a great puzzle like experience the transitions from level to level are so smooth ending in a boss
battle that combines different enemy types you've encountered along the way as well as a new form
everything in this game came together so well and it's very deserving of the number one spot
in second place we have a round and back by banana blush studios the staff mr afroduck and straight
up rental this is an absolutely adorable pickup and deliver game that finds you bringing cafe
items to a cast of cute characters that live on different sides of a cube world you receive an
order in your queue of what the character wants and the color of the side of the cube they're on
i love the look of the illustrated art mixed with the 3d space and the voice acting and sound all
came out fantastic as well there are a couple of sides which have two different pathways which add
a bit more to the routing than just going to the side of the color you need the goal of the game is
to make it through the entire day delivering all the orders within the time limit set beside them
but if you missed three deliveries you'll be fired so you gotta be quick the whole
concept is executed very well and the bright enjoyable tones make the game a treat to play
and the final top community voted game is tough fluff by rocky mullet this action-packed
run-and-gun finds you trying to rescue your friend fluff that has been abducted by a
mysterious boss creature chase it down by battling through the landscape on the back of a train
and even in total freefall if your health is taken down to one you'll be on the edge and get a boost
to your damage but it's a big trade-off as one mistake and you're a goner you pursue the boss
until you finally get your fluff back and we see what its true power is also before you ask
yes you can pet the fluff the art is great and the story is super cute taking you through a complete
narrative experience which can be difficult to pull off in such a short amount of time
carl by angry arugula curdle games indie octopus and katrina draws a lot is an amazingly cute
shooter game where you must first take out all the minions before the boss arrives once
you beat the boss you're taken to the next level where the challenge increases and you do it again
and unbelievably it has online multiplayer as well giving you a room code you can give
out to have other people join i was really impressed by how well it all worked and i
had an absolute blast playing with some of my friends there are two different forms
of the boss that alternate between each level ramping up in difficulty as you go
the gameplay is smooth and the character designs and models are fantastic the floppiness of the
player adds so much to the characters that it's just really fun to watch them run around
assistant to the regional monster by lemonades is a super cute twin stick shooter the regional
monster requires you to get coffee which in this world isn't as simple as you would think you've
got to shoot it a whole bunch to get the flavor just right turns out it doesn't sit well with the
regional monster and you're sent to pick up some cleaning supplies but unfortunately it's just not
as easy as grabbing a mop but it's our job and we put up with it because it's what we've got to do
that is until we're told we need to come in on the weekend and that's the final straw
after each of the first two bosses you can choose one of three upgrades depending on your play style
i'm a big fan of the shotgun myself the controls feel good the art is fantastic
and the audio ties it all together to make for a great play experience
in turn an intern's guide to maintaining internal rage by ginger ninja-ish
has you playing as an intern running around the office passing out and collecting documents
making and delivering coffee fixing the printer and taking out the trash
all while trying to maintain your stress levels with pills and booze
not recommended in real life of course but in the game it gives a nice balance as you can only
hold so many items at any given time once you complete all of your tasks you return to your
boss and you get the reward of being able to do it all again the next day just like in real life
jump in jack dash by sid fish games foster turtle and mighty jor is a platformer that has
you playing as a broken toy trying to collect the missing pieces of yourself and escape the toy box
each piece of you collected will give you a new ability to better traverse the large vertical
level it all seems straightforward until you get hit which makes you intangible for a short
time causing you to fall through platforms the game quickly becomes a getting over it
or jump king-like experience where a couple bad hits can send you back to previous areas
but with some well-timed jumps dashes and glides you can help this adorable
little toy get to the top of the box to be played with once again
dungeons and axes by luffy seem simple at first you can throw
an axe to stop enemies or you can jump to another area of the arena
between each round you're given a random set of upgrades you can choose from and each round
introduces a new threat but the challenges add up quickly as you find yourself attacking
flying enemies avoiding dangers on the ground and dodging projectiles the art music and sound have a
wonderful nostalgic feel which all work together nicely to create an enjoyably quick roguelike
railway to the moon by patrick max clark fizzy berry second quest games and john watson
is a fantastic puzzle game where you need to move boxes along lines to complete each level
clicking the face of a box will move it to the end
of the line and the goal is to bring it to rest next to the green segment
this simple concept is explored in depth with new and clever uses for the boxes throughout the later
puzzles twist up the mechanics in an incredibly interesting way that i don't want to spoil here
because it's really worth experiencing for yourself without any prior knowledge
the music visuals and mood all come together so well to make a really enjoyable challenge
cave people by velvet lobster natalia arbrio jan barboza and realty dev starts out like a simple
cute platformer with a fun 3d world effect but in between levels you're shown snippets
of a story through some fantastic illustrations the platforming levels aren't too difficult but
you'll keep going to see what happens next in the story i was engaged the whole way through
and it's a great example of captivating a player without using any text at all
this game is dripping with atmosphere and you'll want to see it through to the very end
boss wars on the edge of space by xander wood is an adorable retro shooter boss fight with a bit
of a twist on the menu you're offered two choices defeat evil or good depending on what you choose
you will either play as the ship or the boss itself each one controls very differently and it's
neat to be able to play the battle from both sides when you defeat evil the play is very familiar you
fly around as the ship you shoot you dodge and you learn the boss's patterns but when you defeat good
you play as the boss and you have to deal with the usual boss restrictions like cooldowns and limited
number of uses on your abilities while constantly being fired upon by the annoying little ship
plinco panic by acidic duck is a pachinko style roguelike yes you heard that right each round
you buy a ball that has different abilities that becomes more effective the more pegs it
hits on the way down every couple of turns the boss will attack you for more and more damage
you need to make sure to keep your health and money up while also using
some of your turns to deal damage to the boss because its health bar is quite large
i absolutely loved this concept and found myself playing run after run because each
time i died i knew i could do better trying to get the perfect drop with lots of peg collisions
while using balls with different weights and bounciness i found incredibly compelling
agnelita by our gull art is a visually striking game with a bold color palette
and incredible pixel art you land on an alien world and need to explore to
find 5 crystal shards scattered to different areas
the world is extremely hostile and you will need to keep moving if you want to survive
be careful though because one of the crystals is protected by a giant worm boss that just looks
so good this game is a treat to the eyes with some nice shooter gameplay to bring it all together
build the boss by soga gaming is a game where you control a factory line trying to produce
the pieces of a robot boss each segment you build has different requirements in order of
operations to prepare the metal you need to place and change direction of the conveyor
belts to move the products through each machine the appropriate number of times
the trick is you don't really have enough conveyor belts and there isn't a lot of space
requiring quick adjustments while the components are running through the systems themselves
it gets quite hectic towards the end and doesn't let you just set stuff up and watch it go
public abstract void by maeve emma job is a visually striking game you move an auto
fire at the large boss entity at the top of the screen while avoiding its dark attacks
you're able to stand on one of three color areas which will open up a quick mini-game to complete
if you succeed you'll receive a buff based on the color of the minigame itself
yellow increases your range red your speed and blue your damage the styling of this game is so
unique and while it can be difficult at some points it's absolutely a treat on your eyes
defeat the shapes by name is a twin stick shooter boss rush with limited ammo
to regain your depleted ammo you need to hang out on the edge of the enemy's bullets within
the large circle around the outside each boss has a unique pattern that are fun and difficult
and keep you on your toes and don't let you sit still for too long the controls feel great and
the game is dripping with a retro aesthetic that's simple and clean it is pretty hard but
the feeling of skirting the edge of the boss's pattern is a great rush when you pull it off
kermis the legend of curly's gold by omni claus is a classic platformer with the type of jump i
haven't really seen before the player has a jet pack that can be held down to gain height but
once you release it you can't reactivate it until you've touched the ground again
making a unique feeling jump that i don't think i've ever played in the game before the art and
level design are great and it really does feel like playing through a classic nes game the final
bosses attacks start out fairly standard but by the end these little orb things become really
interesting and they're pretty tough to deal with but if you can persevere you will achieve victory
i want to give one quick honorable mention here at the end to monkey pizza by kuveman
who made an online multiplayer pizza making game about my monkeys and me as the gorilla boss
we had an absolute blast playing with this on stream and everyone
from the chat jumped in to order and make pizzas
there are so many great games that i didn't get to talk about and i encourage you to go check
out the jam page and try some of them yourself i'm still blown away by the quality of games
that were submitted and it was really tough for me to narrow down my picks i had so much
fun playing all of your games and in the end i was able to play about 117 games from the jam
i'm absolutely honored and humbled that so many people took times out of their lives
to make a game for this jam and like i said at the beginning this would have been nothing without you
i want to give a heartfelt thank you to everybody that participated those that made games those that
played submissions and left comments and those who just hung out on the streams to watch the game
play and enjoy and give feedback also once again thank you to 8bits2infinity for being awesome and
running the jam if you need to scratch the gamejam itch before the next vim jam check them out
links are in the description if you've enjoyed this please consider hitting like and subscribe
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you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed and i will talk with you next time have a good one later
okay simon says look to the left simon says look to the right
simon says jump up in the air oh wait wait wait wait
simon says look to the left
look right