Game Name: Rocket Shepherd
Team Name: Studio Giblet
Team Members: Capers (Artist), Isaiah Everin (Designer), Aaron Hamilton (Artist), Tyler Morgan (Designer), Shilts (Designer)
About the Game
You are the Rocket Shepherd! Explore strange alien worlds! Herd the rolling animals to the goal using rocket volleys from space! Protect them from violent predators that try to eat them!
The game only supports mouse and keyboard due to the nature of the gameplay. Players can choose any level from the menu, but the game plays in sequential order from the first level as well.
About the Team/Project
Studio Giblet is comprised of five students from The Guildhall at SMU (three level designers and two artists) looking to get some more game development experience over their summer break. It was coded entirely in blueprints by the designers, with all the assets other than Unreal 4 starter content being made by the team during the timeline of the game jam. The team had some trouble initially getting inspired by the theme, but they are proud of what they were able to accomplish in the end!
On-Time but Slightly Broken Build: Link (uploaded on time, but not the best build)
Mostly Working build: Link (created before 12AM, but uploaded late due to really bad internet troubles, and accidentally created/uploaded the first build twice )
Bonus OCD Bug-Cleaned Build: Link (best for the full gameplay experience )
Remaining known bugs: HUD indicator for animals doesn’t update correctly to reflect score; sometimes rockets don’t explode.
Development Notes
- We had to post a development build of the game, for unknown reasons a shipping build constantly crashed to a “failed to open descriptor file” error. As you can see above, we also had some serious internet troubles, so while we have a build that was time-stamped uploaded before the 12PM EST deadline, we didn’t finish AND upload a fully working build til 3 hours late.
- This was developed on Alienware laptops, so we’re not sure of its performance on other computers.
- The game is full of attention to detail, particularly on some mostly cosmetic game systems, but it was all done in the spirit of having fun during development above all else. Some of the interesting issues we addressed were: creating gravity for globe levels, orienting decorative meshes to a globe to make it possible to make 3 levels within the time frame, making rolling enemies that seek out and kill the friendly critters, and dynamically creating decals on the surface of the globes.
- Due to how much time we devoted to everything else, we did not end up having time to add sound effects.
- Biggest lesson learned? Have to scope and plan a project even when it’s just a weekend game jam if you want to get everything done the way you hope to!
- The team name is relevant to a system in the game that kept the team inspired throughout the project.
Edit 1, 11:20PM CST: Adding fully functional build link.
Edit 2, 12:30AM CST: Formatting and more descriptive text.
Edit 3, 2:20AM CST: Cleaned up bugs to create intended functionality on two major systems (that got messed up before the deadline due to source control), and uploaded that build. Don’t expect it to be judged for the “contest” aspect, but really wanted to have it for people interested in playing.