Introduction
PicoBuddy is a game/interactive story created for js13kGames 2024. Out of 171 games submitted, it ranked #36. Not bad..!
What is js13kGames?
Every year, js13kGames holds a sort of "game jam" competition, in which participants have one month to submit a game that is 13kb or smaller.
There is a different theme each year. This year's theme was "triskaidekaphobia" (fear of the number 13).
PicoBuddy Post-Mortem
I found this year's theme to be a bit difficult to brainstorm ideas for. "Fear of the number 13" is a pretty specific concept, and it didn't immediately spark anything brilliant in me.
The "13" part of the theme was specifically giving me problems; I couldn't figure out how to form some sort of game mechanic around the number 13.
Thinking about "fear," though, eventually brought me to the idea of "creepypasta:" creepy stories that are copied and pasted over the internet.
With that, an idea was formed!
Idea #1: iPhone 13
My first idea was to create a game called "iPhone 13," about... a haunted iPhone 13.
It would feature a handful of stylized/simplified apps. The user would click through these apps to progress the story. This idea was kind of inspired by a game series called Emily is Away, which features pixelated, stripped-down versions of AOL Instant Messenger and Facebook.
Each app in "iPhone 13" would contain something "creepy" related to the number 13. For example, the 13th email in your fake email inbox would have some ominous message; videos in a fake YouTube app would all turn blood red after 13 seconds, etc. Notifications would alert the player which apps to click into and investigate, helping to move the story along.
This was about as far as the idea went, though. I decided not to pursue this, because I couldn't really think of an enjoyable game mechanic, and I was worried that creating even simplified fake app UIs would quickly balloon in size.
Idea #2: Unnamed "Into the Breach" Rip-off
My next idea was to create a pared-down version of Into the Breach. This is an awesome, grid-based "strategic RPG."
My game was going to be about aliens trying to abduct a farmer's cows. You, the farmer, would be able to push your cows out of the way of enemy attacks, and, if I ever got to it, you could probably do some other stuff, too (like attack the aliens, or change their expected paths or something).
How does this relate to "triskaidekaphobia?" Well... there were maybe going to be 13 levels..? Like, the aliens were afraid of the number 13 and wouldn't stay on Earth more than 13 days? Or maybe... once you saved 13 cows, you won..? Yeah, it was a pretty weak connection, but...
Anyway, I spent about two weeks on this idea. I was able to:
- Create the "game grid" with out-of-bounds logic
- Create the "player," the "cows," and the "aliens," each with their own attributes and methods and stuff:
- The player could move around the grid and push cows
- The cows could be pushed
- The aliens could create paths on the grid, representing their "attack plan." On a later turn, they would move on that path (see gif below for an animated demonstration of this)
- Create a "turn manager." The turns were, in order:
- Enemy planning turn: the enemy would create a path to its nearest target; the path would be displayed on the grid
- Player turn: the player, seeing the enemies' paths, would have a chance to push their cows out of harm's way
- Enemy attack turn: the enemy would execute their previously-determined attack plan
So, I got all of this to "kind of work," but there were a lot of bugs, especially related to enemy logic and movement.
Although I still thought I could finish the game in time, I was spending all of my time debugging boring stuff and not spending any time making the game fun. Because of this, I wasn't really having fun, either... so, I made the painful decision to drop this idea, too.
Idea #3: PicoBuddy
With two weeks spent, and only two weeks left, I needed a simple idea that I could knock out quickly. So, I returned to my first idea, "iPhone 13," but pivoted to a device with a more limited scope: a Tamagotchi-style digital pet.
Much smaller than the multiple apps of a smartphone, this device would only have a few buttons. This allowed for a clear, albeit possibly boring game mechanic: press the appropriate button when the digital pet makes a request.
In an attempt to make the game "not boring," I created a "narrator" who gives the player instructions and provides incessant commentary throughout the entire experience.
The narrator is outrageously positive about everything, but also references some heady, dark events that are seemingly underway. This is how PicoBuddy relates to the game jam's theme. Basically, the pet will reach its "final form" on the 13th day, and the game will get weirder and weirder leading up to this. There's supposed to be a feeling of dread building up to the the conclusion (but whether or not I was successful in this is unclear).
I also created various "quirks" that occur on different days to spice things up. Narratively, these are caused by the device "malfunctioning." The goal of these quirks is to make the simple mechanic of "pressing 1 of 4 buttons" more interesting and difficult.
This concept was partially inspired by my buddy's game, TriskaidekaPool, in which various weird scenarios occur during a game of pool. Some of the quirks themselves were inspired from weird "prank" software I remember installing from MacAddict magazine.
So anyway, that's PicoBuddy! A lot said about a very simple game that took under two weeks to finish.
Overall, it's definitely not technically stunning, but I hope it's at least amusing for those with the patience to play through the story.
With three endings (but identical gameplay leading up to the ending...), maybe there's a tiny bit of replayability, too!
PicoBuddy Game Instructions
- Hover the purple buttons to see their function
- Click the purple buttons to satisfy your PicoBuddy's demands
- Don't worry if some things start acting strange or malfunctioning; everything will be fine after 13 days
Considerations
- PicoBuddy takes about 10 minutes to play. There is no save function, so you have to play it all at once
- PicoBuddy requires a lot of reading in English
Credits
- Sound effects were created using: ZzFX