Cadena de Historias

Jueguitos Jam 1.0 - intra-history and hyper-regionalisms

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Cadena de Historias

12/06/2024 - 17/06/2024

Unity

Game made in 5 days for the Jugar Jueguitos Jam 1.0. Jugar Jueguitos is a community from Galicia, Spain, that wants to experiment with video games and other arts. The game is about create a history in community.

Mechanics

  • Write and sign in a book (send to database).
  • Read the books when they are finished.
  • Waiting system if another user is writing.

Download on Itchio


Game info

Since the theme of the jam was very personal to each person, I wanted to give users a space to tell a story in their own words and language.
With this idea in mind, I created a virtual space where users could read the last page written by the previous user and continue the story from there, ending with their own signature.

From 06/17/2024 to 06/23/2024 the people could contribute to the story without knowing how many or who had written before them. On the 23rd, they could enter the game and see the finished book, with a special page at the end featuring all the signatures.

The final result maintains some coherence, and it was a very interesting project that I will continue over time, opening new opportunities to expand the library.

Development Problems

With such a short timeframe and while working on the Low Batt project, I needed a simple way to have a database that wouldn't cost me money.

All the information was stored in a Google Sheet, and with Unity, I only had to download that information and work with it. For uploading, I used a connection that Google Forms has to link it with a Google Sheet, and there I had the whole system set up.

The most challenging part was ensuring that the information upload and download system worked well and was user-error proof. Although there were some issues, such as:

  • Quotation Marks
  • Comas
  • Users leaving everything blank

All of these were resolved throughout the week. I also had to ensure that the system blocking access to writing in the book worked properly. To achieve this, I used the mutex logic employed in a graphics engine for multithreading systems.

Fanzine

At the end of the jam, the organizers asked us some questions about our work, creative processes, and reflections on it. But they also asked more general questions about how we see video games, particularly the more experimental and/or expressive side of them.

All of this was captured in a fanzine they created. Since the aesthetic and mood were based on a neighborhood community, my section is labeled as 8ºA. Most of the entries are written in Spanish, but the reflections are really interesting.

See Here