Gabriel Cornish

As I become another game developer affected by layoffs, I’ve realized that I’m terrified of what’s next and what I want from a career in games.

The scariest thing is admitting to yourself what you actually want. Especially when it runs counter to everything you’ve told yourself and believed.

Panic time!

I’m coming up on the remaining days of the jam and I still have nothing as far as gameplay. I’ve tried out a few things, but nothing seems to be sticking.

I need to pivot to something and fast. It seems like the best possible strategy I can do is SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY.

Just wrapped up my game over screen for the Decker 2024 game jam.

Game design is great because you can make the tiniest victories feel major with enough positive reinforcement.

Games can help people feel joy from their smallest actions and I just love that.

A great way to procrastinate working on your game is to work on the title screen instead. Here’s my first stab at the cover art for Hell Dev.

🕹️ Today, was more art exploration for the game jam.

I also set up the two main resources.

The player will be managing Health and Glitches.

• Health is simple. If it reaches zero: game over.
• Glitches are meant to be collected. Collect enough glitches to escape the video game you’re trapped inside.

I just dropped everything to join the Decker Fantasy Camp 2024 and I have 22 days to finish a game.

I’m a little late to the party, but I wanted to contribute something to the Decker community… because they’re awesome!

Here’s my game idea:

• Survive being trapped in your own video game while finding a way out.
• The game will be a Choose Your Own Adventure style game with some random elements and resource management.

Start With Art

One of my weakest areas of game development is art, so that’s where I wanted to focus my attention for this jam.

I want to focus on developing my own style over the course of the jam. That means making a lot of art and also throwing away a lot of art.

You can see some of the exploration I’ve done already.

To keep myself accountable, I also want to produce frequent dev logs as the jam progresses.

I hope that showing my process will encourage others to also make their own games.

If you want to receive updates on how I’m developing the game, you can follow along by subscribing to my newsletter.

Happy 4th everyone!

May your grills stay hot and your beers ice cold!

And I wish you sweet victory in lawn games against your friends and family! 🇺🇸🍻🎆

🕹️ New prototype in development!

While looking for my next job opportunity, I want to work on a new game project for my itch page.

Goal: Make a chill first-person platformer

So far, I’ve implemented:

• Trenchbroom geometry pipeline into Godot
• Quake style FPS movement
• Sprinting
• Misc. shader fun

🙌🏽 I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the game development community.

With Paradox Tectonic’s closure, I’ve begun exploring new opportunities. But, I haven’t been alone in this journey.

In the past week, the outpouring of support from fellow game developers has been overwhelming. I’ve received job leads, encouragement, and invaluable connections.

This support has made all the difference.

The industry’s current state has only strengthened the bonds among us game developers.

I’m committed to paying it forward. If there’s any way I can contribute or support you in your game dev journey, please let me know.

Thank you!