Lovely Monsters
Winter is coming. Even now, in the middle of summer, I am already thinking about how to survive it. And at this time I remember the vampire jam in which I participated. And here is the game that our team made
https://itch.io/jam/vtm/rate/1815268
You can download and play if you have time.Â
I made backgrounds in this game. I believe that I could have done them better, but I did not have the necessary experience, and I wanted to do them as accurately as possible, so that the important places were recognizable. I used Blender for the base, then I did a lot of finishing with my hands. Next time, if there is a next time, I would like to do everything in a completely different style. Another artist drew characters.
Our team could only coordinate over the Internet. Part of the team was in Poland, far from home. Part of it was in Ukraine. I was in Ukraine at that time, I returned when the Russian invaders were repelled away from Kyiv. The city became generally safe, but the Russians started hitting the energy system with missiles, which caused blackouts lasting many hours. Sometimes there was no electricity for several days, but just in time for the jam, more or less stable schedules were established, and I had to not only remember a program that I had not used for a long time, but also manage to do it in 2-4 hours a day when the electricity was still there, and a little while the laptop slill worked.
The artist who drew the characters also had problems with the electricity. I like the characters, they are very interesting.
Even though I was part of the team, I didn't know exactly what the game was going to be about, so I have experience as both a developer and a player not quite knowing what to expect. In the dialogues, many topics from the history of Ukraine are revealed, some of them are actually very inspiring for further thinking, of course, if you know what they are talking about.Â
I wonder how all this is perceived by players from other countries? We were a little disappointed because this is a global game jam, albeit on a specific topic, and while games on local Ukrainian jams always get attention and comments, here we got almost nothing. I have to admit, our local jams really attract more attention, and have a slightly better organization and a more cohesive community. I am very sorry that because of the language barrier, few people from other countries can play the best games from our jams. And it's sad to imagine how much I lose, since I don't know many foreign languages.
I still like comics more than visual novels. But regardless, I would like to participate in the next vampire jam, if it ever happens, and if everyone on our team wants to participate in it in the future. Not because I'm expecting any prizes (prizes in jams usually make me laugh), or even attention, I just really like to draw something on the theme of vampires of the World of Darkness. I just hope that I will still have internet, at least my iPad (a very good thing during blackouts!), and be able to pay the rent)))
