This is the first major creative project I took part in this year (and decade). Isle of Sky was created for the Southampton Global Game Jam 2020. This was the first game jam I ever took part in and I would be thrilled to take part in more of them!

During this event, my team of three had to plan, design and program a functional game within a 48-hour time limit, while following a general theme. The theme varies every year, but on this occasion we were given the keyword, "repair". With this premise in mind, we decided to work on a game where the player has to be in charge of a floating sky-island city that was in constant need of fixing and managing. The aim of the game is to maintain your sky island and make sure it stays repaired and floating while keeping track of supplies. The game is lost if the city falls or runs out of people.

I worked on the 2D User Interface (UI) elements that the player could interact with. This included the main menu, buttons, status symbols and game over screen (all pictured left). One of the tasks that I enjoyed especially was creating the citizens of this world. We decided to set the game in a steampunk world, which was why the characters have a combination of sci-fi/historically inspired outfits. The rusted copper appearance of the buttons also stem from this design choice.

The version of the game we presented didn't have all of the originally planned features built in within the time limit. There was going to be a combat system in the game, as well as a feature where you could steal scrap metal from rival sky cities to repair your own island. Despite these elements not being included, I'm still proud of the game as a demo of what it could be with future updates and development.

More details on the project can be found here.