This is the first time we all participate as a team. Both @elmismopancho and myself have participated a number of times before, and @ignius has also been part of the LD experience a couple of times already. @mspawa on the other hand was new to this and it was really awesome to have her on our team.

The Plan

Before the jam even started we already had the idea of using voice commands as input for our entry. Quite a few number of options during "Theme selection" looked like easy candidates for voice-controlled action, so we were pretty confident that we would be able to go with that idea.

At first we thought a phone app was our best option, but after some research and quick tests, we found out that the HTML5 Speech recognition API was going to work just fine, at least on Chrome. Having a game that does not need to be downloaded is always good.

Only problem? None of us (devs) had used a HTML5 framework before, but I had heard of Phaser, so we quickly looked at the docs and examples and decided to take the leap.

So, in summary: We wanted our next game to be voice-controlled, and that meant using mostly tech we had never used before, which was exciting in its own right.

LD Starts

We met on Skype when the theme was announced Friday night, and we started discussing ideas. We went to bed with a rough idea of what we wanted to make and a plan of meeting Saturday somewhere, to jam together.

The next day we worked on the voice recognition and implemented the first stage using placeholders, while our artist, @ignius was sketching game elements, and worked on the title screen. @mspawa wrote the script, which constantly had to be adjusted as we decided on the details for each part of the game. We intended to make around 5 stages but it quickly became apparent that 2 or 3 was a more realistic goal.

Sunday was an interesting day. A lot of assets were done and added to the game, and @mspawa started looking for sound effects when no changes to the script were required. We settled for 2 stages, and by the end of the day we had both of them working.

As many of us had to work on Monday, it was mostly a day of fixing bugs, adding the intro screen and a quick message at the end, inserting the sound effects and uploading everything to our servers. This was when we discovered that the latest version of Chrome required HTTPS for microphone input, so @elmismopancho quickly got a SSL certificate for his server that night, just in time for submission hour. I did the same the day after, to have a mirror for the game, just in case.

What went well

• Despite using a bunch of stuff we were completely unfamiliar with, we managed to make a game that we are all proud of.
• Speech recognition worked better than we expected.
• It's always fun to be with the rest of the team in the same place, working on a game, and for most of this LD we were able to do that.

What went bad

• We had to cut a bunch of level ideas and scale down the game a lot.
• While a Chrome-only game was better than an Android-exclusive app, we would've loved to make something that everyone could play on their browser of choice.

What worked...somehow.

• I was really sick during that weekend and not feeling terribly well, but I managed to make my part anyway.
• We originally wanted to have commands that made sense but were mapped to the wrong actions, but we soon discovered that the Speech recognition had problems with short commands like "up" so we were in a tough spot. This, however, made us go with completely nonsensical commands, which added some extra charm and humor to the game.

Post-Jam version

We also made a Post-Jam version, with some minor improvements and language options, so now you can play our entry in Spanish, or (what we think is even more hilarious) in English but using Spanish commands!

Big thanks to everyone who has already played our entry, we LOVE you all, and we really hope you enjoyed our game!

Special thanks to those who took their time to leave feedback, be sure to check their games too!

@andidebob, @badly-drawn-rod, @c0nst4ntin, @deadlyalive, @dorkandy, @dotsquid, @dragojt, @evil-as-shit, @gamesplusjames, @geck0, @guckstift, @herniewise, @huitre, @irishbruse, @jason200101, @josehzz, @jsmcag, @lereveur, @machinetribe, @mamoniem, @mathiouza, @matt-fabius, @naminuz, @oddballdave, @pavel-kouril, @peachtreeoath, @pfeyffer, @phlip45, @pixel-game-wizard, @pjchardtthesecond, @prodigalson, @qzqxq, @rafael-souza, @ratly, @rixud, @robotsandmuffins, @rootpew, @simonhutchinson, @simplepotential, @steve-johnson, @sugarbyte, @sythgara, @teacapn, @thecodefactory, @tjakka5, @tmpxyz, @tyler-miller, @valphera, @vasco-rodrigues, @virtualacademy, @zyow.

If you haven't tried our entry already, you can try it now, and if you like the idea we encourage you to try the Post-Jam version, which has some extra polish.