Hi everyone! This LD, I’ve gathered a team. It’s a wholly different experience from the solo jam, and I couldn’t be happier, even when we are, let’s say, vigorously discussing minor plot points in the game’s backstory and other important things. Seriously though, team’s amazing. Our workspace is covered with giant Post-it notes. We’re going by the name Cliché2Play. Our game idea is based on the astrophysical phenomenon of Hot Jupiters – really weird, surprisingly common exoplanets that happen to be really easy for us to detect from Earth. They are Jupiter-sized planets that orbit so close to their suns that they finish a year in like four days. They are so hot that their atmospheres are burning off fast, but so large that they still have a lot of atmosphere to go, and it seems unlikely that they formed in this configuration. Most theories for how they got this way involve them some sort of migration from a configuration that makes more sense to us. Here are some resources if you are curious. A lecture for non-scientists from a Yale professor An astrophysics presentation on possible formation scenarios Wikipedia In our game, you play as an alien civilization that discovers that a large retrograde gas giant is in an unstable orbit and is going to eat up all your system’s planets. You then set about developing your science, industry, and economy in order to either escape from your system or otherwise avoid certain death. You manage resources, grow research trees, and watch in horror as planet after planet gets consumed by a looming renegade gas giant. We’re developing this in Unity, and the teammate with the most Unity experience is doing a super job of making everything amazingly pretty, so that’s good.   As is my tradition, I’m drinking Red Bull Shirley Temples. To make those, you mix the energy drink of your choice and two splashes grenadine in a tall glass of ice. For best results, drink with a straw. Cherry is optional. Back to work. See you all later. -monika