A little collage of how we approached this jam! 
This time it was just two of us, so we had to keep the scope small. We also didn’t have access to the design tools we were used to, so we wanted to find a visual style that we could build entirely with Figma.

Day 1

We decided on the concept fairly quickly, mapped it out with a few post-its, and prioritized what mattered most.


At the end of day one, you could already paddle around a bit and test the basic movement mechanic.

Day 2

We dropped the map feature (which you can see on the first sketch in the bottom right) early on and tied buffs directly to the collectable items, shrinking the scope even more.


We also realized that less lighting actually made the game more interesting and less chaotic.


By the end of day two, all the core elements were in place — ready to become an actual game.

Day 3

We worked on the level layout, pause- and end screen as well as item visuals.


We weren’t totally happy with the paddle interaction and animation, so about an hour before submission we changed the main character.

Still not perfect, but hopefully good enough to get the idea.

Takeaways

Keeping the scope tight and focusing on the core mechanic made a huge difference this time.


It really helped to revisit priorities mid-jam and cut features before they became a burden.


Figma worked surprisingly well for quick asset creation, and bringing everything into Godot was smoother than expected.

What comes next?

For the jam theme, we went with a time-based ending, but we’re already thinking about turning it into a small adventure version with maps and different clues in the future, what do you think?

We’ve received lots of ratings already and are incredibly thankful for that. If you have any thoughts on Glow Below, your feedback is always welcome!

Play it here

/events/ludum-dare/58/glow-below