For the first game jam project something simple and familiar is preferable so this project is not particularly complex. Unpredictable Shapeshifting is about being a hunter who sometimes turns into the prey he is seeking. When in hunter form you seek wolves and when in wolf form you must avoid the hunters.

The game is now in a playable state with scene management, main menu, gameplay loop, win and fail states implemented. Most of the important sound effects are in the game. The gameplay is about slow hunters with long range rifles and the faster wolves with sharp teeth. The player turns into either one based on randomized timer. When the timer has 5 seconds left a progress bar appears to warn them that they are about to turn from hunter into wolf or vice versa. As a hunter the player must kill the wolves and as wolf they must kill the hunters.

On Saturday I noticed by chance that Ludum Dare is ongoing and decided to join the compo to take a break from my main project. I went with the first idea I had, game with two sides which play differently and the player changes sides at random. Yesterday I managed to complete main menu, simple gameplay, sounds, a single level and end states, leaving the art, other levels and polish for the second day. I had less time than I expected today and ended up just hastily creating sprites with no animation, hooking them up with movement logic, leaving the game with some placeholder art in place. While disappointed, I'm happy I made a playable game on first attempt.

I decided to join Ludum Dare 49 in the compo category, as I knew I had no time to work on the project after the weekend and I liked the idea of having the restrictions that were involved. I immediately set to work on the first idea which I got. I have read that it is not a good way to make a LD game, but I think that it worked out just fine this time. I think my idea was actually the strongest part of the entry.

The game, Unpredictable Shapeshifting, got its best score from Innovation and Theme. It is about what I expected after reading all the comments. The idea was that there are two teams, hunters and wolves, who hunt each other. The player switches teams on unpredictable interval, making them turn on their allies and wildly changing the way their character controls and should be played. The best scored categories after those two were humor and audio. I am not sure about the reason for the humor score, but perhaps people enjoyed the unpredictability combined with the arcadey sound effects. As for the audio, the score is probably because I managed to create some decently satisfying sounds of rifle being fired.

The weakest parts were Overall, Fun, Graphics. The game has some bugs and lacks polish in key gameplay elements, which makes it unfair to the player. It is also a bit too unpredictable, as the enemies can turn (and kill the player) at almost any moment, with no warning. The graphics are entirely placeholder quality, and there is a visual glitch where the characters can look in a direction while their sprite is looking into another, making the enemies even less fun.

I had fun making the game and I am happy with it, even if I could not do everything I wanted. I also learned and created a few small things I can use in future projects.

Thanks to everyone who tried and reviewed my game. Lastly, congratulations to the winners, and to everyone who managed to pull through and make a game during the jam!