Matthew Gai
The Great Goob War
A Survivors-like where players defend against waves of enemies by throwing different kinds of Goobs.
The Pitch
The enemies are upon us! But thankfully the Goobs are here to help! Using the Goobs' different abilities, help defend the towers from waves of enemies, all the while keeping yourself alive. See how long you can survive in... The Great Goob War!
This project was made in collaboration with a friend over 48 hours for the 9th annual Chico Game Jam. This was my first experience making art, SFX, and music for a game.
Key Contributions
- Game Design: Designed the "Wave" mechanic and tower defense loops.
- Art & Animation: Created sprites for 4 enemy types, 6 Goob varieties, and the player character.
- Audio: Composed the background track and created all sound effects.
Waves of Enemies
The theme for the game jam was Waves. Our first ideas started with combining the endless waves of enemies from games like Vampire Survivors with the picking up and throwing of Pikmin in Pikmin. We felt that having waves of enemies fit the theme well enough, and the gameplay twists we made to the games we drew inspiration from provided for a fun concept.
With our core concept made, we then spent the next 48 hours grinding out the game. Within that time, I managed to draw up art and animation for 4 different enemy types, 6 different Goobs, the player, and world scatter, all while also making the SFX and a looping song to play in the background.
Defending the tower from enemies.
Design Solutions
Initially we had planned to have the player aimlessly wander around, collecting Goobs as they went, with the goal of surviving as long as possible. However, we quickly realized this wouldn't work. If the player is always running from enemies, they would essentially be running from Goob to Goob, throwing it as soon as they got it. What we needed was a reason to keep players confined to a central area that moved around the map, otherwise the player wouldn't have a reason to pick up multiple Goobs at a time.
Our solution was towers that the player had to defend by staying in an area around them. Once a bar was filled, the tower was completed, the player would receive some health and an additional Goob slot, and a new tower would spawn. This provided a sort of tension and release, where players would alternate between two different types of play. They would save up Goobs and dodge enemies while traveling between the towers, before then engaging in frenetic dodge-and-weave combat around the towers.
Goobs line up behind the player in a line.
Play the Game!
The game is available to play on Itch.io
Play on Itch.io