LIVES LOST

Developed over 7 days for the Chill Game Devs Game Jam #4, Lives Lost is a casual, single player game. The player loads into a randomly generated spaceship and has to complete randomly generated tasks to finish the game. There is no 'fail' scenario, so the player is able to die over and over, filling the environment with bodies.

A screenshot of a 2D pixel art game. An astronaut is floating. There is a boost bar, a counter for how many astronauts have died, and a list of items to collect.

Released: September 2020

Genre: Casual

Engine: Unity

Team Size: 2

Duration: 7 days

Platform: Browser

Website: jessabellerina.itch.io/lives-lost

Awards & Recognition: 1st place, Chill Game Devs Game Jam 2020

Lives Lost was developed over 7 days during the Chill Game Devs Game Jam #4 (September 2020). The theme was Zero Gravity.

The other member of the team was a programmer from New Zealand, and we managed to create a game while working with a 12-hour time difference.

Roles and Responsibilities

Art

I was responsible for all art in the game: the character, environment, assets and UI.

The assets could be marked as "required to collect", or hinder the player by cluttering the ship. The assets include practical items you would expect in a spaceship as well as items that don't quite fit (a phone with GPS, a steering wheel, and the headphones from Guardians of the Galaxy).

The environment art can be found at the bottom of the page.

Initial Sketches

My initial ideas were leaning towards mobile game mechanics: swiping the screen to 'fling' a spaceman around a ship.

The designs then moved on with PC controls in mind, as we wanted as many people to play the game as possible and that was less likely if players had to download the game rather than play it in-browser.

A screenshot of some of the planning notes of the game. It includes a drawing of an astronaut and a cloning chamber.

I created a Game Flow in Miro. This helped me express myself better and to articulate the game I had imagined, like a blueprint.
This also helped when working with a 12-hour time difference, as the programmer was able to refer to this if he needed to ask me a question about the game and I wasn't awake.

A screenshot of the proposed gameplay loop: How the player starts, what they do, how they win.

Final Levels

An image of a 2D pixel art bathroom. Ther are showers, sinks, and toilet cubiles. One of the bonus items floating around the bathroom is a poop that makes a "squish" noise and leaves a brown mark on the player.
An image of a 2D pixel art research room. There are desks with multiple computers and large screens.
An image of a 2D pixel art escape room. There are large yellow arrows with black lines pointing towards the centre of the room, where the escape pod would be.
An image of a 2D pixel art kitchen. The floor is black and white tile (eventhough it's on a spaceship) and it contains tables, chairs, sinks, ovens and fridges.
An image of a 2D pixel art room that has a dark green floor with green motherboard-looking lines winding across the room.
An image of a 2D pixel art locker room. There are multiple lockers, benches, and a ladder stacked in the corner.
An image of a 2D pixel art medbay. There are multple medical beds, each one has a locker beside it. One bed has a syringe, another has a blood stain. There are plasters on the floor.
An image of a 2D pixel art navigation room. There is a desk with a computer, a map, books, and a compass (eventhough it is on a spaceship)
An image of a 2D pixel art storage room. There are crates, barrels, and even a Henry Hoover.