When 'cooking' and 'eating' just won't do...

To play the game in your browser: https://soulpatched.itch.io/wasbeer

The theme: a jam about food

I was desperate for some inspiration for my next one-game-a-week. As a game designer, I love to make digital games, but unfortunately have little love for lots of programming. So, MakeCode Arcade was (is) my current weapon of choice, because it's so super accessible. Long story short: after browsing for way too long, I ended up on the MakeCode forum. And there it was: a mini gam-jam was being hosted with the theme 'food'.

Approaching the core gameplay

Armed with a stack of paper and a sharpie, I brainstormed the night away on the core gameplay. Clearly, 'cooking' or 'eating' as core actions were way too obvious. But what were alternatives? And then (while brushing my teeth) it hit me: 'stealing' food would be a great approach. Stealing food from innocent people. And not by humans, but by animals. That could make some solid core gameplay and also loads of design space work with later on.

Ending up with a Wasbeer

So, I browsed countless pictures of food-stealing seagulls (and sock-stealing cats). And I searched for the octopus with its many arms, approaching you from all sides at the same time! But ended up with something nimble, fast and action packed: the raccoon. Or 'wasbeer', if you're Dutch. And if you're not, that's ok. Your avatar doesn't look anything like a raccoon anyways.