Re-Blade (GMTK Game Jam 2025)

An arcade survival game ranking Top 1.5% for Enjoyment in GMTK Game Jam 2025 out of 9,600+ entries.

Goal

The GMTK Game Jam is a yearly game jam I've been following since I was in high school, and one I had always hoped to one day enter. After graduating, I decided that this was the year to finally participate, and I set a personal goal to rank in the top 200 of any category to challenge myself. With the theme of 'Loop' being revealed at the start of the 4-day jam, I hunkered down, focusing on creating a game that prioritized a highly enjoyable, skill-based gameplay loop above all else. Inspired by the theme, I focused on a returning blade mechanic.

My Contributions

My initial concept was a novel, but very ambitious rhythm action game centered around a loop through which the player and enemy could send attacks and blocks to one another. I quickly pivoted from this concept and stuck with the returning blade concept, which I felt was less novel but allowed for a focused, more polished final product I could actually complete within the deadline.

Designed and programmed the foundational arcing blade mechanic and two critical abilities: an empowered recall that pulled the blade swiftly towards the player, and an invincible dash which pulled the player towards the blade, creating a deep risk/reward system.

Created three distinct enemy types with specific vulnerabilities that required players to strategically use each ability of the blade.

Dedicated the final two days to polish and game feel, implementing key feedback systems like hitstop, a visually satisfying kebab mechanic, and charming animations.

Challenge

After a discouraging first day, the biggest challenge became pacing and prioritization under extreme fatigue. With limited time, I had to resist the temptation to add more features and instead focus entirely on making the core loop as satisfying as possible. Every new idea had to be weighed against both its potential impact on fun, as well as the feasibility of actual implementation.

Solution

The breakthrough came from identifying the core fun in hitting multiple enemies at once. I'm a strong believer in letting things design themselves, and felt like I had an opportunity to follow this principle here. I leaned into the feel by designing a kebab mechanic, which stacks mobs hit in one recall on the blade. I also gave the defensive dash a knockback and stun effect, upgrading it from a get out of jail free card to a move that has genuine depth. My focus on enhancing the existing mechanics, rather than trying to cram new ones in, proved to be a successful approach.

Outcome & Impact

Re-Blade was a great success, ranking #134 out of 9,649 entries in the Enjoyment category and meeting my personal goal. It proved a great encouragement to my skills as a developer, and helped me hone many valuable skills like project management, fighting scope creep, quick iteration, and focusing on the fun. This project also was my first time using generative AI as a coding assistant, and I learned a great deal about how to use the tool, learning the hard way how problematic trusting the code it creates can be. It ultimately greatly improved my AI literacy, showing me how to use it efficiently to speed up tasks, and where I need to trust my own coding decisions.

Key Technologies

Godot, GDScript, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Git