Game jams are contests in which video game developers come together to complete a project from scratch, often with a particular theme and tight time limit. The prototypes for many acclaimed titles have emerged out of these hotbeds of on-the-clock creativity, from the mind-bending puzzle game Baba Is You (created during the Nordic Game Jam 2017) to the time-warping first-person shooter Superhot (created during the 7 Day FPS Game Jam in 2013). Pompom: The Great Space Rescue is another upcoming title that originated with a game jam.
Massachusetts-based developer Willem Rosenthal took part in the 2018 Game Maker's Toolkit (GMTK) Game Jam and made Walkie Tori alongside Belgian composer Lynn. Going with the jam's theme of taking a staple genre and removing a main mechanics, he created an action-platformer where players can't control their main character - inspired by classics like Lemmings, but with a focus on putting players into a flow state. After building Walkie Tori in 48 hours, Rosenthal said he wasn't able to get the idea out of his head. Game Rant spoke to Rosenthal about his experience in the industry, and why he chose to flesh out Pompom.
Breaking Into the Industry
Rosenthal attended the Maryland Institute College of Art from 2006 to 2010 and received a BFA in Illustration. He said he planned to be an animator but found the idea of repeating the same drawings over and over "depressing," so instead he taught himself to program on the side and turned his senior thesis into a video game. After school he felt confident he could try to break into the games industry, and started small projects using ActionScript and Flash.
In November 2011 he landed a job working on the browser-based MMO Realm of the Mad God (RotMG), recruited by Wild Shadow Studios via a Craigslist ad that sought a developer with design and art experience. He did a lot of design work on RotMG even after Wild Shadow was acquired by Kabam (behind titles like Marvel Realm of Champions) in April 2012. Rosenthal left Kabam in 2013, and RotMG would be sold to DECA Games in 2016, which is developing a remastered Exalt version following the end of Flash support in 2020.
Working for a larger company taught Rosenthal more "real-world skills" with regards to working on a team, pitching ideas, meeting deadlines, and communicating between different disciplines like art and programming teams, which he said art school doesn't teach as much as it emphasizes following one's passions. After breaking off he formed Proto Games with fellow Kabam veteran Thomas Uster. They created the Tamagotchi-inspired mobile game Pakka Pets over two years, hoping to fill a perceived void in the market based on "probably the fad I cared most about when I was a kid," and then spent another two creating the sequel-sized Village update.
"I love Realm of the Mad God and it was fun to work on it, but I don't play many multiplayer games. Also, even though I got to heavily impact its aesthetics, it still wasn't my art style... It was very freeing being able to make my own project; something I really wanted to exist in the world."
Taking a Break With Pompom
After Pakka Pets, Rosenthal started TOMO CAMP with the intent to work on Go Go Kudamono!, a years-long solo passion project that mixes 1990s beat 'em up arcade art with action gameplay reminiscent of Pocky & Rocky and a deep story; inspired by Super Nintendo/PlayStation RPGs and the political intrigue of World War 2. He describes the game as "an insane amount of work" that has been coming together well, but he felt burnt out by its ambition when the COVID-19 pandemic really began spreading in early 2020.
Rosenthal started participating in game jams for fun shortly after beginning work on Kudamono, with the 2018 GMTK Game Jam being his first. Walkie Tori was well received, ranking 13th place out of 1,056 entries based on community votes. It also got an Honorable Mentions shout-out by GMTK host Mark Brown in his "Best Games" of the jam video - which has over a million views as of this writing. He'd participate in a few more jams, culminating in work on the Pinball-inspired Mr. Flipper at the 2019 GMTK Game Jam (ranking 59th out of 2,588 entries).
When COVID-19 burnout hit, Rosenthal turned to Walkie Tori and grew the idea into Pompom. While he said Mr. Flipper is a game he's happy with, "it's not something I'd choose to expand," unlike Walkie Tori. He said it clicked how that game could be a full-length Super Nintendo title with enough work.
"That's the fun of a game jam game; it gives you the chance to try something and polish it to the point you can see how fun it is. Maybe it turns into something amazing you can't get out of your head, maybe it doesn't."
Pompom and the Power of Game Jams
As of this conversation in early October, Rosenthal said Pompom is content complete and primarily needs polish so every level across its eight worlds feels as good as the demo released for Steam Next Fest - both to receive feedback and increase visibility. Main hurdles for Pompom are localization and its Switch port. Rosenthal said the SNES-styled game was made in Unity and could probably run on a graphing calculator, but its controls are mouse-heavy and menu interactivity needs to be sorted. He was waiting on his Switch dev kit at the time, with hopes to launch the game in early 2022 through publisher PID Games.
However, starting this project via a game jam was beneficial for more than just giving him an idea to latch onto once the pandemic hit. Rosenthal said "you never know what you're going to come up with," and it's "really freeing" to work on anything without being put in a box by having to think about whether it's a sellable idea. "All you can think about is you have three days to come up with something that might be cool," Rosenthal said. "It has the potential to be something that hasn't existed before."
Though it began as a side project, Rosenthal feels Pompom is a sellable idea that could have fit into the early SNES library, and he hopes it does well to help him pay for other projects like Go Go Kudamono! - which he's jumping back into as soon as Pompom releases. However, he said Pompom won't cost $60 as it might have on SNES in the 90s, even if he and PID Games haven't yet settled on a price point. "It'll be whatever you'd imagine a downloadable Super Nintendo-looking game to be."
Pompom: The Great Space Rescue is in development for PC and Switch. A demo is available now on Steam.
Source: Steam