The Dinner was the winning entry in the DPAD x GDDI Fall 2024 Game Jam. It is a puzzle party game where players place moving sticker pieces onto a scrapbook page, then use the chaotic results as visuals for cutscenes and later puzzles.
The Dinner
WINNER of DPAD x GDDI Fall 2024 Game Jam
October 6, 2024
Game Details
My Role
Lead Programmer
Genre
Puzzle Party Game
Platform
PC
Development Tools
Unity, C#
Key Features
- Sticker-based puzzle mechanics
- Increasingly chaotic movement system
- Player-generated visuals used in cutscenes
Teammates
- Anlan Jiang (Puzzle Design & Cutscenes)
- Dasol Lee (Scene Management and Flow Control)
- Georgia Jiang (UI Visuals and Puzzle Image Slicing/Creation)
- Deanna Zhao (Music and SFX)
- Tali Nam (Assets & Puzzle Design)
- Allie Brown (Assets & Puzzle Design)
Visuals & Media
Gameplay
Prototype Puzzle
Before any art was done, I went ahead and created a very simple puzzle to test the chaotic puzzle-piece movement mechanic.
First Puzzle
Completed First Puzzle
First Cutscene with player-made Sprite
Development Process
This game was built over a 48-hour weekend jam, where I led the technical side of the project. My focus was implementing puzzle-piece movement, progression logic, and the systems that turned player-made puzzle results into assets the rest of the game could reuse.
Key Takeaways
- Game Jams Are a Great Learning Experience - Working under a tight deadline forced us to prioritize features and make quick design decisions.
- Embracing Chaos in Game Design - The unpredictable movement of stickers made the game more fun, silly, and engaging, showing us the value of emergent gameplay.
- Team Collaboration Matters - Strong communication and clear task delegation helped us complete the game on time.
- First "Award-Winning" Game! - Winning the game jam was a huge confidence boost and reinforced our passion for game development.