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Sean Braithwaite, Personal Space
Sean Braithwaite, Personal Space

In this GGJ 2017 entry, players try to get close but never touch other tram riders for points.

 

Arcade

Personal Space Documentation
Sean Braithwaite, Personal Space
Personal Space
Unity

Global Game Jam 2017 - 2 day jam

 

 

Sean Braithwaite

Nathan Powless-Lynes

Keita Lorente

Shepherd Cameron

Vivian Ha

 

48-Hour Development Duration

Personal Space Blog & Postmortem
Jam Game
Programming
Game Design

           Personal space was created as part of the Global Game Jam 2017 whose theme was 'waves'. The theme became the backbone and core mechanic in Personal Space, where one's body moved like a wave. The goal of the game is to get as close to other players as possible without touching them. Players receive points in relation to how close they get to other players without touching them. If players make contact, both lose points. But watch out, this tram is anything but a smooth ride, and with bodies flying around, minding your manners just got a lot more challenging!

 

Challenge:

A. 48-Hour Global Game Jam

B. Leverage the jam theme of waves 

C. Create an eye-catching, cohesive art style with a large team of artists

 

My Role:

A. Managed team of 5, ensured production was continual and deadlines were met
B. Programmed player interface and character bodies  'wavy movement'

C. Implement visual assets and effects

Personal Space Documentation 2
Goal: Waves

           This project was created as part of Global Game Jam 2017, whose theme was 'Waves'. This was a broad theme and could be interpreted freely, allowing for some fun ideas such as the one we settled on. Our goal for the game jam was to create something simple, silly to play and watch, and a game which could be enjoyed between friends. Furthermore, I personally enjoy pushing themes and such, so Personal Space fit well.

 

I'd say we succeeded with that goal in mind, Personal Space is definitely one of the sillier and more strange games I've created. It gets a lot of laughs and interest when shown around and was popular post-jam.

Sean Braithwaite, Personal Space
Successes and Takeaways
Sean Braithwaite, Personal Space
Postmortem and Design Thoughts

           The biggest fault in Personal Space's design was that players could readily be kingmakers, wherein a player could smack another player to lost both parties the entirety of their points. Getting hit by someone's hips and losing points was funny up until the point where players realised they lost all their points in seconds.

 

We never implemented a proper solution for this during the jam, but if I were to do so, I would first look into checking who is the aggressor in the contact. This could be done by checking who is further from their normalised, straight position, perhaps. However, during the jam, I didn't bother with it as it was a higher-level concern and one which would take me several hours to resolve when I had the rest of the game to put together.

 

In the sense of focusing on what matters, I believe we did a good job. We were able to successfully complete and submit our game on time, and each of us was proud of the contribution we made in producing the strange little gem. The game was complete, looped, and after a quick resubmission, worked properly to boot.

 

An interesting point is that the game's visuals were very incohesive, composed of random colours and levels of detail and grain which meshed very poorly until the morning of submission. The night before, when we left to catch a tram back to our resting place (We didn't sleep at George Brown College, our jam location, nor did we stay overnight at any point. That's a success in and of itself.) I was speaking to the team about the misaligned visuals when a streetcar pulled up for us, and for a brief moment I saw it as something one would see in an old movie, such as the original train film, and the sepia fell into my mind. It was implemented the next morning, and though we had not planned for it from the start, it created cohesion amongst the graphics. The lesson is to not be afraid to make changes, including asking people to re-do work if the project/ product will be better for it.

           My favourite part of Personal Space is its wacky gameplay. The movement and scoring are quite unusual and appeal to the type of movement the jam was looking for. We succeeded in both our goal for the game we designed for the event and in utilising the theme. I also like the characters, I feel they have a lot of expression despite not having animated faces. Much of our communication is non-verbal, so we had a lot of character built into the design.

 

The biggest takeaways from this project are that keeping the game simple for a jam is key. Furthermore, spending several hours designing shouldn't be seen as a waste of time. I'd personally encourage spending longer designing not only the game, but its implementation as then the team can be more on board with what is going to happen, how, and when. The project will be more organized, at the very least.

Always designed with care

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Sean Braithwaite 2025

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