Hackathons

Completed in 48 hours for the 2024 Global Game Jam, Boneless Knight was an intentional challenge I took to make an active ragdoll game in that time frame. I had never made an active ragdoll game before, so it was a great challenge and learning experience. Over those 48 hours, I managed to complete the ragdoll configuration, its force-based-movement, a modular dialogue system, a cutscene system using that dialogue system, enemy destruction, and a win condition. This was particularly challenging, not just because of the subject being new to me, but also because the version of Unity we used has a bug with the Angular X and Angular YZ Drives being modified at runtime. Tracking down this bug and working around it was a big part of this project.

Play/Download: https://axelancer.itch.io/boneless-knight 

Completed in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam 2023, Mycopia is a "city-building" sim where it is your responsibility to build new mushroom colonies and make sure their mycelium network underground is connected to valuable resources. However, giant (to you) rabbits are coming to plunder your cities. You must defend them with all you have by shooting spores at them.

Download: https://v3.globalgamejam.org/2023/games/mycopia-9 

Completed in 48 hours for the Amber Jam event, Speakeasy Tycoon is a top-down isometric simulation game, where you're in charge of creating a production and distribution network for alcohol during prohibition in 1920s America. 

Participated as a managing member of MidCoast Game Developers (now Amber Waves of Games), we partnered with other Midwest game development organizations for this event, including Flyover Indies and KC Video Game Developers.

Play: https://axelancer.itch.io/speakeasy-tycoon 

Completed in 48 hours as a solo project for the Ludum Dare 46 event, and my tenth completed hackathon, Keep The Party Alive is a short but hectic single player game, where you play as the host of a party trying to satisfy everyone's needs while keeping party hype up. This game features a hype-management system, as well as a random-needs-assignment system that keeps the game fun without being too difficult, assigning needs to partygoers that the player has to fulfill to maximize hype. 

Participated as a managing member of MidCoast Game Developers (now Amber Waves of Games), we partnered with other Midwest game development organizations for this event, including Flyover Indies and KC Video Game Developers. Due to COVID-19, this was our first remote online-only hackathon.

Play: https://axelancer.itch.io/keep-the-party-alive 

Jam page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/keep-the-party-alive-4 

Created in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam 2020. Overclocked is a networked multiplayer augmented reality puzzle box game, where players must work together to repair various machines. This requires coordination and teamwork to accomplish. 

Jam site: https://globalgamejam.org/2020/jam-sites/global-game-jam-hosted-rpg 

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/114B9I9YMB8JSicMlpy4NnFsyzQl7DUXHLfxTRYwojLw/edit?usp=sharing

Created in 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 45 event, competing with 5,838 participants creating 2,613 other projects, Temptris ranked highly worldwide as one of the most innovative projects of the event. Temptris is a Tetris-inspired roguelike game, made in the Gameboy Color style. An evil sorceress, the Temptris, sends random dungeon rooms hurtling your way, and it is up to you to rotate and move them so that they build a dungeon. You must ensure that there are paths to every enemy, because you cannot kill the Temptris without killing the enemies first. Once your dungeon has reached all the way to her, the gameplay shifts to a dungeon crawl, and you have a limited amount of time to traverse it and make it to her.

Play: https://axelancer.itch.io/temptris 

Jam page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/temptris 

The Bigger You (2019) - Unity - Microsoft Hololens

HackKU 2019

Winner of "Best Game Award"

2nd Place Overall

Created in 36 hours for for Hack KU 2019, a Major League Hacking event. This project was made using the Microsoft Hololens, utilizing its depth camera to scan the user's room and populate it with a random cityscape. By snapping to the detected ground plane, buildings pop up on top of couches, tables, and on the floor. The player takes the role of a giant monster and can walk through the city and destroy buildings. I was the lead programmer for this project.  During this event I also held a workshop to teach attendees the basics of game engines. 

Jam page: https://devpost.com/software/the-bigger-you 

Repository: https://github.com/AlexanderCrane/HackKU2019 

Run For Your Life(2019) - Unreal Engine 4, Solo Project

Theme: "Your life is currency"

Ludum Dare 44

Created in 48 hours, Run for your Life, is a 3D timed platformer where you are on Death’s doorstep. Death has approached you in your final moments, and says your life only has a paltry few minutes left. However, he offers you a deal - if you can beat his challenge, you are allowed to walk away and live another day - but if you lose, your soul belongs to him. If you wish to sweeten the deal, you can exchange some of your precious seconds left in order to acquire special abilities that may help you. Will you spend some of the last seconds of your life in order to hedge your bets? Or will you attempt this challenge with only the skills you had upon death? The choice is yours.

Introvertical (2019) - Unity

Theme: "What home means to you"

Global Game Jam 2019

Created in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam 2019, our game takes the theme and plays on how it feels to be an introvert, suffering from social anxiety. Home is a place to recharge and recover from the outside world, where day to day interactions can be draining. We represent this here in a Lite-Metroidvania style game about a robot who needs to climb to the highest floor of the building he resides in. The player must explore the tower, opening shortcuts to aid exploration and being sure to return home each time before their battery depletes, or risk the robot losing it's life. I was a designer and the lead programmer for this project, as well as the main organizer for the jam site.

Jam page: https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games/introvertical 

Mind Your Minions (2018) - Unity

Theme: "Sacrifices must be made"

Ludum Dare 43

Mind Your Minions was created in 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 43 game jam. You play as a king who must traverse his kingdom by picking up his loyal subjects as he goes, and using them as fodder. Your "minions" follow you as you collect them. This game features a unique system in that your minions serve as your in-game lives, and can only be sent off in the order they are picked up in, with some having special abilities. This requires the user to think carefully on the minions they pick up. I was a designer and the lead programmer for this project, as well as the main organizer for the jam site.

Jam page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/mind-your-minions 

Pirate Jam Radio (2018) - Unreal Engine 4

Theme: "Transmission"

Global Game Jam 2018

Finished in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam 2018, you play as a skater who has set up shop in a dystopian city and created a pirate radio station. Your goal is to travel to various objective locations, being radio towers, and hack into them to begin broadcasting your music and message to the people. The character also has the mysterious power to enter a satellite dish or radio tower and transmit themselves via sound-waves. The gameplay elements we included were wall-riding, wall-jumping, double jumping, rail grinding, and launching out of radio towers and satellite dishes. Also included in the source code (but not in the demo level) are moving platforms, enemy AI that path-finds towards player, and unique character animations. I was a programmer and designer for this game, and also the main organizer of the jam site. 

Jam page: https://globalgamejam.org/2018/games/pirate-jam-radio 

Glow (2014) - GameMaker Studio

Theme: "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

Global Game Jam 2014

Completed in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam 2014 event, and consisting of hand-drawn art, Glow is a 2D platformer featuring a warrior from a faraway place, who traveled to a land corrupted by dark forces since ancient times. The main character traveled here and brought with him a magical orb which can cleanse that which is corrupted, but only within a certain range.

 At first glance, Glow seems like a typical "light vs the dark" story, but after defeating many of the enemies, Glow discovers that the creatures residing in this dark land have lived here like this for centuries, creating their own ecosystems and living just like non-corrupted creatures. This is where the theme "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." comes in, since Glow spent the game clouded with his own mindset, falsely thinking that these creatures are evil and must be destroyed.

Jam page: https://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/glow