Letter from Nadine An original action adventure game (completed), built as part of a team submission for the horror-themed scream jam 2025.
The final game can be found here!

• First I pitched the idea to each team member using a hand-drawn map. I had to paint the bigger picture and get people to imagine what the game could become.

• At the beginning, I didn’t have a story in mind. I had the level, enemy references, puzzles, and player tasks in my level design document, but I needed writers to create the story.

• We communicated through Discord, with separate channels for different departments including 3D art, modeling, writing, programming, VFX, music, sound effects, level design, lore writing, and questions.

• We used Diversion for version control and made the game in Unreal Engine 5.6.1.

• We worked countless late hours, sometimes even 12 or more hours a day, to finish the game.

Story behind the scene: Our team came together from different parts of the world, and spoke Italian, Spanish, and English. Communicating across languages was one of our biggest challenges during the game jam. We’re especially grateful to our teammate Alexya, whose language skills and translation helped us understand one another and create shared documents so we could work together. Thanks to that teamwork, we found a way through and kept moving forward.

We also faced an unexpected challenge when our main programmer had to step away because of a family emergency. Thankfully, they’re doing okay now. The news was stressful for the team, but I tried to keep everyone encouraged while we figured out what to do next. I reached out to my friend Gabi, who joined the project and implemented the game’s core features in less than three days before the jam ended. We’re incredibly thankful for that help.

Playtesting also helped us spot something I missed: the sword pickup was too far from the player’s path. After discussing it as a team, we decided to move the sword before the first gate so players could find it more naturally. This game jam tested us in many ways, but it also showed us how much we could accomplish by supporting one another, adapting quickly, and working as a team.

I’m so proud of this project, and I feel incredibly lucky to have met teammates who believed in my idea. Without them, making this game would have been impossible. Leading the team and bringing the idea to life taught me how much dedication it takes to create the amazing games I’ve that have brought me so much joy, humor and happiness. Letters from Nadine is emotionally intense and deals with sensitive topics, including depression, suicide, and trauma. We encourage players to approach the experience with awareness.

I hope you enjoy the game, we worked hard on it. Thank you, and if you have difficulty finding people who match your energy, don’t give up!

https://geek-man-games.itch.io/letter-from-nadine