Brackey’s Game Jam 2025.2 – Summary

My first ever game jam: 7 days, 1 theme: Risk it for the Biscuit. Here’s how Alien Miner came to life.

The Core Idea

I’ll admit it: I struggled with the theme at first. I took it way too literally and spent a good chunk of Day 1 brainstorming three different concepts:

1. Risky paths platformer: Collect coins on dangerous routes, bank them at checkpoints to keep them safe. Die before banking = lose everything.
2. Speedrun paths: A safe but slow route vs. a fast but deadly one.
3. Bet your HP: Start each level betting health. Win = doubled HP. Lose = permanently gone.

In the end, idea #1 made the cut, and Alien Miner became a short platformer where you collect gems, bank them to keep them safe, and try to reach the exit without losing it all. But I also added idea #2 where different, more riskier, paths would lead to better rewards.

The Wins 🎉

• The mechanics came together fast thanks to two Brackey tutorials I watched beforehand.
• Focus clicked in once I started building; I had a great rhythm during the weekdays
• Most importantly: I shipped my first jam game despite limited time and the usual first-timer struggles.

The Challenges

• Art: I leaned on Kenney’s asset packs because my pixel art skills aren’t there yet, but matching backgrounds and tiles was trickier than expected.
• Scope creep: Every mechanic I added spawned at least two new ideas. I had to stay strict on what was “jam essential” vs. “save it for later.”
• Level design: Starting out with no real plan I ended up fighting spacing issues where players couldn’t make jumps or fit through gaps. Lots to learn here for future games.
• Risk factor: Making the risky path dangerous but fun is harder than it looks. Too easy = pointless. Too hard = frustrating.

The Result

Even though it’s just one imperfect level, I’m proud to have built and shipped my first jam game. You can play it here:

Alien Miner on Itch.io

The feedback so far has been encouraging:

• “Great movement and fun concept with a nice tie-in to the theme.”
• “Loved how the intro explained things without blocking the flow.”
• And a great tip I got: add a level overview or mini-map to help players plan risky routes.

What’s Next?

I’m considering polishing Alien Miner into a small, fully released game:

• Free or pay-what-you-want on Itch.io.
• Low-cost Steam release for those who want to support my game dev journey.

Beyond that, I want to explore other genres: top-down, puzzle, maybe even a card game. All to build range and learn new mechanics.

Reflections

The biggest win wasn’t the level, the mechanics, or even the feedback. It was proving to myself that I can start, finish, and ship a game in a week. That confidence is worth more than anything else I got out of the jam.

Catch you in the next log.