Game Jam Project | Unreal Engine 5.4
GMTK Game Jam 2024 (96 Hours)
Role: UI Designer, Gameplay Designer
Team Size: 10
Engine: Unreal Engine 5.4
Tools: Perforce
Platform: PC
Link:itch.io page
Chikin the Wolf needs help! Help scale down the game size before he gets fired. From sound compression to particle reduction, there are many things Chikin needs to do to keep the game size under 1 GB. Fast-paced party game inspired by Wario Wear and Dumb Ways to Die. Can you avoid getting fired?
Gameplay Overview
Under 1 GB is a rapid-fire minigame experience where players must complete a sequence of short puzzle challenges within 7 seconds per minigame. Each minigame requires quick interpretation of instructions and immediate action using either mouse or keyboard inputs.
The core challenge is not mechanical difficulty but reaction speed and decision-making under pressure.
Short Gameplay Showcase
Design Goals
Create minigames that are instantly understandable within seconds
Maintain a fast, energetic pacing inspired by WarioWare-style design
Balance difficulty so failure feels fair, not confusing
My contribution to this project was to mainly be a gameplay designer and managing backlogs and completed tasks.
I created 4 unique minigames, where I focused on making sure the the main objective to beat the minigame was very clear from the start. This was very important because the player only has 7 seconds to process and beat the minigame. With this challenging time constraint,we had to simplify the required inputs.
Clarity had to be prioritized in every minigame, so when we conducted playtests, the first thing we analysed is how the player interacts with our minigames, and further understanding this by questioning them.
Design Challenge: Clarity Under Time Pressure
Problem
Players only had 7 seconds to understand instructions and complete each minigame. Early playtests showed that unclear visual cues caused confusion, rather than the game being challenging in terms of testing precision or even speed.
Solution
Simplified UI instruction language to reduce reading time
Used color and visual emphasis, such as popping animations and understandable instructional texts, to guide player focus
Adjusted minigame layouts so the primary interaction was always immediately visible
Result
Playtesters were able to understand the objectives more quickly
Failure felt more like a skill issue than a misunderstanding
Overall pacing felt more energetic and readable
This is one of my favorite minigames I’ve worked on because of the amount of collaboration that went into it.
I had an idea to make a matching minigame, that is themed around finding the assets through an unorganised content browser.
Essentially, this is a fast-paced recognition minigame where players must identify an exact match from a grid of similar-looking assets.
The goal of this minigame was to:
Test the player’s ability to parse visual information quickly
Create tension through time pressure without relying on complex inputs
Ensure the challenge came from recognition, not confusion
Minigame spotlight: “Search the asset”
Performance Problem-Solving
Because this minigame relied on many visual elements appearing instantly, performance and load time were critical.
Challenge
Loading a large number of unique icons risked longer load times and unnecessary memory usage during rapid minigame transitions. I wanted to maintain the difficulty by not compromising the grid size.
Solution
Worked with a programmer to iterate on efficient logic for a grid to generate the icon assets but have a randomly different background.
Collaborated with a technical artist to reduce the need for unique textures by:
Using a limited set of base icons
Randomizing background colors and UV variations per tile
This allowed icons to appear visually distinct (e.g., same logo with different background colors) while technically reusing the same assets!
What I Learned
Designing and implementing rapidly in Unreal Engine
The importance of strong UI communication to the player, especially in games that are timer-based challenges
How playtesting is very important to improve design, even in short jams
Managing scope by prioritising the tasks that have more impact on the game overall.