Last month @Figburn hosted a July Game Jam here on Newgrounds, with the theme “Egg.”
Participants had nine days to make a game and the results were eggcellent but all yolks aside, this jam really did produce a lot of astounding games. We increased the prize tiers from seven to ten and still couldn’t squeeze in all our favorites.
Entries were judged by @Figburn, @Eli and myself. Eli also streamed every game on his Twitch, resulting in 10+ hours of gameplay!
July Game Jam Winners
1st - $800 - Stargrove Scramble
Figburn: “Team Bugulon are pros at jam games and Stargrove Scramble is no eggception. The art, music, and game design are all surprisingly polished for how long the game is, and how short the deadline was. As I was playing I was constantly impressed with how creative the levels and bosses were, and had a great time playing the whole thing.”
Eli: “I really enjoyed this one, not only for the amazing visuals and fantastic music, but the gameplay itself being so satisfying and easy to get into. The pixel art and animation all feel so polished, along with just having an amazing sense of art direction (and world building through visuals) on top of that. Being able to use a controller for this game was also a plus for me because it really added that extra level of polish that I didn't expect out of something that was made in only about a week. I REALLY want a full version of this game and I would absolutely buy it if it were to come out on Steam/Itch.Io/etc.”
Tom: “Stargrove is extremely well produced, with great level designs that even makes time for bonus challenges along the way. Everything has a great game feel and it’s fun to try different egg types. We’ve got a number of powerhouse game dev teams hanging out on NG nowadays and Team Bugulon has made quite the name for themselves this past year. Looking forward to seeing what they do next!”
2nd - $550 - Sunnyside vs Eggies
Figburn: “With fun fast paced shoot'em up gameplay, this rogue-like has so much charm through its visuals that it's easy to find yourself replaying eggain and eggain to get to a higher floor count. I especially enjoy the large soundtrack by Dieswyx that keeps the energy high the whole time.”
Eli: “I ended up playing this game for a lot longer than I should've just because of how fun the gameplay loop is. I really love rouge likes and things like that so I instantly fell in love with Sunnyside VS The Eggies. I could absolutely imagine myself sitting and playing this for hours if there weren't tons of other games I had to judge on top of this. Great visuals, fantastic animation, and really fucking cool music to go on top of all of that.”
Tom: “Sunnyside is an addictive rogue-like run ‘n gun that feels great to play. It looks and sounds wonderful, right down to that spinning PS-style disc when you transition between levels.”
3rd - $400 - Hare Egg
Figburn: “I was surprised by how complete this game felt, solo-dev RickRopes told a full small story centering around a simple egg painting mechanic. I loved how the plot played out and eggcreased the tension with the cutscenes in between the levels. Also, as an artist it was fun to plug in my drawing tablet and try to get detailed drawings in the free-draw mode.”
Eli: “I had so much fun with this game. The concept itself is already really great, and there was never a moment when I was bored with what was happening. Seeing my drawings come to life in a story (especially a story as interesting as this) is something that I've always loved and always will love. On top of that, having Julian there playing the game with me let me frame him as the sole conspirator of the Chicken uprising was definitely a highlight of this entire jam, and I would absolutely frame Julian as the leader of a coup (im really funny) again.”
Tom: “Hare Egg really draws you into its world and is filled with endearing moments!”
4th - $200 - Splat Chicken
Tom: “The egg laying and bouncing makes for some eggsemplary platforming puzzles and the time shift when launching eggs is super stylish. I like how the game finishes with you using the mechanic in a proper real-world scenario.”
5th - $125 - Embryo Go Go
Figburn: “The clean visuals and hectic run eg' gun gameplay make this one something special, the art style in particular gives this game a lot of character. I also really enjoy the Yoshi's Island-type health system, where you have to retrieve the egg if you get hurt.”
6th - $100 - Thermal Trail
Tom: “Thermal Trail has a unique mechanic, with a player who can’t get too hot and an egg that can’t get too cold. The graphics in this one are beautiful and eggrything has a solid feel, right down to bouncing the egg off walls. Really impressed by this team, they are definitely one to watch!”
7th - $50 - Brood
Figburn: “Though the eggplay is simple, Brood is both insanely challenging and satisfying to play. Bokononyossarian got the most out of the hatching mechanic with some very cleverly designed levels.”
Tom: “This game creates a whole mood where you feel the desperate, relentless drive for this species to propagate and advance their offspring. I enjoyed the music, too!”
8th - $50 - Yemita
Eggburn: “The whole team clearly put their all into the pure charm of Yemita, with very clean 3d visuals and catchy music. The gameplay too, while a bit difficult to get the hang of, is simple and fun, and I love all the different nooks and crannies to eggsplore in the level.”
9th - $50 - O
Tom: “O has some eggstremely sinister levels but it’s O so satisfying when you solve each one!”
10th - $50 - Nest Quest
Eli: “On top of having a really awesome visual style, Nest Quest is another one of those games that makes me wonder how it was made in only about a week. I'm not the best at these kind of games admittedly, but I never felt like it was the game’s fault that I lost, and I certainly never felt like I wasn't having fun. The game’s levels constantly take you through interesting and intense challenges, with really cool scenery for different worlds. ALSO, being able to change your collision box to an egg was a really cool and really unexpected feature that adds so much replay value and difficulty, and I think having the option is really cool.”
Honorable Mentions
This list got kinda long but we each added some eggditional favorites!
You can’t go wrong with any of these games and there are plenty more great ones in the July Jam Collection.
Thank you everyone who participated in the Egg Jam! I’m gonna officially say this is the best game jam ever on NG.
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