Devlog: Shady Apartment – From 2 Dimensions to 2nd Place in the Macro Game Jam

 Devlog: Shady Apartment – From 2 Dimensions to 2nd Place in the Macro Game Jam

Game jams are wild. One moment, you’re brainstorming ideas over coffee; the next, you’re debugging code at 3 a.m., wondering why shadows have turned into spaghetti. That pretty much sums up my experience during the Macro Game Jam, where I made Shady Apartment, a puzzle-platformer that blends two dimensions—the real world and the shadow world. And guess what? It bagged 2nd place! Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together.

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The Theme: Two Dimensions

The theme for this jam was “Two Dimensions.” At first, I thought of a flat 2D game, but that felt too obvious. I wanted to create something dynamic, something that would blur the lines between dimensions.

That’s when inspiration struck: What if you could interact with the real world in 3D but use the shadows it creates to navigate a 2D space? A game where shadows were more than just visuals—they were the pathways you walked on. And thus, Shady Apartment was born.

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The Core Mechanic: Shadows Come Alive

Here’s how it works:

1. In the 3D real world, you move furniture and objects around.
2. These objects cast shadows onto the walls, creating platforms.
3. You switch to the 2D shadow world, where the shadows become solid platforms you can walk and jump on.

It sounds simple, but getting this to work in Unity was... let's just say "challenging." I used raycasting to detect the shadows’ shapes and dynamically generate 2D colliders for them. At one point, the shadows decided to become free-floating jellyfish (don’t ask), but after some trial and error, I got it working.

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The Apartment: A Puzzle in Itself

The entire game is set in a single, mysterious apartment. Every piece of furniture—from chairs to lamps—was hand-modeled in Blender and textured in Photoshop. The environment wasn’t just decoration; it was an integral part of the puzzles.

For example, you might need to rotate a chair to create a diagonal shadow or stack boxes to cast a staircase. The trick was designing levels that were challenging but intuitive. Watching players figure it out during playtests was super rewarding.

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The Madness of a 48-Hour Game Jam

Creating a game in 48 hours is like running a marathon at sprint speed. My timeline looked like this:

• Day 1: Brainstorming, prototyping the core mechanic, and realizing I forgot to eat lunch.
• Day 2: Building levels, adding UI, testing, fixing bugs, and forgetting to sleep.
• Final Hours: Panicking over tiny details and submitting the game with seconds to spare.

The crunch was real, but so was the satisfaction when I hit that "Submit" button.

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Gameplay: From Light to Shadows

In Shady Apartment, your goal is to reach the flag in the shadow world. You can:

• Move objects in the 3D real world to manipulate their shadows.

• Switch to the 2D shadow world to walk on those shadows.

• Solve creative puzzles by combining shadows in clever ways.

One of my favorite levels involves balancing a lamp on a box to create a bridge of light. It’s one of those “aha!” moments that puzzle games thrive on.

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The Results: 2nd Place

When I submitted Shady Apartment, I wasn’t expecting much. I was just proud to have finished it. But when I saw it take 2nd place, I couldn’t stop smiling. Seeing others enjoy the shadow mechanics and hearing their feedback was the cherry on top of this whirlwind weekend.

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What’s Next?

The jam version of Shady Apartment has only four levels (jam time limits are brutal), but there’s so much more potential. I’m planning to expand it with:

• More intricate puzzles.
• New mechanics (mirrors, anyone?).
• A story that dives deeper into the mysterious apartment setting.

For now, you can play the jam version here:
👉 Play Shady Apartment

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Final Thoughts

Game jams are a rollercoaster of emotions. Shady Apartment started as a spark of an idea and became something I’m incredibly proud of. It’s a reminder that sometimes, even with limited time and resources, you can create something truly unique.

If you play the game, I’d love to hear your thoughts—what you loved, what you’d change, and how many times you fell off a shadow. Thanks for reading, and here’s to many more games and game jams! 🎮✨