Introduction

Each year students at DigiPen gather into teams of three to five in order to work on a game lasting 28 weeks over two semesters. The teams are to design, develop, test, and complete a game in this time. Members assign themselves roles to take within the team such as Technical Director, Designer, Producer, and Product Manager. Each role is given a major responsibility towards the production and completion of the game.

Gelatin Joe started with the idea to have a character made from clear gelatin. This character would obtain skills by picking up smaller colored gelatin blobs. The mixture of color that Joe has determines what abilities he can perform. We wanted Joe to explore the world freely like in a traditional platforming game, but we also wanted the player to solve puzzles as they traveled through the world. We wanted the game to be heavily color oriented in that puzzles and challenges would rely on these colored blobs to get further in the world. With an emphasis on color, we decided model the game as a cartoon with thick black outlines and vibrant colors.

When talking about how the game would work, we decided that each of the three primary colors of blobs would function as a basic skill. Green blobs would allow you to jump, blue blobs would allow you to dash, and red blobs could be thrown. When Joe uses one of these basic skills, corresponding colored blobs would be dropped from his body. This meant that the player could not get stuck if they did the wrong action. They could always go back and pick up used blobs and retry a puzzle. The game features numerous widgets and contraptions that can be combined to form complex puzzles. The puzzles become more intricate as Joe progresses through the game's five levels. The game ends with a boss battle between Joe and his nemesis Billy Bob the Bionic Blob.