I Made A WarioWare Inspired Game in 48 Hours (GMTK 2023 Game Jam)

What do you mean you don’t know who Bario is? BarioWare: Swap is my entry to the Game Makers Toolkit Game Jam for 2023. The theme was Roles Reversed.

Logo/Theme art not created by me, taken from the GMTK Game Jam itch.io page

The examples given for this theme in its announcement video were;

  • Angry Birds where you build the towers instead of knocking them down
  • Pong where you play as the ball instead of the paddle
  • Tetris where you control the board/environment instead of the falling blocks
WarioWare DIY – A childhood favourite of mine

I applied the theme to WarioWare which became WarioWare but you’re in control of the microgames, now while a WarioWare game already exists where you make games (WarioWare DIY) I decided to make a game that instead has you modifying and setting up existing microgames to maximise your chances of defeating the player (The AI).

The AI popping the balloons

An example from the game includes a microgame where the AI is trying to pop balloons within 5 seconds, in this example you get 5 seconds to spread out the balloons as much as possible so the AI can’t click them all fast enough.

The human player filling the chest so the AI can empty it

You can play the game for free on itch.io, if you’re also taking place in the GMTK Game Jam, why not give BarioWare a rating while the submission page is still open? Thanks

itch.io Page: https://tompouchergames.itch.io/barioware-swap

Submission/Rating Page: https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2023/rate/2155728

GMTK 2018 Game Jam – VacPac

Hello, It’s been about 18 months since I’ve started a game project due to finishing University and starting a full time job. That’s why I decided a game jam was the best way to reignite my creativity and motivation. I chose the GMTK game jam as it was hosted by Mark Brown of Game Maker’s toolkit who has a brilliant Youtube series on game design. The theme of the game jam was ‘Genre without mechanic’. This means that the game needed to be based on a genre and take away a key gameplay mechanic such as shooting in a first person shooter or not having the ability to jump in a platformer.

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