I, like many other game developers across the world, participated in the 2014 Global Game Jam. Starting with only a theme at 5:00pm on Friday, January 24th, myself and two others created a fully functioning video game by 3:00pm on Sunday the 26th. Now, although my game is no where near the likes of Goat Simulator (if you have not heard of Goat Simulator, look it up; your life will be better for it), it goes to show how drive, focus, and creativity can blend together to build something from practically nothing. My team and I took the theme, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are,” along with the additional challenge of passing the Bechdel Test, and created The Binds that Hold Us, a puzzle/platformer where players take control of two convicts escaping from prison, each utilizing their own perspective and talents to work together and escape.

The game is not meant to look pretty or play perfectly, but to be an experiment in game development and show off the talents of the people involved.

Download The Binds that Hold Us from the Global Game Jam website.

Special thanks to my co-developers, Carol Liang and Steven Itrich.