The second day of the jam begins, and I still haven’t found an idea that truly clicks. Suddenly, I remember a simple yet clever indie game called Orbt XL. It’s the kind of game I’d love to make—simple, yet ingeniously designed. However, I can't copy the idea, and it doesn’t quite fit the theme of the jam.

💡 Tweaking the Concept
I start brainstorming how I can modify Orbt XL to fit the theme of “Breaking the Loop”. What if, instead of orbiting outside the planet, the player had to navigate through its interior? This way, escaping wouldn't be as easy as just being outside. The loop would feel like being trapped inside the planet, constantly spinning.

🌀 The Core Mechanics
I immediately think of using the Asteroids control system to make navigation more challenging. I even consider adding gravity in later levels, inspired by Gravity Force on the Commodore Amiga. To add even more challenge, I imagine deadly, intermittent paths that the player must cross when there are no electric discharges. The difficulty could increase with a larger labyrinthine level, more hazards, and a faster spinning level.

⚙️ Coding Begins
I dive into coding and start with something simple—getting the ship to move. Luckily, there’s a tutorial in Game Maker Studio that teaches how to create an Asteroids-style control system. Once the ship’s movement is working, it’s time to set up the environment. I had a clear vision from the start: I want a huge sprite to represent the entire level with a precision mask. This means each opaque pixel in the sprite becomes the precise mask for the level, which simplifies collision detection dramatically. With the origin centered, the sprite rotates around itself, creating the spinning environment.

🎮 The Camera and Environment
The camera setup is simple too. I center it on the ship and don’t add any additional conditions for now. The next challenge was creating the large environment sprite in GIMP—it took a bit longer than expected but was worth it.

This is what the full-size level template looks like:

✨ Reusing Assets
Finally, to save time, I reused a particle effect from a previous project for when the ship collides with something. This helps speed up development while keeping the visual effects intact.

That’s a wrap for Day 2! I feel good about choosing a simple project to quickly move forward with. Looking forward to continuing the journey! 🚀🔥