2012 Global Game Jam – Navigating Nirvana

The 2012 Global Game Jam is over, and I can finally sleep. Somehow, in all the chaos, my team was able to complete a game – Navigating Nirvana. The game is about a cosmic cycle of reincarnation, as were quite a few other games from the local Rochester Jam site. Not surprising, considering that the theme was the Ouroboros, a symbol of the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

In Navigating Nirvana, the shrines you visit during each life determine what you come back as in the next. If you visit few shrines, you come back as a lowly frog, but if you visit many, you can come back as a tiger or eagle. The more powerful forms are able to visit more shrines, and eventually, you can visit the final shrine, at the top of the temple, and achieve inner peace. For a game developed in 48 hours, you can have a lot of fun with it.