This game was done in under 48 hours for the annual Global Game Jam event in Sarasota, Florida on January 20,217 through January 22, 2017.
The objective of the event was to create any kind of game with a team of people you may meet at
the Game Jam event based around a given theme. The Jam isn't a competition but instead a place to
test yourself, learn new things, and meet new people while creating something together.
The theme for this year's Game Jam was:
The original idea for this game was to have players shoot actual waves at eachother, that would then bounce
off of the walls of the play area and continue to fill up the space indefinitely.
The objective was to get
hit by as few waves as possible and survive longer than your opponent, as getting hit with a wave would lower
your health until you lost.
This idea eventually evolved into a simpler game, with simpler projectiles that bounced off the walls, and
exploded into rippling waves when they collided with something else. This would be much easier to program in
the short time of the event and ensure a finished product in the end.
From the Game Jam website:
The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event (game creation) taking place around the world
at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that
in today’s heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves
in a multitude of ways using video games – it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games,
while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration
or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds
of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.
-> Official GGJ Website