Game Jams! No, not a tournament involving the competitive consumption of preserves (as delicious as that sounds), but competitions amongst indie development teams! The idea of a Game jam is for teams to create a game within a time limit, sometimes involving a certain theme, and have often resulted in some real gems. Just look at Superhot, a game originally created for the 7 Day FPS Jam, and the success that has come from it. Whilst the final game is far more than was originally created, the game that was put together was pretty stunning for such a short period of time.
Resistjam is one such competition, with games revolving around resisting oppressive regimes (which considering the present climate is really rather relevant) being created between 3rd and 11th of march. At the time of writing, there have been 215 entries which is a whole lot of game! I’m going to look at one in particular though: Unloop created by Hexagon Blue.

Unloop is a short point and click game with a narrative focus (I’ll avoid any spoilers here, as going in blind makes a bit of a difference). We awake in a strange machine as Alby, a scientist involved in time travel experiments, who is approached by a very excited Ben. We quickly learn that their time travel experiment has been successful and Ben dashes off to being analysing the results of their success. I won’t say any more, but through exploring the small environment, we learn a little about the oppressive society they live in before events take a turn and the story grows with some unexpected turns.

The game has an unusual art style, with characters being made of voxels (the style reminded me somewhat of a grim 3D Dot Heroes) and a muted colour palette punctuated by bright reds and greens for the machinery you can interact with. As a look it’s quite different from most point and click games, but it works for the dystopian near future setting. The music is good and suits the setting well (it’s been stuck in my head for a surprising length of time), but sound effects are rather limited due to there not being many moments that would require them.

It’s difficult to talk about Unloop without spoiling anything about it. However, you can interact with various objects in the environment to learn more about the world, and talk to Ben to progress the story. You do have dialogue options, but the majority of them do not effect the game’s story. The final choice, though, has implications that aren’t explored. I would have loved to know what happened based on the decision I made, but I would put this down to making your own conclusions being as a great deal of the world and its machinations are kept hidden from you. The game can be finished in around 10-30 minutes, meaning it’s certainly worth a try even if you don’t like point and click games (I would be one of those people) as its not much of a time commitment.

Unloop was developed by Hexagon Blue as part of Resistjam. I played the game on PC and would recommend you take a look at it. At the low, low price of nothing and only needing around half an hour to play it’s worth a go. As a narrative point and click game it’s pretty good, especially given the time scale it was made in. Unless, of course, they have a time machine…
Disclaimer: I know one of the developers of this game; this write up is an honest reflection of my opinions but that fact should be noted. Nothing has been exchanged for any particular kind of write up.
Is Unloop just for PC or is that just the easiest way to play it? It sounds like something I’d definitely enjoy. I only dabbled a bit in PC gaming years ago (e.g. Simon’s Quest. That’s how long ago it was), but for this, I’d break back into it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s PC only, yes. It’s a small download and very basic graphics so it should run on pretty much any system.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello The Shameful Narcissist – Unloop is also available to play via Mac and Linux as well as PC!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well colour me stupid! I didn’t know!
LikeLike
Thanks! I’d be playing it on PC since that’s what I’m working with 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The price is certainly in my range 🙂 I might give it a spin on the weekend. Thanks for the recommendation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries. Think I’m going to start rooting around itch.io for interesting looking games. This is certainly more polished than other ones on there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting. I like point-and-clicks, so those always make good recommendations for me. I might have to check it out sometime!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a super quick one which is great. I’m pretty bad with point and click but I made it through in around 15 minutes. Story has some interesting connotations too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That looks like a pretty cool game, so I went ahead and downloaded it! 🙂 I’ll try it out tomorrow maybe. Also, now that Linkin Park song is definitely stuck in my head! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was either that or Indie Club (bottle full of bub’)…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! That one would’ve worked too, though I really like Linkin Park 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember them well, one of those bands that appeared around university age for me. Are they still around? I remember Mike forming another group called Fort Minor which was pretty fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are still around, which is pretty cool considering I first heard their music when I was in 9th grade, so about 17 years ago! I think they are just getting ready to release another album… the one song I’ve heard from it sounds pretty different from their other music, but I’m still willing to listen to it and give it a chance! Yeah Fort Minor was a pretty good group too! I don’t know if they’ve released any new stuff lately though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got the feeling it was a one off thing they were doing which is fine. Be interesting to hear how they’ve changed since back in the day.
LikeLiked by 1 person