Back in May I took part in the Reload Magazine game jam and with a small team, created a small retro shooter known as “The Interval”.
What is The Interval?
The Interval is a time-hopping retro first person shooter. It takes inspiration from Wolfenstein 3D, Metal Gear Solid, Red Alert and a little sprinkling of Timesplitters for good measure.
You play as Agent Wells, a time agent leaping through time to catch and stop a rogue agent, your former mentor, Agent Cross. You jump across time and space collecting iconic weapons and facing a range of enemies from different time periods.
TheInterval_Bridge
TheInterval_MissileRoom
TheInterval_MessHall
TheInterval_Reactor
TheInterval_Barrel
TheInterval_Turret
TheInterval_Shotgun
TheInterval_Boss
The Response
I am pleased to say that the response was really rather good! It was especially nice to get such positive feedback from streamers. I’m super happy with what we managed to achieve.
That being said, it’s a damn shame that we were both late for the deadline and also didnt manage to finish the game (we finished two levels but had four planned).
Following this release we’re taking a little break and will release the final two levels at a later date. I can’t put a pin on when, but it’s something we’re still planning on doing when we all have a little more free time.
Truth be told, we lost a little momentum as the team got busy with other things such as life™, etc. And at least from my point of view, I honestly got a little burnt out. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been hungry for game jams lately (hell, I’m doing one this coming weekend), but project scope needs to be kept to a minimum, and I don’t think we achieved that on The Interval. The sheer nature of time travel opens you up to endless scope creep and the need to create mountains of assets.
But again, I’m pleased with the results of this jam version. I’m so proud of what the team was able to put together, and I’m looking forward to finishing this off with a post jam release. It was great working with new faces; something I’m going to be much more open to in the future.
For those that haven’t seen the game, here’s a full video walkthgrough that I recorded at the end of the jam (warning: spoilers!).
The Download
The Interval is available for free on itch.io.
Thanks for playing!