The Bookmaster - Hit the books ! (JAM version)

While everyone was enjoying summer, the Bookmaster was sorting. And sorting. And cleaning. And sorting again. Checking, very carefully, every inch of every single book from his library. Everything got inspected.

And, suddenly, the worst happened : Autumn came back.
Everyone in town went frenzy, wanting to get ready for a cozy season.

Help the Bookmaster to survive this very very dangerous day.

This small game version has been created for the Cozy Autumn Game Jam 2022. 

The theme selected for the jam was "COZY AUTUMN" (no surprise so far !). This theme triggered the idea of "everyone wanting to get an appropriate book collection at the same time, right when Autumn starts. A situation which might be quite challenging for a librarian".

I decided to implement game mechanics that are very close to a board game that I like (Bazar Bizarre), with a focus on providing the player with a similar feeling : having to make supposedly easy choices, based on observation and with some time pressure. As usual, with Arcade Eleven : the game has to be arcade/action-oriented, interesting approach when combined with the "cozy" aspect, which I tried to reflect everywhere except in gameplay.

My personal challenge here, was to test some coding practices. Using variables with events & delegates, and settings "clever" difficulty mechanics on randomized items, what I did with the books spawning rules.

Last : the fun. I also wanted to try basic pixel art, what I usually skip/outsource. I went for fantasy graphics, which allowed some basic but enjoyable work on the books. My time being limited for this jam, fantasy was convenient since great fantasy assets under CC0 are pretty easy to find. I just had to recolor them, to match the color palette constraint included in the jam. Along with the fantasy direction, the librarian was promoted "Bookmaster". Congratulations to him.

Arcade Eleven is a young game development studio, consisting in 1 guy and some casuals friends/guests/contributors. If you want to support us, the best way is to share the game to some friends, as well as to follow us to keep informed about upcoming releases. Leaving a comment is always a great source of motivation, and it also helps us to see if there's an interested in going further with the game.

The JAM version is using several assets under CC licence. They are credited, even when not required by the author.

Art
- Characters : Recolored version of Lively NPC's by chierit (https://chierit.itch.io/lively-npcs-medieval-pack)
- Environment & HUD : Recolored version of Kings and Pigs by Pixel Frog (https://pixelfrog-assets.itch.io/kings-and-pigs)
- Font : Kaph by GGbotNet (https://ggbot.itch.io/kaph-font)
- Font : Monogram by Datagoblin (https://datagoblin.itch.io/monogram)

Music 
- Contains music ©2021 Joshua McLean (https://joshua-mclean.itch.io). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International - Tracks : Island Hopper and Tough Consequence
- Keys the quid of the question from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/068070-keys-the-quid-of-the-question-86183/)