Jack Ham Zero Origins & Futures

I'm not saying that I have any idea of what I'm doing now, but back when I made Jack Ham's Maze of Tribulations I really, really had no idea what the fuck I was doing. When I finally finished the game I began working on an overambitious sort of new game plus called 'Brutal Mode.' There were more difficult versions of every level in the game plus a bunch of extra non-puzzle levels; a space shooter level, an obligatory runaway minecart level, and this ridiculous sequence where George Washington gives you a sword & you cut down police officers while he robs a liquor store. They all ended up being unplayable piles of bugs, just festering masses of earwigs crawling over the top of each other. I shelved it all & called the game complete sans Brutal Mode.

But, you know, I can't just let shit go. Plus, I mean, robbing a liquor store with George Washington, come on. So a few years later I put some work into making the levels playable (not GOOD, mind you, but playable) & then built a few more puzzle levels to put in between the new action levels & there you have it, it's most of a game. I let it sit for another couple of years before going back over it and taking care of all the tedious shit that turns a collection of levels into something that feels like a game (title screen, stupid plot, that kind of stuff). Then I got distracted again, that was probably like a year ago. & all of that took way longer than I have any way of justifying but now I'm close enough to finishing, there's just no reason not to.

At one point I had imagined the Jack Ham franchise stretching over 5 full games including a Benjamin Franklin spin-off game called Franklin's Quest: Semiconductor of Doom (I am sweet at titles & schemes, not so much at actually making games). I'm still thinking about rounding it out as a trilogy eventually; the puzzle levels are really fun to make & I have a few Jack Ham plot points that I need to get off my chest. I'm letting that simmer in the back somewhere, for now I just want to laser in & finish up Jack Ham Zero. I've been getting some more work done on the soundtrack, stay tuned for an update.