USV Game Jam

Check out my group's game, Spiritual Awakening, from the USV October 2026 Game Jam! Can you stop the ghosts from waking Little Timmy? The jam's theme was "Unseen," so these ghosts are difficult to see the further away they are from you and Timmy.

The Team

This game was created by a team of five people:

Cassius, the character artist and animator.

Win, the programmer.

Jeff, the sound designer and composer.

Andy, the level designer.

And then there's me, Lawrence. (I was the cat.)

I also worked on the system design, environmental art, and a good amount of the programming as well.

I have previously worked with Win and Cash on Okay, Boomer! Win is an in-person student and Cash is online. We later recruited Jeff and Andy, both online students, to round out the team. I was the only one in the group to stay at the campus overnight.

The Game

The theme of the jam was "Unseen." As mentioned this was implemented as the ghosts who slowly come into view the closer they get to the player. The other aspect is the lack of a HUD. All important "stats" are implemented in a diegetic way. The room slowly brightens ask the sky turns to a morning blue to indicate the time. Also, Timmy's face shows more discomfort the closer he is to waking up.

The Ghosts

There are four ghosts:

The big ghost who shows up first. It deals three damage every half-second.

The tiny ghost who is much faster, but only deals one damage every half-second. One doesn't do much damage on its own.

The spider ghost who targets the midpoint between the player and Timmy rather than targeting Timmy directly. Its movements are more erratic.

The slender ghost who is slower but stronger than a standard ghost. It is less visible than the other ghosts.

Jam Thoughts

Overall, the game was a success. I had a lot of fun making it with the group. I dressed up as a black cat for the presentation. When we posted it on Itch, we got some comments. I'm continuing to work with the team to finish all the features we couldn't finish during the jam and prepping it for a possible Steam release.