Stand Down Comedy
Global Game Jam 2024 — Theme "Make me laugh"
A first-person comedy shooter made in 48 hours for the "Make me laugh" jam theme. You're a stand-up comedian bombing dad jokes to a crowd that won't have it, click the punchlines in time, or shoot the hecklers who do. Built with a 5-person team in Unreal Engine.
Problem
In 48 hours, the team had to turn a comedic concept, "a comedian tells classic dad jokes to a hostile crowd", into a game with clear, playable mechanics, with no room for long iteration. The challenge was to communicate the humor of the concept through the gameplay itself, not just through the jokes' text.
Approach
The team went with a simple, readable interaction: the player, in first person facing the audience, clicks the words of the joke at the right moment. Mistiming a click makes the audience mock the player — punished by shooting the crowd members who laugh at him. To raise the comedic tension without adding control complexity, we introduced random penalties (the comedian drinks and the view drifts away, or smokes and the smoke covers the words) that directly interfere with the read-and-click action.
Key Decision
Penalties needed to be annoying but never unfair: too strong, and they broke the comedic rhythm and turned the game frustrating; too weak, and they went unnoticed. I worked on the actual balancing, timing of onset, visual intensity, frequency, testing iteratively with the group to find the point where each penalty felt noticeable and challenging while staying fun, in line with the project's party-game tone.
Outcome
A complete, playable prototype delivered within the jam's timeframe, with a game loop clear from the very first attempt, a key requirement for a title meant to "make you laugh" within seconds. The game is published on the official Global Game Jam 2024 page.
My Contribution
Game Design: I took part in the general brainstorming of the concept and in defining the game's mechanics together with the team. I handled design documentation and penalty balancing.
Level Design: I designed the setting and built the level, designed and implemented the penalty VFX, and led the actual balancing of the in-game experience.
