Dying Revolution - Making top 100 scoring game in four days for GMTK 2025

A timeloop space tower defense game entry for GMTK 2025. The goal for this project was to create a web executable game with the theme "loop" in 96 hours for the Game Makers Toolkit (GMTK) game jam 2025. It had to be able to be playable on itch.io using a Windows PC with nothing more than a keyboard and a mouse. It also needed to be suitable for a general audience and we had to make all assets used or at least have the legal right to use them (and no generative AI). We had two artists, one developer / game designer, a composer, and a sound designer all working remotely across the US and Europe. After the submission deadline, games would be voted on for different categories (Creativity, Enjoyment, Narrative, Artwork, and Audio).

Tools:

• Apple Procreate
• Aseprite
• Figjam
• Unity
• Clip Studio Paint

Role:

• UX and UI
• Art (concept, sprites, and static pages)
• Product Documentation
• Graphic Design

Team:

• Mindy Kilgore
• Morgan McKay
• Cecilia
• Ryan Blohm
• Deathvine_68000

Duration:

• 4 days (96 hours)
• July 30 - August 3, 2025

Planning

Once we received the theme of "loop", we brainstormed a few ideas - landing quickly on a space tower defense game that incorporated both a time loop and a visual loop for the gameplay. We settled on the concept of a time loop where the player had to escape a planet, fighting off enemy ships before the sun exploded and became a black hole. We decided on the main gameplay being the main character building solar panels to harvest energy and turrets to shoot away enemy ships, and that the sun would serve as the game timer. The player would be able to set back time before the sun exploded, giving the player more time, but would result in harder gameplay over time. I started creating documentation for all of the gameplay elements and requirements. The other artist and I divided up the sprites needed, and the dev jumped into game design with placeholder elements.

Research

We brainstormed some vintage sci-fi pixel art styles such as R-Type and Gradius as well as some inspiration from Armored Core. We also researched vintage sci-fi space pixel art through Google search and Lospec, also settling on one on one of Lospec's color palettes: Twilight 5. I also researched pixel art fonts that could serve as inspiration for the title / logo.

User Journey

I started on documentation and created a user flow diagram for gam screens. I mapped out the possible screens we would need such as the main menu, story screens, instructions, settings, credits, and winning / losing screens.

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Storyboarding

I created sketches for the main menu, the main story images, the game UI, the build menu, the settings menu, the credits menu, and the win / lose states. By this point we had named the game "Dying Revolution", and had come up with a story about the last of the rebellion to tie in the title together.

The UI needed to consist of a progress bar, a measure of energy points available, the build store icon, and we considered some kind of high score element but decided against it. We also later decided to give the planet a health measurement

Sketch for the flyout menu to build solar panels, auto turrets, and upgrades.

Sketches

I created sketches / concept art for the enemy and escape ships, the planets, and the title / logo.

Hifi Wireframes

I created high fidelity wireframes and assets . Pictured below are the screens I did art / UI for and the sprites / logo I created.

Main menu

Story page 1

Story page 2

v1 of main UI

Flyout build menu design

Final UI and pause menu

Enemy ship sprites

Escape ship and unused escape ship sprites + building states

Settings page

Lose state 1, black hole sprite by Cecilia

Lose state 2

Win state (w/o buttons), black hole sprite by Cecilia

Project Images

Screenshots of the final assets and product design for Dying Revolution. We submitted the game before deadline: with polished assets, music, sound effects, custom letting, and animation. Dying Revolution is available to play for free in browser at the link below:

Play Dying Revolution

Takeaways & Next Steps

• We received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
• We placed in the top 100 (#75) in enjoyment out of 9000 entries!
• We placed in the top 300 in audio, top 400 in narrative, and top 600 in creativity and artwork.
• Overall we ranked #95.
• We may do some more work on it, but we're extremely happy with how the game came out in a four day turnaround.