.Vapor by Konlet is a simple arcade game where the player controls the...We'll just call it a receiver, whose ultimate purpose is to stop the incoming poisonous vapors from reaching the earth! Missing even 10 of these vapors will cause a instant rise in green house gasses and result in the destruction of the world via global warming! To help provide contrast and make it...We'll just call it easier, to indentify the poisonous vapors, We'll set up a background screen and gradually and randomly change the color. It's crunch time!

The gameplay is rather simple, you use your mouse to position the receiver at the location of the incoming vapors. If you miss the vapor, then you lose a life, and you start with 10 of them. As you progress, the number of receivers you control will increase, adding an interesting level of difficulty, and earning the game a 3 on enjoyable gamplay. Advancement in the game is achieved by actually becoming better at playing the game, or by getting enough friends together to cover the entire map in receivers, scoring another 3 in realistic replayability.

The interface is minimal and simple. Inputs are almost exclusively mouse based, and react well. In single player mode however, there is no feedback on when a vapor is missed or how many lives are left, bringing the intuitive interface score to a 3. Its worth noting that this oversight is corrected in multiplayer mode by the display of a output control.

The game is basically made of two graphics, which are the receiver, and the vapor. I'm not artistically inclined enough to pin it down to specifics, but I suspect something is amiss with the animations in these two images, scoring a 3 for consistent artwork.

The themes that were used to develop vapor were vaporization, crunch time, and questionable objectives. While the two latter themes were used in small quantities, vaporization was the main theme, as suggested by it's namesake and main antagonist. But in actuality, those vapors could have been skinned-over as bears, paperclips, or whatnot. While I doubt this was the case, the game scores a 2 for theme usage.

I was able to play the game several times without running into a runtime error, there is however an occasional bug that tends to eat 4 of my 10 lives, where a vapor will pass right though the receiver, and not just in near-end fringe cases. There was also a small problem with the flashing background in multiplayer mode, where it simply remained a single color. The second bug isn’t a game-changer, but the first one is, and brings the structural stability to a 2.

The hub page for vapor has a scoreboard, which is cool and promotes player competiveness, for the game which can be downloaded from the hub page. Information about the game is a bit on the light side, but the lack of pictures brings the score for the category to a 2.

The instructions are provided in the form of 4 words, right at the beginning of the round, and basically inform the player to use the mouse to play. The instructions leave some information to be desired, such as what to use the mouse for, and I'll let the intentional spelling error slip this time, earning the game another 2 points.

The game earned no points for using music or sound effects, as it had used neither.

Konlet participated in the developer’s chat at the GiaD 2015 HQ, helping and prodding along other contestants throughout the week, earning him a BYOND Spirit point!

Add theses all up and .Vapor by Konlet scores 21 out of 37 points.

In the Grand Cow Goat Adventure you take on the role of a goat, who has quite the predicament. One: The cow pen broke and now there are hundreds of cows running about, and the cow herding dog is on vacation. Two: That last batch of clover and hay had something...unusual...in it. Now get out there and herd until the cows come home!

The Grand Cow Goat Adventure by Kboy33 simply involves going about and collecting cows. The artwork is very simple and consistent, scoring a 4. The game is also very stable, with my playthoughs encountering no bugs or runtime errors, netting a 4 for stability.

The interface itself is a bit antiquated, but serves its purpose. Feedback however, falls a bit short. The caught cow messages get to be a bit overzealous after the first 40 times, and there is no feedback to indicate that the game has been won, after catching all of the cows in hopes for a promised reward, bringing the Intuitive Interface score to a 3. The enjoyability of the game is a plus, setting aside some frustrations of catching the last cows, also receiving a 3. There is no benefit to playing multiple times, resulting in a 1 for realistic replayability.

The hub page leaves a bit to be desired, following more modern forms of advertising where information about the product isn't actually given, but rather loaded statements. Host files are available though an external download, and hub icons and the banner are good. There is a distinctive lack of screenshots, bringing the hub score to a 2.

The Grand Cow Goat Adventure uses the pricker patch kids as its main theme, which while containing a goat, unfortunately has to be best described as a skin-over, as no noteworthy gameplay aspects could be related to the topics, bringing in a 2 for the theme score.

The instructions that are provided are brief and describe the gameplay, but not the controls (which, fortunately can be discovered in a small matter of trail and error.) They are also wrong about both pieces of information that are relayed, the first being there are 215 cows to catch, not just 200, and second, there is no reward for catching 200, or all 215 cows, bringing the informative instructions score to a 1.

No music or sound effects are used in the game, resulting in no points being gained for music and sound effects.

The game is Kboy33's first game in 6 years of being with BYOND, and managed to have a submission ready in the allotted timeframe, despite the problems to resolve, and by overcoming them, he has earned 1 BYOND Spirit point!

In summary: The Grand Cow Goat Adventure has earned 21 out of 37 points! Good work Kboy!

Ever wonder what is on the other side of a black hole? Well unfortunately for you, you traveled though a black hole and found yourself in a reality with some interesting physics. For starters, gravity has been inverted. Not only does it push out, instead of pulling in, but still works in a circular fashion. The closer you get to the center, the faster you can move. Everything is 2D too. The universe is perpetual falling apart. Bring some friends with you, jump around, and try to push one another off the world.

Lets start out with the good. Broken Circles by DarkCampainger has some physics and tricks going on that are very interesting and make me envious. It's certainly worth a try just to check out what was made in a 24 hour period. The artwork is consistent and animates in and out very well, scoring a 4. As the name suggests, the theme being used is broken circles, and clearly inspired gameplay, also scoring a 4. When you join, a chat box appears, then instructions and gameplay are relayed, netting a 4. The interface is minimal, but responsive, and gives feedback when events happen, such as the reorientation of the map when dying, also grabbing a 4.

The hub page is well laid out and informative. A download is available for users to play with. The screenshot is located in the hub description, and not on the screenshot tab, but we won't get picky, scoring yet another 4.

It's hard to tell if the gameplay is really enjoyable or not, but the physics of running about a circular plane at various speeds at different levels and double jumping around is certainly intriguing and entertaining. However, after that wears off, there isn't much left to enjoy, moving the enjoyable gameplay down to a 3 and flat lines the realistic replayability to a 1.

As the name would also suggest, Broken Circles is a little bit...broken. It's not bad, as you'll likely be done with the game before it happens, but the game will slow down and crash after about twenty minutes (Which was fixed 5 minutes after the submission period ended). You'll also occasionally get your head suck on a downwards moving circle fragment, these two problems bring the structural stability score to a 3.

The game makes no usage of sounds or music, bringing the respective score to a 0.

DarkCampainger overcame a series of problems to get Broken Circles to where it is, participated in developer chat, is all around helpful, and as a bonus, donated nearly $1200 dollars to BYOND in the past month, earning him 1 BYOND Spirit point!

That means that Broken Circles by DarkCampainger has earned 28 out of 37 points! Nice work!

Ginger bread houses gone bad! Ever wonder why no one goes trick-or-treating at the house precariously built on the top of a curiously steep cliff? Yeah, you know, it's the house where it's always nighttime and always has a lighting bolt and thunder crash whenever it is mentioned. Well they say the old warlock who lives there, MegaBlaze, transforms children into bits of candy, and forces them into battle for command of the Candy Kingdom! How's that for a trick!

In Candy Kingdom by MegaBlaze, that player takes on the role of a gather unit, melee unit, or a ranged unit, attempting to take down the enemy by destroying their castle and units, while keeping their own castle upright using the collected candy pieces from fallen enemies and allies.

When you first begin the game, you are presented with a title screen. From here you can view the instructions and follow though the tutorial to learn about the 3 different classes. The instructions are clear, straightforward, and easy to learn, scoring a 4.

The artwork is well made and consistent. The growing and falling castle animations are unique, along with the ranged projectiles. The map also blends well with the interface, which is well made and responsive, scoring a 4 in both categories.

The game plays very well, and is enjoyable, exponentially so with multiple players, as only playing with the AI units leaves a bit to be desired, scoring a 4 for enjoyable gameplay. While the multiplayer aspect adds to the replayablity of the game, the map and its environment remain the same throughout each playthough, constraining the realistic replayability to a 3.

The hub page contains a good amount of information to get potential players excited about trying out the game. It also contains hosting files and the most screenshots of any other game submitted for the Game in a Day 2015 Challenge. However, a lack of a banner and the default hub icon lower the hub page's score to a 3.

As is found in the name of the game, Candy Kingdom uses the Candy theme. However, the gameplay itself took little inspiration from the topic, earning 2 points for the game.

While playing the game, I ran into two errors. One was a harmless runtime error involving Mousemove() on the titlescreen. The other occurred when standing above the castle while tossing candy into it, causing it to grow into me, preventing me from moving until the game had ended. Due to the latter, structural stability earned the game 2 points.

The game contains a single track of music and no sound effects, scoring a 1 for the respective category.

Megablaze participated in the developer’s chat and shared screenshots while working on his GiaD submission. He also posted his game on the forums and hosted a server so players could check out the game without much difficultly. His general upbeat attitude and enjoyment of game development earn him 1 BYOND Spirit point!

To sum it up: Candy Kingdom by Megablaze has scored 28 out of 37 points!

The war to end all wars...The Core War as depicted by SuperAntx! Occurring sometime within the next 285 years, Earth has been devastated, destroyed beyond recovery, and decimating all life upon it. Colonization on Mars never worked out, leaving the only sustained life in the galaxy on a few moon colonies. Resources have been stretched thin, and the Core War continues for what little remains. Suit up in your mecha, grab a vaporizer and destroy as many opposing mechas as you can.

When the game first begins, you are presented with a title screen that slowly fades in, clicking the begin button will present a small back story and instructions, earning a 4 for the instructions category. Clicking the screen again will begin the game. The artwork throughout the game is very consistent and well made, earning a 4 for consistent artwork. On the topic of resource usage, various music tracks and sound effects are used, scoring a 4 for music and sound incorporation. The interface is minimal, yet responsive and contains all of the indicators that one would expect, earning a 4 for interface usage.

Thoughout the game I noticed no errors, problems, or glitches, earning a 4 for structural stability.

The gameplay is rather simple, you shoot at your enemies until they explode, doing so increases your score by 1, when the enemies are all cleared from the level, you can jump and boost around to your heart's content, then go though the entryway to the next section. The sections appear to be randomly generated, which is cool, because they flow very well. However, the gameplay does wear off after a while, and with nothing more challenging or new to explore, brings the enjoyable gameplay down to a 3. There is no reward for playing multiple times, earning a single point for realistic replayability.

The hub page contains a brief amount of information, comparable to the instructions screen in game, but also has a banner, hub icons, and download link. It however has no screenshots of the game, bringing the hub page score to a 2.

The main theme used in Core War was the vaporization theme. However, the usage is vague at best, scoring 2 points for theme usage.

SuperAntx successfully completed his Game in a Day challenge and pulled a bit of help from D4RK3 54B3R, and promoted others while they were in the process of creating their submissions, meaning he has successfully earned 1 BYOND spirit point.

In too long; didn’t read form: Core War by SuperAntx scored 29 out of 37 points!

Taitz's Shrunk to Vessels outlines the life of worn medical doctor, whom on the verge of falling asleep, conducts a check-up on a terminal cancer patient, Then, with a swoosh, woosh, and bang, finds himself in the mouth of his patient, which can only mean that his patient has grown quite large, or he has been shrunken to the size of blood vessels! Wait till the guys at the office see this status report. That's where you take control, to take down the bacteria, survive the stomach acid of the small intestine, get rested in the lymph nodes, and destroy the cancer cells to save your patient... Sorry about those back molars...

We'll start out evaluating the hub page for the game, which contains all of the necessary elements of success. Depictive screenshots: Check, Game information: Check, Acurate description: Check, Gameplay files: Check. 4 out of 4: Check!

The directions for the game are very well laid out. Before the start of the first battle, you are given the keyboard commands and information about the stats. To the best of my knowledge, you have no control over your stats, but hey, why not know? As the game progresses, informational windows appear, telling you what is going on, and keeping you along the right path. The directions have also followed the right path, netting a 4 in the category.

The artwork is simply superb, the interface blends perfectly with the game, and all animations are smooth and appropriate. The wide variety of images depicting the parts of the body are excellent, and so is the score for consistent artwork, which is a 4! The interface is minimal, responsive, and its transparency works well into the game, also scoring a 4! The game runs flawlessly, with no runtime errors, bugs, or other oddities, netting a 4 in structural stability.

Shrunk to Vessels clearly makes usage of the shrunk theme, although the gameplay is the standard "hit enemies till they die". The story is very much inspired by events that could only happen when you are a fraction of your normal size, scoring a 3 for theme usage.

The game is unfortunately rather short, being able to be completed in roughly 10 minutes. In addition to simply beating up slimes and cancer cells, of which defeating the boss requires a bit of planning, there is also a quick-response event where you get out of the stomach acid before it consumes you. These three elements total out to reward a 3 for enjoyable gameplay. However, the game only justifies one play though, scoring a 1 in the realistic replayability category.

As you use attacks and travel throughout the game, you get to listen to a series of creative sound effects, definitively a plus! However, there is no music to the game, scoring a 1 in the sounds and music category.

Taitz spent a lot of time in the GiaD 2015 HQ talking about his game and sharing screenshots. It is clear that visual appearance is very important to him and fixing bugs is a priority, resulting in him resubmitting his entry 6 times! He overcame the complications of creating a game in 24 hours, and dealing with headaches, earning him a BYOND Spirit point!

In total, Shrunk to Vessals has scored 29 out of 37. Congratz Taitz!

Fractured Moon details the story of a villainous lich lord whose greed led him to destroy the celestial moon in search of stones that would certainly grant him infinite power and control over the world. With the moon damaged, the protection from the Nether would cease and all of its corrupted residents would be free to roam about the world. Luckily, this was all prophesied to happen centuries before hand, giving us time to find the long lost temple of the moon, and raise a hero to find the moon fragments, restore the moon, banish the unspeakables, and return our world to its former state of prosperity and peace.

In Fractured Moon by D4RK3 54B3R, The player takes the role of the fore spoken hero, who solves a series of unique puzzles, which use barriers, stones, switches, and water outlets. Position the barriers so that water coming out of the outlet covers all the unlit switches, and the stones that correspond with the switches will lower, allowing water to flow further. If the water reaches the moon fragment, the puzzle will be complete, and the fragment can be retrieved.

When the game begins, a start screen appears and prompts the player to review the instructions, or to begin the game. The instruction review is brief, but outlines the control scheme for the game. Once the player jumps into the game, they are presented with a simple puzzle before they can enter the temple. Flipping the switch will complete the puzzle, and if they were paying attention, also demonstrates how to complete the rest of the puzzles, scoring the game a 4 for instructions. The interface is responsive as well, using handy features and feedback such as mouse-over effects and flustered shaking when attempting an invalid move, earning a 4 for its intuitive interface.

The artwork is very well made and enjoyable to look at. All animations are well managed and are consistent, scoring a 4 for artwork. The multitudes of sounds and music are appropriate and benefit the game overall, also scoring a 4.

No bugs, errors, or other such problems were encountered while playing the game, scoring a 4 for structural stability.

The gameplay is enjoyable. The puzzles are solvable after a few attempts of trail and error, yet challenging. I never once felt lost or became frustrated on what to do next, scoring a 4 for enjoyable gameplay. There are seven different puzzles to solve, and while that doesn’t provide for unlimited entertainment, it does provide for more than 3 play thoughs of the core gameplay, scoring a 3 in realistic replayablity.

As suggested by its name, Fractured Moon forms its storyline around the Broken Circles theme, earning the game 3 points for theme usage.

The hub page for the game contains a download and images, but doesn’t have a banner and uses the default hub icons. The long description is rather short and only states a few words about the game, bringing the hub page score to a 3.

D4RK3 54B3R spent 28 hours awake during his Game in A Day development and submission phases, and his time investment definitely shines in Fractured Moon and the professional feel it has. He participated in Developer’s chat at the Game in a Day 2015 HQ throughout the week, and cares about the BYOND community in general, earning him 1 BYOND Spirit point!

In conclusion, Fractured Moon by D4RK3 54B3R has earned 34 out of 37 points!

G.O.A.T is the Greatest of All Time, in a directly literal form!. While those pesky human were concerned with seemly-invincible cockroaches stepping up to supersede them, little did they know goats were secretly harnessing the power of cybernetics to give themselves armor, upper leg strength, and opposable thumbs. Fast forward a few decades, goats threaten to overtake every lifeform in the universe. In an attempt to save humanity, the last remaining humans built a dozen planetary sized rings to destroy the goats, and all other life in the universe once and for all. However, the attack failed to kill all of the goats, and the remaining goats broke the rings. With the only grasslands left in the universe contained within the terraformed rings, the goats banded into two factions, and it gets messy when the two cross paths.

If you didn’t catch the drift yet, G.O.A.T by Yut Put is a Halo inspired shooting game. Grab your guns and GOAT of armor to take down the opposing team whom is infringing upon your grasslands. (I may have used my own creativeness for all of the above, The following is at least slightly more factual.) Directions are clearly laid out when you join the game, explaining the control scheme, and the goal of the game is defined on the hub page, rewarding the game a 4 for instructions. Click to begin and you'll first be greeted with artwork that is certainly made Yut Put style. Movement, jumping, sliding, and shooting are all very smooth and natural, netting a 4 for artwork.

The hubpage is very well made and promotes players to try out the game. Two screenshots are available, although the case could be made for more action being depicted. The banner and hub icons are attractive and feature the game. Credits are given to the one individual who developed the game, and host files are available so interested players can actually play. Sum this all up and the hub page scores a 4!

The game contains two separate maps, and a dozen or more guns, it seems I find a new one each time I play. Given the nature of a multiplayer game such as this, players build up their skills as they play the game and learn the terrain and weapons. Each playthough can be challenging and rewarding depending on whom you're playing with (and I enjoyed playing on my own for a fair bit of time) earning a 4 for both realistic replayability and enjoyable gameplay. The custom made music tracks fit the game well, as do the sound effects from interacting with the game. Boosting both of the prior scores, and earning yet another 4 in the category for music and sound effects.

The game made use of two of the topics he was given, broken circles and the pricker patch kids. Kids can be interpreted as young goats, which is at best a skin-over for G.O.A.T. However being as the gameplay is clearly inspired by the gameplay in Halo, and given that Halo had broken gigantic rings, which are essentially broken circles, by the law of transitivity, the gameplay in G.O.A.T was inspired by the broken circles theme, thus earning a 4 in that category.

The minimalist interface consists of 7 elements. It fits the game well and sticks to the sides, keeping out of your way, and yet is informative and responsive, scoring it a handy 4 in the respective criteria.

The majority of the game runs extremely well for as many collisions occur at any given time, and any lag I witnessed can easily be summed up to my poor Internet connection. However, there were a few relatively minor issues with structural stability, that I wish I hadn’t run into, namely being able to jump on bullets, allowing players to "jet pack" around and reach otherwise unobtainable areas, among a few other minor glitches. They certainly didn’t ruin the gameplay, but does bring the structural stability score to a 3.

Yut Put has certainly earned his BYOND Spirit point, he clearly takes pride and puts good efforts into his work in order to bring the game in as close to perfection as possible, and he streamed his entire development period live on Twitch for all to see and learn from. Good work!

Overall, the score for G.O.A.T totals out to a near perfect score of 36 points out of 37!

After a billion years of human life on Earth, the sun has finally grown large enough to render life on Earth uninhabitable. In a last ditch effort to continue the human race, Earth’s prime minister has chartered a space flight, the HMS Hope, to find a new place to call home. After the first 10 years of travel, the sun explodes, destroying the solar system...That wasn’t expected for another 4 billion years! That also means that the HMS Hope’s stakes are higher than ever, with only 100 years of supplies available. God Speed!

Bumblemore’s 100 Years depicts the life of a spaceship and their adventure to find a new world with the last of humanity aboard. Its gameplay was inspired by its theme, universe crossing, and receives a 4 for theme usage. The game’s artwork is also consistent, scoring a 4.

The gameplay is simple and straightforward, some player involvement is required, mostly in the form of dodging incoming meteors and aliens, earning 3 points for the game. However, there are very few endings, ultimately earning a single point for replayablility.

While playing the game, I encountered a few runtime errors, mostly from asteroids hitting one another...Turns out the universe doesn’t like that so much. While it doesn’t affect gameplay, it was annoying to have them spam away the complaints of the crew, bringing the structural stability score to a 3.

The interface mostly consists of pop-ups and basic skin elements. They are colored to fit the game appropriately. In addition to its lackluster design, there are some minor typos in some of the pop-up messages, bringing the intuitive interface score to a 3.

100 Years has a single sound track that it uses throughout the game and has no sound effects, bringing the respective score to a 1.

The hub page has some problems as well. The description and long description detail very little about the game, only some brief technical details. It contains a download link to files that do not exist, and has no screenshots. On the plus side, it has a banner and a hub icon. According to the rubric, the game earns 1 point for hub presentation.

The game also contains no instructions on how to play, and receives no points for that category.

Bumblemore might have missed his deadline by a half hour, but that didn’t stop him from submitting his GiaD project anyhow. For his persistence, he has earned 1 BYOND Spirit point!

That brings 100 Years by Bumblemore to a grand total of 21 points out of 37, but missed the deadline and has been disqualified.

They say that a picture is worth a thousands words. Well, it would be difficult to stoke up a thousand words about Kozuma3’s Game in a Day submission, which could best be described as an interpretive piece of text artwork. Theme usage get a 4, as the piece of artwork was certainly inspired by all three of their topics: broken circles, the pricker patch kids, and defective paperwork filing practices. That’s as far as the 4 scores go.

The submission also receives 2 points for using text based icons, in whatever font your text editor likes to default to.

The submission doesn’t lend itself to any gameplay, music or sounds, and has no hub page. Attempting to compile the game in Dream Maker results in errors, resulting in no points being rewarded in almost all of the other criteria.

Kozuma3 gets 1 BYOND Spirit point for their efforts in the GiaD Challenge, instead of just walking it off and having no submission! They also demanded to speak with their lawyer, so its just best to let them have this point.

So while the submission has been disqualified due to not being made in Dream Maker, Kozuma3’s GiaD has earned them 7 out of 37 possible points.

And for the record, 215 words were used.

Factor tells the story of how the (not so) famous super hero, better know as The Vapor came to receive his super power which allowed him to turn into vapor on a dime. He started out as a regular man, taking his bills to the mailbox on a normal day, when he found an undercover agent in the mailbox! A few bites of modified Captain Crunch cereal and poof, he can vaporize.

Factor was my submission for the Game in a Day 2015 contest, and I’m biased, so lets not waste too much time on this one: If you didn’t catch it, the theme being used in Factor is Vaporization, which is represented by the player being able to vaporize and float around the map, over enemies and such, but is unable to carry objects or open doors while vaporized, scoring a 4 for theme usage. As a bonus, all of the other 14 topics are found in Factor in some form, mostly as story items.

When you first start up factor, you are instructed on how to proceed though the talk with the mailbox, and given instructions on how to use your powers and interact with the game, scoring a 4.

The interface is rather simple and is missing important features such as transition feedback and object holding indicators, lowering the intuitive interface score to a 3.

The artwork looks like it was drawn by a 5 year old who just discovered MS Paint, and is full of inconsistencies and transition issues, scoring 2 points for artwork. There are several issues that plague Factor, reducing structural stability to a 2. The game isn’t much fun and is frustrating, earning 1 points, and has no replay value, also scoring 1 point.

The game contains both music and sound effects, but if you want to keep your sanity, you’ll want to mute your speakers before beginning, unless you like listening to badly overlapping music, scoring 2 points for music and sound effects.

There is no hub page for Factor, and no points for the hub page either.

I hosted the contest and made up the rules, so that means I earn 1 BYOND Spirit point, right?

And to prove how badly I did at my own contest, I earned 20 points out of a possible 37. which is the lowest score out of all the games made with BYOND in the contest. Luckily, I didn’t read the rules, which state that all judge’s submissions are automatically disqualified, saving me from the embarrassment.


And that concludes this year's Game in a Day Developer’s Challenge! Congratulations to all of the Contestants (If you won a prize, you will be contacted shortly) and thank you to all Supporters (If you pledged a prize, you also will be contacted as soon as I gather up the appropriate information) and Participants!