Okutama Game Jam 2025

This year I participated in the Global Game Jam at the Okutama Site for the third time. While I go to the Okutama site every time, each year the actual location in Okutama is a little different, and this time we went to Nippara.

Once a small but bustling town thanks to a nearby limestone mine, the population has declined to roughly fifty people, and the area is full of abandoned buildings. Nippara was repeatedly described as a village "on the edge" - it's in danger of disappearing, it's on the border between civilization and nature, and, more literally, it's also on a steep mountainside, with cliffs everywhere.

Nippara is also home to a cavern open to visitors with a long history of use by religious mystics. I actually visited the caves once before several years ago, just after I'd broken my arm. I wouldn't recommend going with a cast on, but the caves are a lovely spot to visit if you have the time.

The theme for this year's Global Game Jam was "Bubble", so my team decided to integrate the theme with our visit to the cave, resulting in.... Bubble Cave! This is a Pico-8 game where you are a bubble exploring a cave. Rooms in the cave are named after locations in the actual Nippara Cavern, and the goal of going to the shrine was inspired by the actual shrine in the cavern. You can play it now on itch.io.

Development of the game went pretty smoothly this year. Most of our team was familiar with Pico-8, and Hiko, the programmer, in particular has made a ton of games with it and knew how to implement good physics and, critically, debug them. The cartridge-based format of Pico-8 made version control a little tricky for new people, but it also allowed dividing up roles like music, art, and map design with little difficulty.

I mainly coordinated everyone, outlined the high-level game direction, and specified some details like a secret room. I also wrote the intro text and took some photos of moss and small plants near the hotel to provide some inspiration for the bubble world.

Besides just clearing the game, it also reports how many coins you got and how long it took, so try for a speedrun! Under one minute is an excellent time.

Hope you enjoy Bubble Cave! Ψ