A while back, I was tasked with an animation project that was essentially a video game version of the famous story of Jonah and the whale in the Bible. After assessing the project and seeing how much animation would be involved, and the ultimate goal of the project… I figured it would be easier (and more flexible) to just design a Jonah game from scratch rather than just animate one. That way, I didn’t have to place thousands of keyframes and only have a one-time-use animation for this specific project. Instead, I’d have a fully-functioning, real, playable game that worked on nearly any computer or phone (except you, Safari).

In the end, I assembled a mixture of sprites and game art, some I made myself, others I borrowed from the internet, and got to work on the game.

It took about a week or two of programming and creating digital art. In fact, I entered my very first game jam the week after delivering this project! The indie gaming scene and this project inspired me to create new things I’ve never tried making before. Below are screenshots of game play, and the game itself if you’d like to play! It only takes about 60 seconds to beat (seriously!).