In this game jam, I aimed to dive into 3D modeling and animation with Blender. Until now, I’ve steered clear of 3D games due to my lack of 3D asset creation skills and the challenge of finding cohesive open-source 3D assets. While there are fantastic paid assets available, especially through Humble Bundle, I strive to keep my projects free and open-source to share with the community and my students. Using paid resources limits my ability to distribute and create universally accessible content.
Before diving into the resources and lessons learned, let’s check out the final result! Below is a 3D rendering featuring the three main models I created for the entry: Dark Fuel (the main character), a kettle, and a coffee bean!
With just about 20 hours of Blender experience, I’m still a novice, but I now feel confident in creating simple 3D elements for future games. I look forward to using Blender for more 3D art.
Presenting Dark Fuel: Quest for the Golden Beans. This 3D platformer features a 2.5D isometric view. The jam’s theme was "Only One Inventory Slot"—you control a coffee mug (Dark Fuel) who is the inventory slot. The player can "hold" different liquids to modify gameplay. With limited time, I managed to create two abilities: Jumping Bean Coffee and Bolt Brew.
You can play the short prototype here: LINK
To learn Blender basics, I used two GameDev.tv courses:
I got these through Humble Bundle, and both were incredibly helpful. There are likely excellent free resources available too.
I don’t retain much from just following video tutorials. Throughout the courses, I spent time away from the videos working on my creations. When stuck, I searched the web and asked for help. This can be frustrating, but I believe that frustration and struggle lead to real learning.
I pushed through the challenges and created a few models that I’m quite proud of.