At the end of July, we decided to participate in the GMTK Game Jam with a team of students from the HSE Art and Design School to create an extracurricular game project.
GMTK Game Jam is an annual game creation hackathon focused on a specific theme over four days.
The theme for the 2026 jam was «Count Down.»
For us, the outcome of the jam was the game «One Last Card”—a turn-based puzzle game where you guide the mouse through a courtyard resembling a maze, using cards drawn from the deck.
The deck of movement cards is limited on each level, reflecting the theme of counting down limited resources. The cards themselves can be rotated to find a more optimal route.
In the team, I served as an artist and narrative designer.My responsibilities encompassed creating all the visual assets: environments, characters, and interfaces. From a narrative standpoint, I was tasked with devising a story that explored the core theme and mechanics of the jam.
Art
Character
As soon as the jam started, my team and I quickly defined the core visual style, made initial sketches, and moved on to creating the main character and enemies.
The main character is a mouse in a cape, with his paws hidden underneath, which made him easy to animate. I created several states from front, back, and side angles: walking, jumping, idle, drawing, and taking damage.
Environment
I created all the environmental elements: grass, bushes, trees, small decorations like lanterns, logs, toys, and much more.A separate normal map was made for each of these items to ensure proper lighting diffusion.
Interface
I designed cards that help the player understand their movement, as well as buttons for the health bar and move counter.
Narrative
Because our game involves not only cards but also colors, I tied the entire story to this concept. Back in the day, the little mouse had a normal childhood until one event forced him to grow up suddenly. Unwilling to let go of his childhood, he clings to a bright and safe world of memories, trying to hide the grim reality behind them.
His enemies are those who seek to pull him back to the adult world—his family. The deck of movement cards symbolizes the fragments of carefree childhood that help him move forward.
It is important to know how to see the vibrant, even in the colorless adult world.
Achieved Outcomes
Our game placed 490th in the art category and 1605th in sound among over 10,000 published games.
