Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2: Trust No One

Happy Celebrating at 2am of the Deadline!

I am EXTREMELY proud of myself with this one.

The last Game Jam I entered was 10 days, so I did NOT expect this chaos with 7. I'm typing this up at 2am since I JUST wrapped up after pulling 14 hour days (literally 50/50 with code and artwork) just to meet the deadline. I took on WAY more art than I was anticipating.

I will definitely make the artwork way less demanding for my next Game Jam xD

Trick-or-Treat in Pumpkin Hollow

My entry for Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2 with the theme "Trust No One" is a visual novel / decisions-matter kind of game.

You just moved into Pumpkin Hollow right on Harvest Day. Your goal is to collect as many candies as you can (mainly Signature and Special candies) and avoid the Trick candies. Some gifts are tricks too, so watch out! Dialogue options matter based on the character's personality, and those choices feed later conversations.

There are 8 different Performance Titles you can achieve at the end of each playthrough, based on the decisions you made with the characters.

There's also a little Pedia in the game (the Candy Book and Character Book) to view all candies and what categories they're under, as well as all the characters and villagers/treaters you can interact with.

I added ... and ! indicators so you know if you haven't spoken to a character for the first time, or if they have new dialogue. New dialogue trees happen based on decisions you made with other characters.

Talk to residents, learn secrets, and see who you can trust. It's pretty simple ;)

The Village I Wish I Could Have Finished

I really wish I could have finished the village more, since it's just a flat texture right now as the floor. I wanted the buildings to have more depth too. I don't know how to 3D model (yes, STILL.. I will eventually lol) so I did what I'm best at, 2D art. It feels very flat, but it's still kind of cute in my opinion.

I was struggling with the camera switching between perspective and orthogonal, but ended up doing perspective even if the buildings look like they're floating a bit! I would like to eventually layer to make them have more "depth", but still be 2D.

I am in LOVE with Songs of Glimmerwick (seriously, check it out guys! It releases September 30th). Their artwork is GORGEOUS and I hope to one day accomplish the things they have accomplished in that game.

Some Help Along The Way

I absolutely am blown away by my husband and sister not even HESITATING to help me out. They are both so motivating and want to see me flourish with my game development (been doing it since I was a kid.. although most of it was web-based since I started from Neopets).

Me: resident and villager artwork (and animations), building artwork, tree and bush decoration artwork, and all code.

Matty (my husband): all background music (intro, village, and end scene). He's been playing the violin since he was a kid and is excited to go down the path of game music.

Hannah (my twin sister): candy artwork; pumpkins, gravestone, and cauldron artwork; performance titles artwork; various UI icon artwork.

Engine is Godot. Sound effects from Freesound (footsteps, dialogue bubbles, button clicks, voice chatter). Fonts from Google Fonts.

If you want to try it yourself, you can play Trick-or-Treat in Pumpkin Hollow in your browser on itch.io.

What's Next?

Less demanding artwork for the next jam. I promise. Probably.

This one still stretched me in the best way. Seven days, a whole village of people to talk to, and a game I actually finished. Again.

I can't wait to see where the adventure goes next.