GameDev.tv Game Jam 2026: My Connections Journey

From Dreaming About Games to Actually Making One

When I was a kid, I spent countless hours on Neopets dreaming about creating my own virtual worlds someday. That dream eventually led me into web development, where I've spent over 15 years building things professionally. But game development was always the goal hiding in the background.

Games felt like magic to me, a spark of happiness. I was severely bullied all throughout Middle and High School so games were my escape, the one thing that gave me hope and kept me going in these worlds I would build in my head that were "safe" to me.

I spent the past few years tinkering in Unity, experimenting with little projects (including some VR ones), and more recently found myself falling in love with Godot. But despite all that experimentation, I had never actually finished a game.

So when the GameDev.tv Game Jam of 2026 rolled around with the theme "Connections", I decided I needed to push myself into actually making a game others could play.

And honestly?

I'm incredibly proud of what I accomplished.

Creating Lumi's Dreamscape

My entry, Lumi's Dreamscape, was inspired by children's storybooks and cozy dreamlike adventures.

You play as Lumi, a tiny soot-like creature inspired by the adorable soot sprites from Spirited Away. The idea was that Lumi travels through a sleeping child's dreams, restoring balance between peaceful dreams and nightmares. You can transition between the day & night versions to complete the puzzle for each level to ultimately collect the dream shards that help protect the child from nightmares.

The concept was personal to me because I have an 8 1/2 year old daughter. Like many others, she will have bad dreams, and there have been nights where I've woken her up, cuddled her close, and helped her find her way back to those happy dreams. Somewhere along the way, that feeling found its way into the game.

At its heart, Lumi's Dreamscape is about protecting those happy dreams. It's about turning scary dreams into happy ones, helping a child continue their adventure through a world filled with wonder instead of fear.

The Things I Wish I Had Time For

Like most game jam projects, it's a sprint to just get something playable out there, than full polish.

If I had more time, I would have loved to create more advanced puzzles and environmental interactions with lively animations. I had visions of vines growing from walls, brooms falling on dressers that knocked items out of them, pots crashing to the floor, drawers opening, and all sorts of little animations that would make the world feel more alive.

The reality was that I was working with a collection of assets from the GameDev.tv Game Jam Bundle and my 3D modeling skills are still very much in the "learning" phase. Since I couldn't easily modify the models, I had to get creative.

Instead of fully opening drawers and containers, I added simple shake animations to suggest interaction. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but that's one of the biggest lessons from game jams: work with what you have and keep pumping forward!

I wanted the whole world to match the art I did for Lumi and the main menu game screen. I drew those to try and feel like a children's coloring book and I would love the environment to match it, but that would have taken a very long time to hand-draw everything else.

A Result I Never Expected

When the results started to flood in throughout the next week of play testing, I was shocked to see Lumi's Dreamscape place in the Top 100 out of 800+ entries.

For many experienced developers that might not seem like a huge achievement, but for me it meant everything. I even had a fella in YouTube record himself playing my game and leaving commentary throughout the gameplay and I can't even describe to you how much this motivated me and made me want to absolutely continue this journey I am beginning.

This was the first game project I had actually completed and submitted for the world to play.

If you want to try it yourself, you can play Lumi's Dreamscape in your browser on itch.io.

That alone made the entire experience worth it. That's all I have ever dreamed of doing since I started my journey back in 2004.

What's Next?

This game jam reignited something that had been sitting inside me for over a decade.

I've recently moved to part-time web development for the first time of working full-time for over the past 15 years so I can spend more time pursuing my lifelong dreams of game development, art, and other creative outlets. Lumi's Dreamscape showed me that I don't need to wait until I'm "ready" to start building the games I've always dreamed about making.

I'm also planning to share more of my journey on YouTube, including game development footage, behind-the-scenes art, LPS customs, and whatever other creative rabbit holes I inevitably dive into.

This game may have started as a simple jam project, but for me it feels like the beginnning of something much bigger.

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