Out of the Woods - DTJ36 #16 Devlog

I custom built a pixel forest, and watched it die before my eyes. Intentionally and also not.

I created this game in 36 hours for the DTJ36 Jam #16. The only prompt we were given was for the theme: Forest.

What I made was:

- A forest that corrupts over time. 
- A genuine survivors-like experience.
- A death dream you didn't know was a death dream.
- An ending you might not expect.

I called it Out of the Woods, and yes, the title is a double meaning.

This was not only my first Jam entry, but my first completely solo project built from scratch... No tutorials, no prefabs, no AI-generated anything. Just myself, Unity, JetBrains Rider, Aseprite, Cakewalk, and basically no sleep.


What I Made:

Visuals
Everything was drawn, animated, and pixel-snapped by hand:
- 3 tiles that make up the forest floor

- 2 types of trees (with corrupted versions)

- 5 different enemies

- The player with an idle pose as well as running animation

- UI, projectile, and simple particle effects

- A corruption system that visually alters the entire visual presentation of the game over time

Audio
I composed the music in Cakewalk and layered it to reflect the game's emotional arc/corruption level:
- A main loop that sounds generic and upbeat
- A more ominous and "corrupted" version of the song that fades in over time
- A final hospital monitor beeping -> flatline that plays when you complete the game.

All sound effects, except for the effect when an enemy dies, were made by me. 


So... What Was Actually Going On?

My goal was for players to think, “Oh, this is just a silly little Vampire Survivors clone where you’re a squirrel in a forest.”

But then... the dream starts to break.

The same enemies return but in darker, corrupted forms.
The trees blacken. The colors drain. A vignette tightens around you. The music shifts.
It’s not just aesthetic, it’s a metaphor. The dream is unraveling. The mind is shutting down.
The final sound (a flatline) isn’t just death. It’s the moment the forest ends.

The idea came from something I’d read about near-death brain activity:
that when someone is dying, the brain releases a surge of chemicals that can trigger vivid, surreal dreams. But as the body fails and those signals fade, the dream decays and dissolves until nothing is left.

So the corruption wasn’t just visual. It was symbolic.

You’re playing as someone in critical condition, dreaming up a whimsical little scenario—a squirrel flinging acorns in a peaceful forest. But as their condition worsens, that dream darkens. The world breaks down. And finally, it ends.

None of this is spelled out directly in the game (thanks, time constraints!), but it was the emotional anchor for everything I built.

What Didn't Land
If you squint, you can see where my soul got gently steamrolled by peer voting.

So, here's the thing. I placed 14th out of 16 in Visuals, 11th in Audio and 11th in Theme. 
I'd be lying if I said that wasn't rough to see.

Especially when there were higher ranking submissions that included:
- Base Unity terrain with fog and default tree models
- Extremely minimal color or detail sprites
- Literal place-holder spheres

Meanwhile, I:
- Drew and animated all my own sprites
- Built a forest tile system with a corruption system
- Created dynamic music layers and a thematic payoff at the end

It's frustrating to put in so much effort and feel like nobody saw it. But I also know peer voting is weird. Some participants maybe didn't even play long enough to see any of the systems I put in place (not one of them starts until 60 seconds in anyway, with most of them more noticeable around the 3-minute mark). I'm also guessing some people just vote based on the genre, or polish, or vibes... And some maybe just didn't get it, that's okay too.

What I'm Proud Of
- I finished something, solo, in 36 hours
- It had a narrative arc even if no one saw it
- The visuals, music, and systems all fed into one core emotion
- I made my weird little vision real, even if it wasn't for everyone

And, honestly? I still love this sad little forest. Would I do this particular Jam again? Probably not. I don't really see how it's fair for participants to rate one another when they are all potentially gunning for a top spot. But I'm still glad I did it.

Play the Game!
You tell me what you think!
If you play all the way through the 5 minutes and the final message and flatline hits you?
THANK YOU! That's literally all I wanted.

If not? Just lie and tell me that squirrels were the real fright all along.