Day 1: Brainstorming

2026-03-13

The theme of the jam is COUNTER.

Counter could mean a tracking device for counting; a number corresponding to an event, such as quantity or time.

Counter could mean a physical surface, generally used as a workspace; cooking/kitchen counters, store counters, etc..

Counter could mean an act of denial; to counter a blow, to counter a spell.

Concept 1

The player is in charge of "an organization", and you dispatch "members" on missions.

The game would be an incremental game, with a limited amount of play permitted per day. Missions would provide rewards that increase additional rewards, increase available play, and expand options.

The theme (Counter) would be included through the literal use of counters throughout the game. There are counter for the durations of missions, for the amount of actions/play the player has remaining, etc..

Concept 2

The player is a wizard in a wizard duel. They must try to counter their opponent's spells, while not having theirs countered.

The game would be an action-oriented, turn-based puzzle game. The player would have to decide when to use their counter in order to stop their opponent from using a spell. Likewise, their opponent can counter the player's spells.

Notes

I've had concept 1 floating around for a bit now. There are a few different versions of it, manifest as both a video game and a tabletop system. I don't think it quite fits here. The more I consider concept 2, the more I like it.

Part of concept 2 is inspired by saying "Counter!" out loud in various, often pompous or braggadocious exaggerated voices. Surely, a must in the final product.

I've had a notion for spell building around for a bit now too. I think part of the gameplay could be, essentially, a deck-builder. The character has a base shape, which evolves throughout the battle, and they "draw" new runes each turn, with which to craft a spell. Using their counter has an impact on resources. It can't be used every turn, otherwise the game will just be a stand-still. I like the notion that, to counter a spell, you essentially draw the magical energy into yourself before it can properly manifest. To do so, however, risks overloading yourself, and you basically exploding. You have a limited capacity for magical energy, which you charge up each turn passively, and also can generate actively as your action. When you counter, you also gain energy of some ratio of the spell your counter.

Development

I initialized the project using the min-love2d-fennel project. Made a few modifications, removed a few things, then started with some basics.

First, I recorded myself saying "counter" in 3 different ways. I used the arecord function from my terminal, since I don't otherwise have a reliable audio recorder (yet). Each is just a 2-second WAV file. Then, in the code I set them within the "state." As setup by the min-love2d-fennel project, state.fnl is required, and is treated as a game state table. Thus, the first iteration of this project is a window, displaying the Love2d version, with keys 1, 2, and 3 mapped each to a sound effect of me saying "counter."