A Corny Christmas

By Jason Pitts

Overview

A Corny Christmas is my first released game: a short, cozy holiday adventure built in Godot for Godot Wild Jam #40. The goal is simple — collect enough corn to make popcorn for the family’s Christmas movie night — but getting there means exploring, gathering, and managing a tight jam timeline without losing the cozy feeling I was going for.

I handled programming and sound design solo. My wife, kittyheadpats, created all of the art assets, and the game uses Magos Fonts from Nimble Beasts Collective.

Gathering corn around the farm

Design Notes

Working under a jam deadline forced constant, small design decisions: what the core loop needed to feel satisfying in a few minutes of play, how much the tutorial could rely on the player figuring things out versus being told outright, and where to cut scope so the game actually shipped instead of stalling out unfinished. Those trade-offs — player experience versus available time, clarity versus discovery — are the same kind of thinking I want to bring to game design work going forward, just with more time and iteration to refine it.

Exploring the game’s cozy holiday setting

Play It

A Corny Christmas is free to play in-browser on itch.io, and the full project source is available on GitHub.

The end goal — movie night, with popcorn