Intro

2:00 on the Clock! is an arcade roguelite clicker made for the GMTK 2026 Game Jam in four days. It features roguelite upgrades, clicking, and numbers going up. I made the game independently, and it ranked 175th in the Enjoyment category out of 10.5K entries, placing it in the top 2%.

I started development after discovering the theme, Countdown, the morning after it was announced. I had forgotten that I had signed up for the jam, but decided to participate nonetheless. I began with the art, followed by programming, polishing, and bug fixes.

I finished the game early enough to playtest it with other people, which allowed me to find and fix problems before the submission deadline.

Overview

My goal was to achieve a better result than I had in my previous game jam, the Brackeys 2025.1 Game Jam. I also wanted to create something I normally wouldn’t make: a card-based game rather than a game focused on movement. This was out of my comfort zone and led to my code not being modular.

In the end, 77 people rated my game, with a quarter of the ratings being five stars. I received many positive comments and scored better overall than my last game jam entry, so I believe I achieved my goal.

Lessons learnt

• The upgrades in the game were not modular, making the code difficult to work with and add more cards. I should have made a better structure and planned it before starting the development.

• In the original version, the shop remained open throughout the game. Playtesters would spend all their score on upgrades near the end, resulting in lower scores. I had to make the shop close automatically, which showed me that players often need more guidance than I expected.

This game taught me how to quickly prototype, as, despite the code not being neat, I had a playable version within a day.