Gizmos Gambit is a Touhou inspired game created during the anual 2022 GameDev.tv GameJam hosted on itch.io. It features a cat based pilot named Gizmo, after my late cat who died while working on this project.

The theme of the game jam is “death is only the beginning”. With a small team, the concept came from the idea that cats have 9 lives, and we built the mechanics off that. Every “death” in the game creates an orbiting “soul” that can block incoming shots, However, on the 9th death the pilot experiences instead of a typical game over, the pilot enters a state in which enemy shots are absorbed by the ship. Allowing the player to rack up energy to replenish lives.

Scoring is based on a multiplier system based on the number of lives the pilot has. With a maximum multiplier of 9.

During development of this project, my cat Gizmo unexpectedly ran into health problems. Despite my efforts in helping him, he sadly had to be put down due to his complications and a very poor prognosis. Even now, I’m still in utter disbelief as to how fast a living being can decline when their time comes. That day happened so fast, and I can honestly say that I was not at all prepared to say goodbye to my best friend. But I had to make that very difficult decision.

Ironic as well, given the theme of the project. It is what gave me inspiration to continue. To at least deliver a working project for the GameJam. I did not want to throw away the effort that was already put into the game. Especially since I was working with a small team on this one. Had this been a solo project, I think it might have never seen the light of day. It is also why we agreed on the name of the project “Gizmos Gambit”. A perfect way to help grieve for my lost friend. I don’t expect this project to continue to anything new, enough time has passed and we all moved on to other projects. Maybe one day I’ll revisit it.

While having Gizmo with me, I did adopt another senior cat from a family member named Miles. They got along pretty well, and even played with each other from time to time. He is still with me.

I adopted Gizmo in March of 2015. The adoption agency even had me try to reconsider since he was considered a senior cat already. I regret nothing. Thank you Gizmo for the 7 years you’ve shared with me. I miss you so much. EST 2005 - May 25th, 2022

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