Odaya

Odaya torii gate and floating garden
Game Jam

Peaceful Collection Prototype

A quiet little prototype about a beetle, a floating garden, and a shrine bucket full of flower petals. Walk or fly through the space, gather what you can, and bring it back to the shrine for score.

Ludum Dare 40 · More You Have, Worse It Is

What It Holds On To

Walk or Fly

The prototype was already playing with multiple movement states, which gives the garden a nice sense of scale.

Strong Place

Even in rough form, the torii gate, pagoda, water, and canyon walls make the space feel memorable.

Collection Loop

The petal gathering is simple, but it gives the world a reason to move through it instead of only looking around.

Game Info

Event Ludum Dare 40
Theme More You Have, Worse It Is
Mode Single-Player
Focus Exploration and Collection
Released December 2017
Status Prototype

About

Odaya started from a different idea entirely. The team wanted floating islands, then veered into a quieter collection game instead. What survived that pivot is the part still worth seeing: a peaceful little world that feels good to wander through.

You move through the space as a beetle, collect flower petals, and return them to the shrine bucket for points. It is a tiny loop, but it fits the tone. The build is less about mastery and more about hanging around a calm environment for a few minutes.

That unfinished quality is part of the appeal here. You can still see the edges of the bigger thing it wanted to become, which makes the prototype feel honest instead of overexplained.

Where It Was Heading

The original jam page points toward a larger version with full character animation, lantern lighting, particle work, enemy variety, boost jumps, and more built-out movement systems. Odaya never got all the way there, but the intent is clear in the space itself.

It is one of those early projects where the mood arrived before the rest of the structure. That is exactly why it belongs here. The world showed up first, and sometimes that is the right reason to keep a prototype around.

Credits

  • Lead Programming: James Tusha
  • Art, Music, and Additional Programming: Alex Reyes
  • Sound Design: Joshua Damian