Background

Orpita joined GMTK 2025

Behind the scenes of One More Day game development

How It Started

We weren't ready. Like, really weren't ready.
Half our team was still in training when GMTK 2025 was announced. But we looked at each other and thought, "Let's just try it." That's how One More Day happened.

The Team

Our core team was all based in Egypt—designers, developers, and artists who'd been working together at Orpita. Then GMTK's volunteer platform connected us with people we'd never met: Kino (Vietnam) and Chase (USA) joined as artists, while Amr Elkhelawy (Egypt), Josif Ali, and Alex (Greece) helped with music and sound effects.

Suddenly we had a team spread across three continents, with some people 12 hours apart. Discord meetings became our routine, with someone always having to stay up way too late.

Orpita Strategic Planning

The Theme: Loop

When they announced "Loop" as the theme, our design team spent hours throwing ideas around. A lot of disagreement, a lot of "this won't work," and honestly, some frustration. Eventually we landed on the story of Dr. Zain, a young doctor trying to save someone he cares about, trapped in a loop where he keeps failing and has to try again.

It wasn't the most groundbreaking take on the theme, but it felt right for what we could actually build in four days.

96 Hours of Work

Everyone just... worked. Esraa led the art team, creating pixel art for the hospital scenes. Mark, Mahmoud, Fares, and Sherifa handled development while dealing with the usual bugs and broken code at 3 AM. The design team—Youssef, Nourhan, Mariam, Amira, and Fatima—kept refining the story and gameplay.

The volunteers jumped in like they'd been with us from day one. There were moments when assets needed last-minute changes, or code wasn't cooperating, but we figured it out.

Game Development Phase

The Result

We submitted the game and honestly didn't know what to expect. This was our first jam, and we were competing against over 9,600 games from around the world.

When results came out, we were shocked. We ranked really high in Artwork and Narrative. Someone even commented that our pixel art was so nice they forgot about the emergency and just wandered around outside the hospital.

What We Learned

Mostly that you don't need to be ready to start. You figure things out as you go. Working with people across different time zones and backgrounds taught us a lot about collaboration and trust.

Final Submission Result

Looking to 2026

We're already thinking about GMTK 2026. Now that we know what a game jam actually feels like, we want to see what we can do when we're actually prepared.

Experience the Loop

Curious to see what we built in 96 hours? Take the role of Dr. Zain and try to break the cycle.

Play on Itch.io

The Creative Minds Behind the Project

Game Design
  • Youssef Soliman
  • Nourhan Amr
  • Mariam Motaz
  • Amira Emad
  • Fatima Nadder
Development
  • Mark Asaad
  • Mahmoud
  • Fares Khaled
  • Sherifa Sayed
Art
  • Esraa
  • Chase (Gobstopper) volunteer
  • Kino volunteer
Audio
  • Amr Elkhelawy volunteer
  • Josif Ali (Jomoa) volunteer
  • Alex volunteer