This article was originally published in Issue 7 of the ICG Zine, September 2024. It was reformatted in January 2026, but has not been edited further.

The Old Gentleman (TOG) is a short horror game where you use a Morse code transmitter in a submarine to guide an NPC character around the map and avoid a stalking monster.

Seb: How was it expanding on a game jam? I know your previous game Cold Calling was a game jam that expanded. How was this game different from that?

CGE Games: Cold Calling is a broad-scoped expansion of the game jam version – we’re taking a five-minute prototype and turning it into a multi-hour game with a story, lots of unique levels and mechanics, and much more polished gameplay and art (That’s why it’s taking so long).

TOG expands very minimally on the game jam version, only adding a couple more scripted sequences and scares, fixing bugs, and putting in some basic accessibility features like subtitles. The core experience and length of the game are unchanged.

Having more time to plan out elements over the span of a couple weeks instead of hours helps you realize what mechanics are worth expanding upon more and which can take a backseat. When doing the Jam, you’re developing all your ideas at once and there can come a point where you realize some features ultimately don’t complement the overall scope and vision of what you want to make. I find it’s easy to want to include everything you’ve developed during the Jam period into the final piece, but some ideas are better left for a different project.

One of the challenges when developing TOG was using Godot for the first time during the Jam period. CC was made in Unity where each of us had 3 years of experience with the engine.

We had heard positive things about Godot and wanted to see how similar it was to the tools we’ve worked with in the past. Trying to figure things out in the moment was definitely a challenge, but we all worked hard to figure things out.

Seb: How do you decide on expanding a game outside of a game jam period?

CGE Games: I think in both cases we expected the expanded versions would not take as long to finish as they did/are. (For reference, we’ve been working on-and-off on Cold Calling for 6 years, and TOG spiraled from a 1-month to an 8-month project.) With Cold Calling we were encouraged by our first team effort going so well and saw a lot of potential for a more involved story. With TOG, as I said, the aim was mainly to polish up what we already had.

After seeing the positive reception that we got when showcasing the game with Indie City Games, we were inspired to expand on the work that we had done so far.

We took a break for the holidays and started learning more about Godot in the meantime. Taking some time in between the jam and the work period allowed us more time to brainstorm and expand on the ideas we already established and what we wanted to add.

Seb: Any goals for The Old Gentleman?

CGE Games: The goal was to have something released before Cold Calling eventually, and secondarily to do a test run of setting up a Steam release.

TOG feels like a trial run in how to market a game to the masses. We were unsure how to properly advertise ourselves and realized shortly after the game was released how much continuous work is required to get eyes on your project. I feel there is still more we can accomplish with getting more eyes on our title. I think it fills a certain niche of gameplay that not many other games manage to achieve.

Seb: Do you think you’ll make Anything for Chicaghoul this year?

CGE Games: We don’t have any plans for this year, but those of us in Chicago would like to come to the showcase and are excited to see what people come up with! I think part of the charm of Chicaghoul is the approachability of the event. By having a general idea of the theme, it gives you a head start as to what kind of experience you can create. The horror genre is capable of so many creative experiences and I’d love to see more of what people can do.

Seb: Can’t Get Enough Games has worked together a lot. Have any of you tried new roles or skills for any of your projects?

CGE Games: TOG was a learning experience both with the Godot engine, which none of us had used before, and with making a 3D game together. Writing Cold Calling was a new experience as we had never written a script with such a large scope. That’ll probably be evident to anyone who sees how absurd the final act gets.

I feel comfortable with the role I’m in now and find there’s still plenty to learn and expand my skillset. New tools and lessons are always popping up to further what kind of content I can help create next, but I enjoy working with my team and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to achieve so far.