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Try your hand at these 7-second games from Philly Dev Night

Full disclosure: This reporter was terrible at all of them.

Hop aboard the Friendship Train, y'all. (Screenshot)

If you’re looking for an imagination exercise, look no further than the latest crop of games from Philly Dev Night’s monthly game jam: steer a “friendship train,” make pretend sandwiches or trace the skies with simulated ink.

The group has been meeting monthly at Indy Hall since April, following the shutdown of game-focused coworking space Philly Game Forge. There’s also a new crop of organizers at the helm, who have dubbed themselves the “Philly Dev Knights.”

For the month of July, the games had a bit of a theme: quick, repeatable “core game loops” no longer than seven seconds in length.

Here’s the lineup of games with public, playable demos. (Full disclosure: This reporter was just terrible at every single one, except at Friendship Train when aided by Technical.ly Editorial Intern Nia Dickens.)

Star Mapper, by Travis Chandler

Armed with a limited supply of ink, you have seven seconds to trace given constellations out of a group of stars. Don’t let the ink supply fool you: it can run out quickly.

Play the game

Seven Second Sandwich Simulator, by Jason Corbett

Can you make a sammich for yourself in seven seconds IRL? Unlikely. (Editor’s note: A boy can dream.) With this simple game, you can at least give it a digital shot.

Play the game

Seven Second Samurai, by Jerry Aviles

A samurai-themed game of rock-paper-scissors that has an incredibly tight timeframe. Play with a friend and the best two-out-of-three wins.

Play the game

Friendship Train, by Kevin Mai

This was the crowd’s favorite at the showcase last week. The idea is that you steer a train cooperatively with a friend through three tracks, hopping between them to avoid bombs, obstacles and (yikes) humans. The catch: You gotta press the keys at the same time or it won’t work.

Play the game

Bonus: game dev Kotaro Fujita also put together a game during the jam. Puck Strike, a mobile air hockey simulator, is currently in development but you can see a quick trailer here.

Companies: Indy Hall

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