Cellar Run postmortem

My big challenge in the past was creating gameplay fueled by systems, mostly because when the jam starts, the first thing that pops into my mind is an aesthetic or narrative theme I want to explore. Then I go up-to-bottom, trying to fit an existing mechanic into that. And that usually leads to a more derivative, non-systemic gameplay.
So I decided to corner myself beforehand, by selecting a constraint from the start - random level generation. 
After reviewing several techniques, I chose dead simple "rooms push each other in random directions" method.

But when the jam started with "What home means to you" theme, I had a hard time deciding what kind of gameplay I wanted to do and random level generation didn't help. (In the end I cut whole feature down, each new room is randomly selected from a pool of previously unused ones.)

After struggling with the theme for a while, I decided to push it aside and go bottom-up.

The main mechanic came up from two main sources:
1. "Humans who make games" podcast with Edmund McMillen made sure I remember how cool Binding Of Isaac is
2. Rez Infinite & Red Dead Redemption 2 aiming systems
At least these two things, out of the blue, produced an idea to make a character that transforms into his own crosshairs.

Aesthetic

Knowing I'm going to jam alone, I was set on some terminal-like numbers-and-lines style.
At first, I wanted to use the color palette from windows 1.0,
but even though this color scheme is fantastic, it's hard to control.

So I dropped most colors, influenced by "Grand Prix Circut" - DOS racing game.

(as a trivia note, Kazunori Yamauchi - creator of Gran Turismo, was introduced to racing sims by Grand Prix Circuit!)
also, its cover looks just rad.

Conclusion

I think it was the first jam game that I managed to make somewhat systemic. The game isn't perfect, but I it's still  a useful exploration of a mechanic.  Also,  even though I didn't quite use a constraint of random level generator, it DID set the intended direction for the game. 

Let's keep rolling.