Greetings, fellow Ludareans!

Just wanted to share my experience. It's my 3rd completed LD (out of 5 total), and I really did not have any idea what my game would be like - 2d or 3d, and what genre - until the theme was announced. And even then I was not sure whether I should make a city builder or a tower defence. So, I started to work on the intro and then decide where to go from there. This time I decided to participate in a compo, since I have no team anyway. My previous experiences with teams didn't work out well...

So, a compo means all done by hand: graphics, sound and so on. In the end I got carried away with the intro, soundtrack and the unit images, and also run into some issues with Godot engine. So, long story short, by the end of the compo I only had the intro and the unit images. So, I decided to switch to Jam and do some gameplay during the 3rd day. Again, being not experienced in city builder genre, i spent lots of time figuring out how to make advanced UI in Godot. I first found out about Godot 2 years ago, but I mostly use it for making a 3d driving simulator. For the simple 2d games I mostly use Javascript. It's been a great learning experience for me, because without Ludum Dare, I could hardly find an excuse to spend so much time for a project unrelated to my work. I do make games for living, but this would still be considered as a side project. But for such a prestigious event, my boss even encouraged me to participate!

So, if you feel sad that your game is nothing much, remember, that you are not alone, and we are all here because we like making games.

Good luck and have fun!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/deserttamer