For the compo I wrote a realtime multiplayer game, where you start as a tiny spider and eat flies/other spiders to get bigger and bigger.

What went well:

• After the first day, I made a checklist of all the things I wanted to finish before submitting. It's easy to feel like there are a million things left to do; checking off items and seeing the list completed helped me to let it go and keep things well scoped.
• I was able to throw the basic game together pretty quickly, which left more time for polish and bug hunting (no pun intended.)
• Server hasn't crashed or struggled to handle the load at all :grin:
• Automation: I used Terraform to set up the AWS infrastructure, Fabric to deploy/manage the server, and a Makefile for builds. These little investments meant I could iterate on server or client with a single command.

Lessons learned:

• Brainstorming ideas was one of the hardest parts and took a few hours. Next time I should warm up by brainstorming a few ideas per theme before the event starts.
• Ratings come fast and you get one first impression. This is a challenge for a multiplayer game - you really need a consistent pool of players or it isn't very fun. If I'd had more time, some AI bots might've been a good addition. I think my scores will probably get dinged for this.
• Streaming is super distracting! I tried at first but ended up scrapping it - I need to practice working while streaming, otherwise my pace really slows down.
• Premature optimization: I added a spatial caching structure to reduce the number of collision checks. In practice the game hasn't had enough load to make this necessary, but I think there are still some minor bugs as a result.

Play the game (HTML5) here! (Submission page)