Now that this Ludum Dare Jam's already passed, all I have to say is thank you to everyone joining in for letting your creativity and effort out for these great games! I couldn't get to playing all of the ones I've queued yet, but from what I've seen so far, the output was surprisingly amazing. I'm guessing everyone gave it their all for this one since this was a milestone worth celebrating.

As for my goals for this jam, I can proudly say that I've achieved them. The things that mattered at this point were: Releasing an entry for a Ludum Dare, especially for this one, since this was the 50th Jam, and its 20th anniversary, no less! I participated in previous Ludum Dares (LD36, LD38?, LD41, and LD43), but this was the first one where I managed to actually push a complete title in (even though it ended up being an Extra entry, because I could not figure out how to make an executable that was not reliant on the game engine's launcher, what counts was that it made it in!), and to showcase the game engine I used, which you can find here if anyone's interested.

From reading one post-mortem a while ago, I can agree with them on one thing: Creating a game within three days is not a simple feat! I spent the start of the jam, following a veteran's advice, by brainstorming, but for six hours before hitting the hay to create something the next day. The first idea I had in my head when I saw the theme brought up a similar one I had when brainstorming for Ludum Dare 43: Survival.

Though, before the theme came, I decided for this game I wanted to add crafting, or resource gathering to the mix, (hence why there's raw materials in my entry that eventually were never used) but that crafting feature got scrapped nearly immediately the moment I started building it. Other ideas I had in mind were all connected to a doomsday scenario, which felt too obvious. Another obvious choice was a runner game. I even toyed with the ideas of making a game out of prepping for a job interview, cramming for an exam, or meeting/delaying work deadlines, but I felt as if that was too true to real life when I wanted to make something a bit escapist.

What I ended up with was having a lone person trapped in a cave, or a temple, hence the literary trope of a "closed circle" came to mind, and I used that as the title for this entry. Another title I had in mind was Trapped Time, where I had a feature of having the player use a magic wand to rewind time, which I also cut. Though the trope of a "closed circle" was originally intended for mystery stories, where a group of people could not leave the place they were at until the mystery of the week was solved, I felt as if it fit the game I was working on since the player could not leave until he figured out how to get out.

I eventually ended up focusing too much time on the tileset and mapping of the dungeon, and not enough on making the gameplay playable, which is why the final result turned out the way it did. I have a feeling that I still have a lot more to learn in that department, especially on making it fun and replayable. I also want to improve and expand on this entry; it still doesn't feel complete in my eyes. By the feedback I've received for this game, my instincts were on-the-nose.

For the next jam come September, I might not participate in it, though this is subject to change depending on how things are going to go for my offline life in the upcoming months. Hopefully, there'll be better surprises and more innovative stuff in store! Again, to all who participated, thank you for the games!

To close, if anyone's interested in playing my entry, I'm leaving it for free on itch.io!