There is still time for me to modify my game, but I am already worn out from all of the unnecessary hoops I had to jump through.

As I was challenged to try something new this Ludum Dare, I decided to attempt the following:
1) Make a game NOT using Haxe/Flash
2) Not use a third-party framework
3) Successfully submit for the Compo instead of the Jam

I managed to do 2 out of 3 of those. The first two really took at toll on my work flow, and as such I encountered problems and situations I have not encountered before. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed fiddling around with JS HTML5 canvas.

What Went Right
1. Game idea – I already had the game idea around ten minutes after the theme was introduced. A baker, trying to escape after being imprisoned by robots. Throwing baked goods everywhere. Obviously, I had more projectiles and enemy types planned, but the core gameplay was there.

2. Adherence to an art theme – Not being an artist, I had to tighten my “graphics budget” a lot. I decided to stick to the color palette of the Commodore 64, along with the font. I wish I could’ve done even more and changed the resolution and controls, but it was already too late at that point.

3. Level editor – I also made my own level editor in JS, which made it easier to define sections of each level. It was certainly easier than manually editing JSON entries and whatnot.

What Went Wrong
1. Not relying on a framework/engine – Even if the HTML5 canvas already took care of things such as drawing and event handling for me, I still had to do stuff that frameworks normally would’ve done for me immediately. Even if I did expect this from my “no framework” challenge, I still ended up being overwhelmed by the amount of work.

2. Not having a good grasp on the design – While I had the mechanics down already, I wasn’t able to fully conceptualize the things I could’ve done with it. As with most of my attempts, I ended up over-engineering and implemented a lot of systems that I ended up not using all that much.

Things To Improve On
1. Make sure to have a good grasp already of not only the technology being used, but also on the nature of the game being developed
2. Taking breaks is fun, but there’s always the risk of slacking off too much
3. Be careful with the possibility of losing faith in the idea– a lot of factors (bugs, fatigue, disillusionment) can end up ruining hours of work.

Even if I ended up tired and somewhat disappointed, I still ended up having lots of fun with making the game. I don’t usually expect to win anything when joining game jams, anyway. As I said, the Jam is not yet over, and I might even end up fixing the game at a later date.

My submission can be found here