First of all, I'd just like to reiterate how awed I am by the amount of praise that Six Seats Left has gotten so far. It's currently my highest-rated game ever on Newgrounds, sitting at 3.94/5 (scene creators don't count). I'm truly grateful to everyone for their kind words and honest feedback. If you haven't played it yet, please do!

With that aside, it's time for my customary post-mortem, looking at what went well with the game's development, what didn't go so well, and what I can improve upon for next Ludum Dare.

What Went Well

• I've always preferred to make narrative-driven games for Ludum Dare, but my last three entries all veered away from that in favour of more arcade-style experiences with minimal plot. This time around, I was able to return to my strengths, and it's paid off, with the narrative being the most consistently-praised aspect of the game.
• In line with the more story-focused approach, I was able to incorporate cutscenes and dialogue of a greater technical complexity than anything I've done previously. Even in my thirteenth jam, I'm still learning and expanding my skillset.
• There's some minor jank here and there, but nothing that seems to have ruined the experience for anyone, and the only real glitch was one that was found and fixed during the submission hour. My track record is spotty when it comes to bug-free releases, so it's good to get another one under my belt.

What Went Badly

• Due to a combination of overscoping and ADHD-induced time-wasting, a lot of things had to be left on the cutting room floor. I wanted to include dialogue trees, letting you get to know the candidates better, and a ten-minute time limit before the asteroid struck, providing a sense of urgency and meaning you wouldn’t be able to talk to everyone in a single playthrough. Both had to be left out. I also wanted twenty candidates, which I had to cut down to fifteen. As a result...
• ...the actual gameplay is very bare-bones, which is something that a lot of people have complained about. You just walk up to people and talk to them, and there's only so much you can learn about them from those brief conversations. It needs additional depth, but there's not much room for me to add that depth because...
• ...in a sense of meta-irony, the PICO-8's own limited space has constrained the game's current and potential features. I'm already using up 72% of the cart's compressed capacity, and there's not much scope to compress it down further. As much as I want to add dialogue trees to the game, there's simply not enough room on the cart for them. If it were a TIC-80 game, then I could add them, but the reason I didn't go with TIC-80 in the first place is because I feel like the screen is too big for what the game requires. It leaves me caught in an uncomfortable middle ground: I need the screen size of the PICO-8 but the cartridge size of the TIC-80.

What Happens Next

Once the rating period is over, I'm going to try and put out a post-jam patch with a few tweaks, such as more detailed cutscenes and improved sound effects for some of the characters. There probably won't be much in the way of extra content, though, for the reasons I just outlined. I'd like to try remaking this in a less restrictive game engine, giving me scope to include things like dialogue trees, but I don't want to commit myself to it. I'd like to try and resume work on Prism Warriors instead, as it's months behind schedule.

In the meantime, good luck to everyone who entered! Don't forget to get some rating in, and I hope you all do well!