Some game jam tips
[raw] LD56LDJam
03. Oct 2024 ยท 15:00 UTC · 8 hours before compo start by gord10ahmet · 24
- Build early and often. So that it's much unlikely that you struggle with build errors right before the deadline.
- Test early, if you can. If you can bring the game to a state testable by other people earlier the submission, you're more likely to notice issues you overlooked. My biggest mistake in previous LD was neglecting having my game tested by my friends or any game dev communitites, which caused me to overlook issues that harmed the game like oversized colliders and loud SFX.
- Game should be easily restartable after failure. It's not fun if player needs to reload their tab or restart the executable each time they fail, especially if it's a difficult game. It's also not fun to be forced to watch a 5 second sequence each time the level restarts.
- Game should show instructions for objective and how to play (unless they are very intuitive, maybe). My approach is showing instructions as a text with concise words at the beginning, then make them disappear once the player might have understood them (like the player has used the controls for 2 seconds). Showing them in the game's LD or Itch page is an alternative in case you couldn't have time for in-game instructions.
- My personal opinion: Audio shouldn't be added last, because SFX and music significantly affect the game's experience. It's good to be able to see earlier how well they fit in game.
- Creating the game's presentation is a part of the jam. Other jammers tend to play games with a good description and cover art rather to games with blank descriptions.