Woo, so I managed to finish my game, “I am a mole” (play it/rate here). Thanks for any rating/comments, feedback is much appreciated.

I only had time to devote part of my weekend to the jam, so this is the result of maybe 15 hours of work. Regardless, I figured I’d put up a quick post-mortem of how things went.

What went well

• I got the “growth” mechanic down pretty early in the process, which allowed me to spend time making the environment more interesting and adding the intro/outro.
• Was able to find a song that fit the mood I was going for quite easily. I’m pleased overall with how the audio turned out. (Sound effects were made with my voice and jangling my keys. The digging sound effect is the sound of my keys being scrunched together, muffled by a blanket. Audio is fun!)
• Managed to complete a game that is something of a cohesive package. My main goal this LD was just to have the experience of finishing something, as I’m currently working on some long-term projects, so I succeeded at that.

What didn’t go well

• Pacing of the game falls apart near the end. I’m happy with how things work at the beginning, but once you gain the ability to eat slugs, I feel like the pacing kind of goes out the window. I’m at least happy it has a distinct beginning and end, which my last LD game didn’t.
• Wasn’t able to make my own music. This is something I always feel bad about, but I rarely have the time to make my own music during jams. It just takes me too long to make anything I’m happy with.
• Gameplay concept is pretty derivative (katamari, flow, early stages of spore). This is something I struggle with during jams. I often focus on creating a solid/polished game rather than spending my time trying to dig out genuinely unique mechanics. Will have to push myself more to think about the gameplay ideas rather than the presentation.
• I wasn’t very open during development. Didn’t post WIP builds or anything to get feedback. This was mostly due to the fact that I was sidetracked by other things this weekend. Definitely noticed that not being vocal about development and getting feedback made it harder to stay focused/motivated!