Most jams I’ve done before, my biggest problem has been letting it go too long before getting to a first playable version. I tend to over-scope things, and let my designs get out of hand, and then it quickly becomes more than I can handle in the time frame.

This time, however, I decided to focus on a tight core loop that I could get up and running as fast as possible. I wound up going with a weird niche genre (Invest-Express) that I always find entertaining, and always wanted to try doing my own thing with. It also is currently allowing me to use absolutely minimal assets (Text-only) to test out my mechanics and the core loop, which has been great.

I feel like I’m “cheating” a little by using an existing engine, however on the other hand I’ve never used JavaScript in my life, so I feel like it’s evening out a bit.

I’ve got the first playable version of Core up and running at http://robgiusti.com/core/, with more to come (like, maybe actual UI…)!