So I submitted somewhere last night and fel asleep straight after

That was quite the adventure. I started thinking up game ideas for all the themes a few hours before the compo started and came up with some nice things. But then the theme wa announced… dammit.. I had nothing..

0300 – compo start: I started cooking up some small ideas for about an hour getting really frustrated that I couldn’t think of anything, so I decided to call it a night. It was 5am anyways. I set my alarm for 9 am and woke up much more fresh then I had thought I would, so it was back to the drawing board. After another hour of nothing I decided on what has eventually become my first ever game.

11am 8hours in: So finally I could get some development going and I started coding. A whole day quickly went down the drain doing some gimp, some blender and a load of unity. I tired quickly but boy this is fun. At the end of the day I made a todo list and it had only 18 items on it, I started feeling confident. It was 5am again and I decided some sleep would do me good after 20 hours of development. The alarm was set for 9 am again and I slept like a baby.

9am – 18 hours to go: tiredness had a hold on my, I could barely keep my eyes open. But thank the lord for coffee I reviewed my todo list and prioritised it. Time to continue!

3pm – 12 hours to go: finished? Well.. it was playable! Time to polish up a bit. I was feeling like I could sleep for a week, and started to notice that in my work. I did some polishing of the textures and effects, some weird code was revised and the particle effects were reviewed. But man, I was so done with it.

7pm – 8 hours to go: I did it! I finished a game for the first time! And I did it in less then 48 hours! With a feeling of pride I went to the living room, parked my butt on the couch and slept.

What have I learned: I learned that a small game is a manageable project. I used to not like  creating small games because I dont play them, but trying to make the next settlers as your first project doesn’t really work. I learned that making a game is a lot of work. It is, really… I also learned that I can do a bit of art, at least more then I thought I could. Finally, I learned that sleep is important, the more tired you become the more messy your work will be.

To close off this lengthy post. I had a blast and am really happy I did it!
Here’s a link to my submission

Bye and till next time! Dennis.