YRGBO is a “weird” puzzle-adventure game. Since it couldn’t be long, it had to be tough! And it is. I gave the past Ludum Dare a shot but I quit after the first 24 hours as the game I was working on didn’t turn out as I expected. This time I could finish, and I’m happy for that. I also think the game’s good, not that it will appeal to most people, but that was never really my intention.

THE GOOD
– I finished! (For the jam, although I wanted to submit it for the main competition).
– I ended making a good game (not exactly how I wanted it, but I’m still proud of it).
– I got into the zone (Never really got tired, I lost track of time).
– I got “the hang” of it (I knew what was worth adding and leaving out).
– I handled sleep deprivation nicely (I’m a heavy sleeper, so skipping sleep was never an option, but I could get away with very little of it).
– I got a nice idea early.
– I didn’t quit! (the idea crossed my mind a couple of times) instead, I cut off features and adjusted the project to the time I had left.
– I felt good, period. I forgot all my problems while working on this. I was tired but very happy and excited.

THE BAD
– I couldn’t finish on 24 hours, had to use the jam deadline and work for some extra 24 hours.
– I didn’t have the time to test my game, it had bugs that made it almost impossible to be finished. Had to fix them up.
– I should’ve planned more before starting coding, could’ve saved some time.
– No time to exercise and I ate lots of crap, well, not lots, but I ate them, which is bad!
– This isn’t exactly bad, but I tried to make a kind of game I had never done before. In these kind of compos you should probably stick to what you master, it’s no time to experiment.

THE UGLY
– I felt weird when the compo was over, my time awareness was messed up, I have trouble getting up early now.
– I felt really tired the day after. It’s weird that my legs were so sore.
– At some point I started to feel really stressed out, you know, that pain in the chest. Pressure + lack of sleep. I’m ok now.

CONCLUSION
This was a great experience! I hope I can repeat it the next time. This was my second “short” game development competition, I had been involved in compos that gave you weeks or even months to make your game, but this is a whole different thing! I’ll finish in 48 hours next time! ’till then 😉

Tags: post-mortem, postmortem