{"author_link":"\/users\/zhr","author_name":"Zhr","author_uid":"zhr","comments":[],"epoch":1776876856,"event":"LD59","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":431644,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"96495","p_author":"Zhr","p_authorkey":"1416190","p_urlkey":"312137","p_title":"Finally polished a game! Please play and rate our Signal Mage","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD59","p_time":"1776876856","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1416190","us_name":"Zhr","us_username":"zhr","event_start":"1776470400","event_key":"113","event_name":"Ludum Dare 59"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD59","removed_author":false},"_superparent":424249,"_trust":1,"author":416190,"body":"I\u2019ve finished polishing the game, and now it\u2019s time to reflect on the jam. The first is that people doing Compo are absolute monsters. We worked as a team of two, me and the artist and we didn\u2019t even come close to the result those guys manage to achieve in just 48 hours.\n\nThis was only my second jam, and my artist\u2019s first, so I ended up coming away with a few rules for making games during next jams:\n\n1. No more than 3 game screens, and ideally just 1.\n\n2. Less is better, as long as it\u2019s high quality. Better to make less, but make it good, than to make more and do it worse.\n\nWe ended up with way too much art for one person to handle in such a short time, and because of that, the overall quality of the game dropped a lot.\n\n3. A simple but fun mechanic is better than a complex mechanic you never manage to finish. And it's really hard, I didn't thought that working on minimalism game design is such hard work. You need to make game interesting with 2 or 3 mechanics.\n\nAnd we wrapped up the project just half an hour before LD ended. I honestly don't know what would be, if we had picked something more complicated. You really have to be realistic about your limits.\n\n4. You need to leave time for a tutorial.\n\nI noticed that in a lot of jam games, it\u2019s really hard to understand what\u2019s going on because there\u2019s no tutorial in the game itself. Tutorial work absolutely needs time reserved for it near the end of the jam.\n\nAnd please, give our game a try! I\u2019ve just uploaded the final patch, and we\u2019re only 7 ratings away from making it into the rankings. We really want to make it in this time.\n\n![\u0421\u043d\u0438\u043c\u043e\u043a \u044d\u043a\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0430 2026-04-22 194125.png](\/\/\/raw\/eb9\/56\/z\/724f2.png)\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/signal-mage","comments":2,"comments-timestamp":"2026-04-22T17:14:30Z","created":"2026-04-22T16:39:12Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":431644,"love":2,"love-timestamp":"2026-04-22T18:12:32Z","meta":[],"modified":"2026-04-22T18:12:32Z","name":"Finally polished a game! Please play and rate our Signal Mage","node-timestamp":"2026-04-22T16:54:16Z","parent":428961,"parents":[1,5,9,424249,428961],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/signal-mage\/finally-polished-a-game-please-play-and-rate-our-signal-mage","published":"2026-04-22T16:54:16Z","scope":"public","slug":"finally-polished-a-game-please-play-and-rate-our-signal-mage","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1369614},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"431644","n_urlkey":"312137","n_parent":"428961","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/signal-mage\/finally-polished-a-game-please-play-and-rate-our-signal-mage","n_slug":"finally-polished-a-game-please-p","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"416190","n_created":"1776875952","n_modified":"1776881552","n_version":"1369614","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/signal-mage\/finally-polished-a-game-please-play-and-rate-our-signal-mage","text":"I\u2019ve finished polishing the game, and now it\u2019s time to reflect on the jam. The first is that people doing Compo are absolute monsters. We worked as a team of two, me and the artist and we didn\u2019t even come close to the result those guys manage to achieve in just 48 hours.\n\nThis was only my second jam, and my artist\u2019s first, so I ended up coming away with a few rules for making games during next jams:\n\n1. No more than 3 game screens, and ideally just 1.\n\n2. Less is better, as long as it\u2019s high quality. Better to make less, but make it good, than to make more and do it worse.\n\nWe ended up with way too much art for one person to handle in such a short time, and because of that, the overall quality of the game dropped a lot.\n\n3. A simple but fun mechanic is better than a complex mechanic you never manage to finish. And it's really hard, I didn't thought that working on minimalism game design is such hard work. You need to make game interesting with 2 or 3 mechanics.\n\nAnd we wrapped up the project just half an hour before LD ended. I honestly don't know what would be, if we had picked something more complicated. You really have to be realistic about your limits.\n\n4. You need to leave time for a tutorial.\n\nI noticed that in a lot of jam games, it\u2019s really hard to understand what\u2019s going on because there\u2019s no tutorial in the game itself. Tutorial work absolutely needs time reserved for it near the end of the jam.\n\nAnd please, give our game a try! I\u2019ve just uploaded the final patch, and we\u2019re only 7 ratings away from making it into the rankings. We really want to make it in this time.\n\n![\u0421\u043d\u0438\u043c\u043e\u043a \u044d\u043a\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0430 2026-04-22 194125.png](\/\/\/raw\/eb9\/56\/z\/724f2.png)\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/signal-mage","title":"Finally polished a game! Please play and rate our Signal Mage","wayback_source":[]}