Finished uploading my first Ludum Dare entry which also happens to be my first completed game since starting to learn Unity engine about a month ago.

https://blarbus.itch.io/goats-of-wrath

The game is simple. A meter fills up as the Gods get angrier. Angrier Gods produce more fire geysers and rock hazards. To reduce the meter, you must pick up goats and sacrifice them in the volcano. Getting hit while carrying goats causes them to fly in all directions.

Primary moral of the story: cut, cut, cut, and then cut some more. I had so many ideas and mechanics for additional animals like chickens that could fly away if there was not another animal stacked on top of it, bulls that would ram you, and pigs that would slow you down (but reduced the meter more than other animals). What I ended up implementing was what I determined to be the minimum viable game after cutting all the frills.

Secondary moral of the story: primitives are your friends. Don't go straight into making sprites. At first, everything was just white squares, circles, rectangles, and more. I made sure to program most of the mechanics, and then once all of the systems were in place, I made the sprites. There was a great temptation to start working on cool looking sprites, but it's a waste of time to make sprites for a mechanic that you don't end up having the time to implement.

Anyways, I look forward to participating in Ludum Dare 44 and learning more about game development in the mean time!