Retrospective/Post-mortem
I made this game
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/all-you-can-loot-cavern
I'm not a game developer. I've never actually made a game aside from unfinished projects. This is my first time participating in any game jam. And this is my story.
After years of fooling around with game dev tools, I finally decided to participate in a game jam and create something for real. Before the jam, I practiced a bit with Unity and others to refresh my memory. When the final round of themes was announced, I looked at all the themes and tried to find ideas for every one of them. I wasn't able to find good ideas for all, but incidentally, my idea for "The more you have, the worse it is" was actually the best one of the bunch.
The theme was announced on 3am, so I went to bed but couldn't really sleep at all. I ended up waking up at 4am, then checked the theme. As soon as I saw it, I started thinking about how to turn my vague idea into a concrete concept. I didn't get much sleep that night and woke up at 7am. I started to work immediately with the basic mechanics. At around 3pm I had a working version with the basic mechanics, green and red enemies and gold. At this point, all the graphics were basically just cylinders and boxes.
After that, I worked on adding the different weapons and items as well as two more monsters. The black (panther) enemies went better than expected. I thought making a pouncing enemy would be glitchy and complicated but I managed to make it work pretty well. At 11pm, I had a version that was essentially feature-complete.
I then started on the polish, making the model for the character. I finished at 1am, but, by that point, I was too tired and had to go to sleep.
During the night, I got really worried. Will I be able to finish in time ? I still had all the models to make, improve the UI, add sounds and effects, music and improve the area. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it in time. A lot of LD guides recommend finish up the gameplay during the first half of the day and spend the rest of the time on polish, and yet I barely finished during the first day. Would I be able to finish in time ? I woke up at 8am and worked on the models, starting with the weapons and items. I worked as fast as I could, looking at the hours ticking away. I finished all the models at 5pm. For the sounds, LabChirp made it pretty easy for me to generate lots of useful sounds. Adding a simple explosion effect in pixel art with the sound helped a lot to improve the feel and impact of projectiles.
For the music, I didn't really have a lot of experience in that domain. I just used LMMS to make a simple bassline and melody. And drums. When in trouble, add drums. Drums solve everything.
For the level, all the texture were just solid colors with a Photoshop noise filter on it, and I added a normal map to make them look like bricks. Soon enough, I had a okay looking map.
I finished the last touches by adding a menu and a simple instructions screen. As I was sitting there in front on the menu, it just dawned on me. It was done. The game was finished, and with about 1 hour left. And that was all.
This was truly an intense experience. I had never actually finished a game and put some much work in such a short time.
Regarding what I've learned, unfortunately, I can't say I've learned much. I sticked with what I knew and didn't try anything unexpected. Even the game genre is probably the most common thing in game jam. Still, I learned to better estimate my time. Watching time ticking away is a very stressful experience.
As for the final product, I am satisfied with the result. I did everything I planned to do. There was one mechanic that I didn't implement, since I found the game difficult enough without it. I have to admit that the fact that I already had the concept of the game beforehand means I didn't took any time to come up with a idea. This was probably what saved me in the end. I'm not sure I would have had enough time to do everything if I didn't have the concept from the start.
So there it is. I made a game. It's not an amazing game, and it's not incredibly original but it's mine and I'm the only one who could have made it. And I'm already looking forward to the next LD, but for now at least, I gotta rest.
