Well I’m in for LD46. It’s been nearly a decade since I last attempted an entry, and now that I’ve got the time and—unusually these days—the inclination, I thought I would take a couple of days to refresh my programming chops and dive in!

I came across PICO-8 about 18 months ago thanks to Tom Hall’s tweets, and have kept half an eye on it since, filing it away on my list of things to learn and tinker with one day. I’ve been having a blast with it so far.

Anyone else planning on using it for LD46? Anyone have any stories of using it for previous jams? I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet...

It's the UK here so LD46 started for us at 02:00, which is less than ideal. Throw in the fact that I didn't manage to get started until 11:45, and I have two excuses for why I've only made the above so far!

So I've got a rough idea of what I'm going to do, an intro, a fail state / "You Died" screen (not in the gif) and not much core gameplay. (By which I mean the only core gameplay so far is "moving in four directions".)

I'm learning PICO-8 as I go which is working against me too, I suppose, but at least I'm having fun. Because I'm not hugely creative I'm actually finding PICO-8's constraints a little too constraining, but on the other hand I think I would have probably made even less progress if I'd used something I'm more familiar with (Godot, LOVE2D, etc.). Swings and roundabouts.

Realistically I've got about another six hours to work on this today, plus nine hours tomorrow if I'm lucky. I'm one of the lucky few who can continue to work from home, so I can't really justify staying up all night like I might have done ten years ago.

I'm taking little breaks every so often and I'm really enjoying seeing all of your progress, ideas, and creativity. It's very inspiring.

Keep it up!

Well I saw this coming, really. I had a lot of fun but I've missed the compo deadline and won't be able to make the jam either since I'm working from home.

On the other hand, I learned a lot and this attempt has rekindled my love of game design and development. I'll definitely be keeping up with it in my spare time!

Quick thoughts:

• Time: Try and manage it well. I'm notoriously bad at it in general, so I should have known better. Allocate some time up front for brainstorming, prototyping, etc., then try and section it up so you've at least got a rough idea when you want to be doing what. Milestones! Remember to take breaks!
• Tools: Learning new tools is always fun, but on reflection I made a mistake by trying to use PICO-8. It's purposely "simple", yes, but I am still unfamiliar with it and only spent a day or two learning it before LD46 kicked off. I don't think I necessarily would have completed anything if I'd used tools I'm already familiar with, but... maybe? It certainly had a negative effect.
• Focus: Another thing I've always been relatively bad at. In this case I decided to switch ideas around 14 hours in (hence the screenshot above) instead of sticking with my initial game plan. I suppose in the right circumstances switching ideas isn't a bad thing, and I saw a few of you doing the same thing, but in reality my initial idea was not more complicated than the one I switched to. I just got bored of working on it and lost focus on what was really important.
• Fluff: Save it until the closing hours. Despite reading this exact tip several times before the compo started, I still didn't take it to heart and wasted time up front by playing with effects and intro / outro screens. Did anyone else watch Yahtzee's 12 games in 12 months series? (Games are here.) He made the point early on that you should work out your core gameplay loop first, and I think he's absolutely right! Under these time constraints you should add the fluff later, if you have the time. (Although I really respect those among you capable of pumping out awesome art straight away!)

I'll definitely be taking part in LD47. Hopefully by then I will have had plenty enough practice and will be able to submit something!

Right, I suppose I better get to work. Good luck to you all!

Last participated in LD46. It didn't go to plan, but I still had fun and learned a lot!

I've decided last-minute that'll be participating in LD48. Since my weekend isn't wide open and I'm back to work on Monday, I'm aiming for the compo.

I'll focus on making something small, with a fun, polished core loop, and see where that takes me.

Not sure what I'll use this time... maybe PICO-8 again? We'll see.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's work!