How long can you last in the Bullet Box? Remember, every shot matters...

If you haven't played my game The Bullet Box yet, I would love some feedback! It was my very first time using Unreal to make a full game, and also my very first doing a solo game jam, let alone a 48 hour one!

Here's some quick reflection notes that I took for myself that I thought might be helpful to share!

Good notes:

• Taking sufficient time to think of a game idea for the theme before making anything was very good, I'm happy with my idea and how it fits with the theme, and it made every other step of the jam way easier after spending a good two hours finalizing the idea before starting.
• I'm very happy with where the music ended up. I took much needed breaks from programming by making music (which I love to do way more), and with the limited time and zero mixing I think the tracks actually came out really good. Goes to show that sometimes making music is best done with a time limit rather than always second guessing if it's good enough.
• Glad that the game came out working and functional! I've gotta set realistic expectations for myself, and be happy with what I've made. That's step #1, and that's the most I could ask for coming into this with no Unreal Engine experience and very little prep coming into the weekend.

Improvements for next time:

• While pulling an all-nighter might be necessary sometimes, do not plan for it. Plan for good rest, and it will make it your work flow more efficient instead. Also, it absolutely destroys you for the rest of the week so make sure you have that space to recover.
• I spent around 2 hours just choosing what material to use for the room, and that is very unnecessary. List out your tasks and sort them by priority, and then just work down the list. Don't overthink, don't dwell on little things, just cross out tasks to save your own mental until you have something working.
• Small things for a dev can be a huge thing for a player. Not having time for small settings like mouse sensitivity, volume, and personal score tracker can be a huge turn off for your game. Prioritize the quality of life things over the small details that I might like but don't really matter too much for the player. Save those things for if there's time left, you'll be most motivated to work on polish anyways.

Let me know what you think of my game! Thanks for the read <3