So, we're at the end of 2024, and I'm still here.  Still doing my own thing with this, trying to move forwards and learn.

I'll admit that my presence on itch has been almost non-existent the last few months due to the real world, however this year has been a massive learning experience in trying to find my way into making my own games.  While I have only uploaded a few things that are actually playable, and in need of a few updates, I have been in that cycle of trying different things out to expand my own knowledge and get myself to a position where I can create what I want to create, hopefully making it fun and enjoyable for anyone that plays what I create.

The year in review ...

Just over a year ago, I decided to try (once again) to make a game.  This game was not intended to be anything special, merely a simple 2D platformer for my young niece and nephews to play when they visited last Christmas.  I made this game in 2 weeks with limited knowledge and it worked, it had more than a few bugs, but none of them were game breaking.  The art was simple, but worked well enough, and it even had sound and a high score system that saved locally between plays.  It went down really well and made for a bit of fun, but the game itself was not polished or in any condition to publish anywhere.  The measured success of this endeavour though spurred me on into trying to make more games and learn what I was lacking in terms of skill, so I decided to try to continue to make games.

My next "brilliant" idea came in the run up to Easter.  I wanted to try making a game for Easter where you played as the Easter Bunny and had to recover your Easter Eggs that had been stolen.  As my first "game" had been a 2D platformer, I wanted to make this one in 3D, in almost a pseudo RPG style where you would have to find crates, chests and keys to be able to progress and would be able to attack enemies.  Trying to make this project allowed me to try making my own 3D models and consider different styles of mechanics I might want to include.  Sadly this idea was never fully realised and sits on the "revisit and review" list of projects I have started and then not had time to complete or really focus on.

After a bit of a lull in game development activities and missing the "deadline" for the Easter Game, I had another idea for a 3D game.  This game would play more like a survival horror with a short playtime and a simple story that was collected through playing the game.  There were also a few mechanics I wanted to include to mix things up a bit so that each playthrough was a bit different.  After getting so far with the project, coding the majority of the mechanics and figuring out what I really wanted to include, things slowed down again.  On the list it went.

At this point I was still wanting to move forwards with making games, but seemed to be unable to maintain the focus needed over time to complete projects due to real world limitations.  This is when I decided to join my first Game Jam.  The jam I joined was the GameDev.tv Jam 2024.  It was a 2 week jam and I got myself excited over participating in the jam.  Every day throughout the jam I was determined to make a game for it.  Due to the time limit and my experience, it needed to be simple, due to the theme, it needed to be relevant, and I managed to achieve the target.  When the voting period happened, I aimed to play as many games as I could that were submitted for the jam.  Over the voting period I played over 100 different games and always tried to leave some feedback on people's submissions.  Overall, for my first game jam I feel I did pretty well.  My game had a lot of feedback and it was mostly positive.  It really gave me a massive boost of confidence.

Link to Game: https://crazyhoundgamedesign.itch.io/a-last-stand-story

After this, the real world got busy, and things died off a bit, and haven't really picked back up again, at least not in the way I would like.  Following the jam, one consistent view was always regarding the sound and music for my games.  I was already aware that it wasn't brilliant and that I needed to work on this.  I also got feedback describing the visual style as rather simple, which I also agree with, and is another skill to work on.

A month or 2 later, after feeling like I wasn't making as much progress as I'd like, I decided to join a "mini jam", a 3 day jam where I tried to make a game, with custom art and sound within the time limit.  Again I managed to achieve this, but again, things were still rather simple.  I personally don't mind keeping it simple for a game jam and had fun making the game.  However, I also learned a valuable lesson in this jam about considering not only the actions of a coded mechanic, but also ensuring that the order of processing is also considered to avoid strange bugs.  If you ever wanted infinite Jelly, just play my Jelly rancher game and mash the button to drop off your jellies in the yard.

Link to Game: https://crazyhoundgamedesign.itch.io/jelly-rancher

At around this time, I also tried to make a 3D first person shooter, this was intended to be more of an experiment to firstly see if I could implement the appropriate mechanics, and secondly make something that could be fun using all the various assets I had created for my other projects and half finished games.  Guess what, it presently sits on the "revisit and review" list, aimlessly waiting for an explosion of creativity, and the time to focus on it.

As time was in such short supply for trying to make games, I decided instead to occasionally practice some of the skills that needed development.  I played around with making music, occasionally did a bit of 2D art or made sprite sheets, and thought about the games I would like to create or the mechanics I would like to implement.  Feeling as though I was improving, this lead me to posting some of my music with an update on my (lack of) progress as seen from itch.  While the response to this was a bit "meh", the feedback has been helpful and learning about musical scales I think is helping me with my musical quality, I also want to be able to work with moods and sounds, but all of this comes with practice.

In the run up to Christmas this year, I even started making another game, there's a growing list of half finished and incomplete projects, but I'm learning and I feel like I'm getting better with each experiment, and I'm hoping 2025 will afford more time to work on the skills and games I want to develop as one or two real world issues will hopefully be resolved that have taken up a fair chunk of my time this year.

So thank you if you're still watching.  I definitely intend to continue, and I am still progressing bit by bit.  If I could do this everyday, without fail or interruption I like to think I would have progressed further, and hope that one day I can be in that position.  Until then, I guess it's all about doing what I can, when I can.

Lessons Learned This Year ...

This year has been an interesting year for doing this.  I started off with trying to see if I could.  I'm still learning, and still trying to aim for making the games I want to make.

Throughout the year I have learned more than a few lessons, as well started to develop skills I thought I could just about get by with at the beginning.

I have learned:

• While the initial thrill of doing what you want can be great, to really be able to enjoy doing this, I needed to accept that I am almost starting from zero, and while what I have been able to accomplish feels like a big accomplishment, it is only the tip of the iceberg.  I don't mean to deflate myself, or anyone else with this, but accepting you don't have all the answers is how you figure out what needs to be learned and gives the starting point for growth.
• I learned that participating in a Game Jam, while very intense with timescales and workload, can be very rewarding.  I tried to use them as a way of having some direction for a small project that, if scoped correctly, could be done by the deadline and hopefully be playable.  I also found the wider community very welcoming in the jams I participated in and found the feedback fair and constructive.
• With art, 2D or 3D, I learned that even when making low fidelity graphics, colour, style and lighting can make a drastic difference to the overall look and feel of a game.  While you can, as I have done previously, draw simple images to use as sprites in a 2D game, there are techniques that can be used to differentiate animated assets, fixed assets and interactive assets in a play area without resorting to a big arrow saying "Do This."
• With music and sound design, even I will admit that I started with almost no knowledge on how to effectively produce sounds or music for the games I was trying to make.  I'm still learning and it is an ongoing process.  With respect to creating music, I feel I am starting to get there, but while I can create a piece of music now that sounds relatively nice to listen to, making a piece that can fit a style of gameplay is, for now, outside of my comfort zone.  P.S. - Scales are definitely useful and key to making music that flows in tone and colour.  For sound effects, most of what I have previously used has been low quality and self produced.  I understand the principles in recording effects, removing noise and tidying up sounds, but making or getting the "right" effects to the quality I might want is still a bit away.
• With coding and using the Godot Game Engine I feel I have learned a lot this year.  I can't really describe every feature and snippet of code I have either used or come to understand over the last 12 months, but I am feeling more comfortable with the engine even though there is still some way to go before I feel I could call myself adept at using the engine.  More generally I have learned to double check that processes and functions run the way I want them to after coding them, and to ensure that variables that need updating get updated at the right time.  I have also learned that you don't need to code all of your logic to run every frame.  A lot of logic in a game can be set up to only run when triggered by other processes in the game, and that these function can then alter the required information to give the desired effect.

So if you're still here, thank you for joining me, and have a happy new year.  I plan to continue on my journey to try and make some fun games.  This year has been a learning experience, and at the moment it feels like I'm only still here by shear determination.  As we start the new year, all I can say is that I will be doing more.  When, I'm not entirely sure, but there will be more.

"Bonus Mode"

I have recently made a few new songs (which use scales), and I feel like there is definite improvement now.  If you fancy a look, check the link:

https://crazyhoundgamedesign.itch.io/recent-music-attempts-end-of-2024-happy-new...