I got a late start and wrist pain has been slowing me down on making art assets.
That's fine! You have until 5 days after the jam to turn something in, even if it doesn't quite meet the 10 worlds, 3 effects, 3 events guidelines. Just don't give me Wakana Nikki and you're good. If you can't make it at all, that's fine too - when you finish, just send it to the Dream Diary Jam tumblr & I'll post it there for other players to see. :)
I hope your wrist feels better, that sounds terrible :c
I'm also (somewhat) in the same predicament as violinistsMetronome. I wanted to contact you so I could get that 5 days after the jam to complete my entry, but I couldn't find your contact info; I don't have a tumblr account and don't know how to use Discord, so I can't use these.
Would it be okay if I were to submit an incomplete version of my entry before the deadline, then update it with a newer version post-jam?
My project is has the same problem... creating all the pixel grahics has taken a while, especially when one feels compelled to go back and redraw things again and again. I also underestimated how much time doing the maps would take (detailed 150x150 tile maps, plus dozens of environment objects, plus collisions, it can't take that long... ....right?) Ten worlds is not gonna happen, unless I make tiny maps, but pulling a stunt like that is out of the question.
On the plus side, I feel all the work has leveled up my pixel arting a little.
A lot of people have unfinished submissions that we'll be working on after the jam, I even have blank doors in my nexus. I wouldn't worry about submitting something that isn't finished, I don't think anyone was expecting for us to finish our games. If your game really isn't ready (missing key requirements) then I would take the 5 late days to wrap up what you have and focus on publishing as clean of a project as you can. I had to quit working on mine with ~3 days left because otherwise my submission would've been a total mess. I've already had to update twice and am preparing a third. Looking forward to what you have even if it isn't totally finished.
It's good that working on your game enhanced your pixel art skills, and I hope you had fun participating, but part of the point of a jam is learning to manage your time well. Unfortunately, it sounds like perfectionism and ambition got in the way of efficiency, and the whole project got stuck as a result. I understand wanting to put out the highest quality game you can, but 10+ maps at 150x150 is a huge workload for one person, especially if you're constantly going back to rework assets.
I hope that you join us again for any future jams, and that you keep in mind that it's more about creating an early alpha of a game, rather than a fully finished product. It's great to see someone dedicated to their project, though, and I'm glad you took this opportunity to learn and create.
A learning experience. Although ambition might be too large a word as that would imply a grand plan, when it was more about throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what sticks. I had the impression ten world might be too much when there was code to write as well. While some things were generic and could be thrown in from other projects - that's why you write modular code - others like save/load system, inventory/equip screen and environment GFX system were mostly built from scratch.