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GAME SUBMITTED! What was the most memorable moment of your game jam journey?

A topic by Pegaselkie created May 30, 2022 Views: 518 Replies: 30
Viewing posts 1 to 20
Submitted

Hello everyone, after a week of intense labour, we finally submitted our game. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions and many a night has been spent sleepless, trying to fix all sorts of meanie bugs during production! It's our first game jam so it was a very exciting new experience but we are just as happy as we are exhausted! Since we have reached the last few hours of the jam, we would like to pose a question to everyone that participated: what was the most memorable moment of your development journey for the game you submitted?

When it comes to us, it was definitely the moment we made the credits roll and the feeling of having wrapped up the project after a lot of days of intense work. It felt very rewarding and kinda emotional, like witnessing the birth of a pixelated, code generated child.

We look forward to reading your replies and playing everyone's creations once the voting period starts! <3

If you want to try out our game, you can find it here: https://pegaselkie.itch.io/9-lives

Submitted(+2)

I suppose, for me, there wasn't one exact memorable moment, but looking back on the entirety of the jam, the most memorable thing which will stick out for me for a long time to come is finally figuring out how to code things myself without following a tutorial. I mean, I definitely still Googled a lot and looked up some tutorial videos, but the main gameplay mechanic was entirely my own. For someone who has spent a long time in "tutorial hell" and has had a lot of struggle to come up with my own solutions, this was a huge motivator and something I'm really glad to have gotten out of this game jam.

Since we are able to link our own games, here is mine: https://rezdan.itch.io/reincarnation

Looking forward to playing everyone else's!

Submitted

We felt the same, there is a special kind of feeling when you start carving your own paths and solutions! My partner in crime defines it as "the thrilling excitement of juggling many plates in your hands" and coming out victorious after having defeated hordes of bug monsters xD
Game jams are definitely an invaluable tool for gaining experience, coming up with new solutions and challenging yourself with concepts you hadn't yet explored.

We were very impressed by the dialogue system you developed in your game and think you did an amazing job!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

The most memorable thing for me is the fact that the person who did 80% of our 3D assets for our entry refuses to play the game cuz it scares her so much lol


Edit: We made a horror fps game

Submitted

Well, that sure is a fun memory to have haha I guess she will always remember this jam for this challenge she had to face xD

Submitted(+1)

for me, the most memorable moment was to start a “new project” after a very long period of working on my products, that have old project files and settled structures for many months.

seeing that empty project explorer, no objects, no rooms, nothing…. was… scary :-D

when i finally crossed that line between desperate emptiness and finally-something-that-can-be-seen, it all was suddenly ok again :-)

Submitted

Knowing your tools is important but challenging oneself is just as valuable. Seeing a new creation come to life and overcoming unforseen hurdles is definitely very exciting and rewarding! :D

Submitted

Probably when I spent 5 minutes composing the entire "soundtrack" whilst sitting in the toilet

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

For me it was having to spend the first half of the game jam prepping for my wife's birthday and the in-laws visiting. haha After that it was a mad rush to get everything done.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

The moment I realized I had spent a couple hours in visual studio working on some complex parts without testing and when I popped in to finally test, it worked exactly as planned. Great feeling for someone who has only started learning to code this past year.

Submitted

Most positiv: That I finished a very polished game with Intro and Outro so no open ending. I felt as if I made something howl and not a quick "its only a GameJam thing" 

Most negativ: that a "friend" streamer played my game, and rushed it, used bugs (ON STREAM) and ragequit at the endboss cause he was to inpacient for the fight. I felt so disrespected as the creater  q.q 

Submitted

We played your game and we defeated the last boss!! It was quite fun and engaging to open all the doors and find new swords. Some enemies were a bit tough and having a skill to do a little bit more damage would have made the fighting of the minions feel less repetitive, but it was still well made and it was nice to see details in the scenes like the Skellys making potions or having a club of their own haha The little blue skull companion was a nice touch too, it could have been an interesting full character on its own :) (The bear skull hero was already amazing though, loved the concept!)
We actually didn't encounter any bugs so if it can reassure you, it felt like a smooth playthrough from the beginning to the end!
Overall, really good job, keep going foward! :D

Submitted

thanks a lot, it means a lot to me that you reply to my post! Thanks for the kind words!

Submitted

For me the most memorable moment was when I got my NPCs to hunt the player. I needed to laugh really hart as it was the outcome of days of struggle and the joy was just huge. Also it looked hillarious for me.

My game is https://kurthos-studio.itch.io/total-promotion.

Submitted(+1)

This has been my first game jam. I have been doing tiny things here and there, but to rush everything from scratch in such a short time while having to work is actually challenging (specially the lack of sleep). Overall I enjoyed the first day the most: Brainstorming, thinking, imagining... and to see how it could actually be a game. Sadly I could only make a third of what I had planned :(

My game is https://chusmaverde.itch.io/rage-of-the-machine-death-is-only-the-beginning

Overall kudos to everyone that finished the jam, regardless of the quality. I am sure everyone did as best as possible given their circunstances.

Submitted(+1)

I think the most memorable thing for me besides finally submitting and being incredibly proud of what I made is earlier in the jam. I initially started to try and make something completely different from what I have now (it was going to be a short metroidvania-style of game). But I became increasingly frustrated and was seriously doubting myself and my ability to participate in the jam. However, after talking about it with my wife and thinking on it, I rescoped the idea down to something much simpler and well, now I have a finished submission.

Submitted

Sometimes we think too big :D In a way something similar happened to me. I had to drop many of the cool features I was thinking about so i could submit something playable

Submitted(+1)

Most definitely! This definitely taught me to think small. I always here developers say to think of the simplest game you can make and then go and cut half the features out of that and then you have something you that maybe isn't too ambitious. I think I understand that a bit more now especially when under a time constraint.

Submitted(+1)

For me the most memorable moment was becoming encouraged to take on more complex game projects after implementing some of the systems in the game. During this game jam I used a lot of more advanced programming concepts for the first time after a long period of being scared of building anything more than a very simple prototype. So it was quite a confidence booster! 😄 Even though there are a lot of things I think I could have done better code-wise and even though there were still little improvements I wanted to add that just didn't make it in time, it was definitely a really fun experience. 

And here is what I made! https://kivenkojulia.itch.io/die-to-reburn

Submitted

Tackling challenges and coming out with new knowledge and enthusiasm is definitely one of the biggest reasons why game jams can be so useful for creative growth. It's nice to know you feel so happy about your progress! We definitely felt the same :)

We tried your game and personally we really liked the phoenix theme, it fits the challenge perfectly! Good job and good luck on your future endeavours!

Submitted

Thank you so much for trying it out! i would love to give a try to your entry as well 😄

Submitted(+1)

The most memorable moment for me was when I published my game. When looking at my game page, I felt very proud about my self. This feeling of having accomplished something is wonderful.

Submitted (1 edit)

For me it was realising about a day or so before the deadline that I’m making a local-multiplayer game and so; 1) it’s hard to test by myself, and 2) you NEED at least 2 players and so for that reason probably no one will play it lol

Oh well, I had fun and learnt a lot! :) maybe it’ll be a game I play with some friends when we’re drunk… lol

I had a much bigger scope for what I had time for in the end. That’s a lesson well learnt.

If you’re curious, here you are! (It’s actually pretty fun) https://bytesizeplay.itch.io/spirit-chase

(I’ll update the store page later)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I think the fact that I fully completed the kind of game that I enjoy playing, and have friends having fun playing it too.

Also the insane weight off my shoulders the moment that the final level is finished, and I can breath again.

Link if you want to check it out https://kprnn.itch.io/nine-circles

Submitted

It's definitely a very fulfilling sensation to create something from a game genre that you love! Happy to read you had a good time with your buddies as well!
We played your game too, I struggled a bit being killed by the flying enemies while jumping on their heads but my partner was very good at it and made lots of cool jumps haha It was fun x)

Submitted(+1)

For me, it was actually messing around with ideas for mechanics that fit the theme. I enjoyed the brainstorming part of 'will this be fun?' and 'how do I build this?'. Being my first ever game jam, i'm thankful it was 10 days long so that I could take it easy and stay motivated. Big thanks to the community for all the help I got, especially on discord. Link to my game - https://chux-padaina.itch.io/a-shared-soul

Submitted(+1)

The two moments that come to mind for me are the first day and the last day.

When the theme was first announced I was at work, so I had to sneak over to the bathroom to check it out, and then I was chatting with a coworker about ideas for the game. We had discussed some of the possible themes the day before, but death was one we didn't have anything for lol. That lead me to the idea of needing to die to progress in the beginning of the game, and it all pieces together from there.

Fast forward to the last day. At this point I had made all the levels and mechanics the game needed, so my focus was on polishing what I can, and adding the narration. I figured this would be one of the easier days, so I hadn't started until after all the days errands. On top of the touch ups, I wound up also making 3 more levels, and adding an options menu. By the time I finished submitting it was 5am, and the feeling of delirious tiredness combined with the joy of finally putting out a game of my own while seeing the sun rise in my window is something I'll always carry with me. It'll always be my reminder of what's possible when giving a project your all.

Submitted

We feel you, we voted for the themes some days before the jam started and we tried imagining some possible games in order to pick what we deemed was the most fun theme to work on, but when "death is only the beginning" got announced we were a bit surprised because it was one one of the themes we had the least initial ideas for, as it mostly made us think of souls-like games. x)
Some solutions also sounded too broken in our minds, allowing for infinite exploit of the game mechanics so we ended up discarding them. Ultimately we arrived to the concept of "cats have 9 lives" and that's how our game came to be haha
Can absolutely relate to the "delirious tiredness" of the last day as well, we pushed very hard to complete the game in time for the deadline because we didn't want to miss it and we ended up getting only 4 hours of sleep after submitting it! WORTH IT!! It will definitely be a special memory for us as well!

Submitted

I put all of my newly learned techniques on this game

https://megadroid12.itch.io/life-afterlife

Submitted

The event in itself was particularly memorable, it being my first real experience with a game jam and with game development in general.

What I definitely won't forget was the rush of the first 5 days, because I was at the end of my free trial for RPG Maker MV, so my time was literally chopped in half. Still, I'm super proud of what I was able to make, and I'd love to continue working on this project in the future!

If anyone's keen on some story-driven game, here's a quick link to it: https://nim-lorekeeper.itch.io/to-love-an-underworld

Submitted

My most memorable moment would have to be waking up at 2 AM on Friday with the realization that I already made a cat animation for another game so I should add it to this one.