Congratulations to everyone who submitted a game. It's a huge accomplishment to get something out there, no matter how small or big it may have been. To take the time and put your creative endeavours out there is not easy.  It takes courage to open your work up to feedback and criticism. So, no matter what you made, be proud.

This was only my second jam and I feel like I'm learning immense amounts each time I get something out there. Thank you to everyone that has played my game and to the discord chat for keeping it all entertaining. 

What have been your biggest takeaways from this jam? Did you learn something new you could do within your games? Did something surprise you? Did you find a new game genre that you love?

A few things I learned from feedback and building for this jam:

• Just because you can do something (like map a huge map), it doesn't mean you should. I can see only 5 people finished my initial game mode, but 21 finished the second mode which had a lot more immediate direction. (To those 5 that escaped the mansion, I commend you!)
• Variable play modes: If you have a gameplay type that allows for a quick update to allow for an alternative play style, it could potentially reach a much larger audience
• Fix those controls! If your controls are janky, it makes it a rough play experience, and this is your player's main interaction for your game.
• Difficult may be fun for you, but be wary of your game being too difficult in a jam. Lots of us love Dark Souls type games, but when there are 400+ games to go through, being too difficult right off the bat can quickly scare people away from your game. My first game had a high level of difficulty and a tricky control scheme. I was able to beat it, but being the developer gives us too much built-in knowledge. 
• Find playtesters! This goes with my note above. You may have played your game and beat it hundreds of times, but you know too much. Find someone that knows nothing about your game other than what is in your description and just watch/listen to their experience. If you can, find gamers and non-gamers to get a wider array of feedback. 

Thanks for reading my rambles, and I hope you all had fun! I'll see you in next year's jam!

PS. Rate those in the least-rated category! There are some amazing gems that have barely been rated.

great takeaways!

the difficulty one is advice i’ve heard from many experienced devs and it rings true from my own experience. if your game is too difficult for someone they’re not likely to experience all the work you put into it and will probably have a lesser opinion of it.

i totally agree on playtesting as well! there often isn’t enough time for it and it may be hard to find playtesters, but it’s definitely worthwhile if you can. don’t just rely on your own judgement/tastes because what is intuitive for you is often not intuitive for others.

my biggest takeaway from game jams lately is that i work much better in a team than i do alone. for me a team supplies accountability to actually get stuff done, immediate feedback/critique to improve my work, and so much sharing of knowledge.