My first ever Game Jam I have finished! (Kinda)

How are you all doing and is there any advice you wanna share for people who wanna try a game jam for the first time?

What did you wish you did differently?

I wish I had planned more. I started working on the project and attempting to let ideas flow and it just overwhelmed me at times.

I would have given anything to just set an entire hour aside and scribble out ideas and not worry about the function  at the time.

Only advise I could give to first timers is that: plan right ahead and use your time wisely.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I was expected that I won't make it to deadline because I was demotivated in the middle of the Jam but I made it earlier than I thought I would. If I had a flexible time again in the future, I could participate in another Game Jam . 

That was really fun! My first jam too, I had plans to make my game with more features than it has now, but ran out of time. This was because it was also my first time using GMS2, and I was learning as I went. With what I know now I could make that game 2x faster. Great learning experience.

My first jam too.

Pros

I'm very glad I had done many tutos and little projects before, even never published and deleted since, because I already knew how to do everything I've done in the game. The development was kinda fluid.

The hardest part was to find simple to draw but nice graphics, but once I was satisfied with the style, it became easier.

I had doubts about the sound part, never tried before, but I've found a nice software and managed to do quick sounds. And found a free epic music for the boss fight.

I implemented most of the features I wanted.

Cons

In my timezone the jam started Friday morning and ended Monday morning. So I wish I had a day off Friday and Monday, I could have done so much more.

I wanted my boss fight more epic, but lack of time.

I wanted Katarina being an important NPC, but lack of time.

Conclusion

In the end I'm kinda satisfied with the result, I don't think I have any bug or glitch, and this is what i wanted: maybe less features than planned but they all work. Still I wish I had more time and I think I will make a "Definitive edition", just with two or three things added.

also my first jam and l learned a lot during this 3 days. Wasn't able to work as much on the game as I wanted, but in the end, all I planned is in and major bugs have been fixed. Definitely looking forward to the next jam.

My first jam that I finished on my own, had a great time!  Hoping to participate in more soon, time permitting!

It was fun, I really enjoyed it. My friend promised me to draw stuff, but he was lazy and quit after 36 hours. Luckily my brother helped me. It was great experience!

Absolutely, tons of fun! :D

In the middle I was worried that maybe I was overreaching bit and things would turn out badly, but in the end it worked out alright!
(overreached less than last time still!)

First time I actually finished a game in time for the deadline. The music and sound was added in the final few hours, with the rest of the time dedicated to programming and a little art. Next time I'll try to finish faster so I can actually playtest and polish for a few hours.
My brother did the sprites for most of the items and accessories, while I did the sprites for the characters, environment and UI.

This weekend was perfect, the kids didn't bug me too much and I was able to put some time (and effort) into finishing the game :) The best part about any jam is the time limit because you need to push forward and you are constrained to learning quickly :D

tl;dr; Much fun, would do again :)

I had a lot of fun doing this jam! This was my second jam (although for the first one I didn't make the deadline) and I noticed some massive improvements from the last jam to this one. This was how it went, basically:

1. The theme was announced right as I was leaving work, so I spent the whole trip home thinking of ideas and I had a rough idea by the time I got home. I think nailing down an idea early made a huge difference.
2. I pared down the idea into something manageable - originally, I wanted upgrades and different biomes to explore, and all sorts of stuff. It could've been doable with a team, or if I was more experienced, but I think making sure I wasn't overextending really helped out.
3. I didn't even think about graphics or sound until I had written the mechanics. I just used squares to indicate different objects in the game and made sure the gameplay felt right first. I'm still not 100% happy with the gameplay, but I definitely think it's good considering the time restrictions and my level of experience.
4. I was stressing hard about the level design, because it isn't something I've had to do before. I think it turned out alright, not perfect by any means but good enough. I actually found it much easier and more fun than I anticipated!
5. I took a ton of breaks. On Saturday I had arranged to donate blood, so I had a few hours where I was out and about. I went for a walk Saturday night too. On Sunday I woke up and wrote code for about 6 hours, then grabbed some lunch and put on a film. About halfway through the film I started writing again, but I kept the film running. I think taking regular breaks really helped, it allowed me to clear my head and come back to the game feeling more energised.
6. I spent the last half hour or so re-writing the dialogue to inject a bit more personality into the protagonist. I don't know if it made much of a difference, but I definitely think personally that it makes the game a bit more fun.
7. I submitted the game on Sunday night at around 11pm. I felt pretty good with the end result - I'll probably expand on the idea and look at releasing a full game later down the track.

Same here, first one ever and got to try out some new things I've never attempted before. And, just wanna add, no matter what, you should all be proud of yourselves. Whether you get highly rated or not, despite criticisms, you should feel could about what you all accomplished because you managed to make something in only three days, and if that's not impressive, then I don't know what is. C:

I enjoyed the jam a lot and will probably attempt the next LudumDare for the first time. I had a really good time and didn't really have any problems, given that I had a teammate who did all the art (which I'm absolutely uncapable of doing). For the next time I'd really like to get someone to test my game so they can tell me what sucks and needs more attention.

For suggestions that really helped me, I could give these:

• Take the first couple hours for ideas and DON'T DO ANYTHING YET! Just collect ideas (Great tip: LITERALLY ANYTHING can give dieas).
• Dump ideas that you don't even know how to get started with and focus on those which you come up with more details for.
• Pick an idea that you like and are somewhat familiar with.
• If you get stuck on something that's not that important, leave it for later and come back to it when all the important stuff are done.
• GET SOMEONE TO TEST YOUR GAME (someone who's not participating in the jam)
• TAKE. BREAKS.

If I could follow all of these I could make "the perfect game" (kinda) and I'll be sure to do so on my next jam.

This is my fourth jam and I learned a lot from my previous jams but I still did some of the same mistakes I did in previous jams:

Things I learned from previous jams and I applied here:

-Think and think and think before you even start writing any codes

-Do not wait for perfect art to start coding, do your codes with squares and circles while the artist do his job

-Ask myself, can I actually do this game within 72 hours [if I can't, can I still  submit what I have by the deadline as a final game]

Mistakes that I repeated:

-Did not consider taking the jam seriously until the first day passed

-Only dedicated 5-10 hours for the jam. If we add time spent by the other team members (artist and musician) it would barely be 10-15 hours, which is way less than even the time one person should dedicate for a 72 hours jam