So, here we are, at the end of another jam. I'll begin by saying I began this jam with very little expectations. I'm a writer and a developer, most of my recent game making ventures have been rather frustrating, so I started this one very casually. For those who don't know, my jam entry, Egress is a dystpopian visual novel about dating and choices: [Link]
I was initially taken aback by my teammate, Minbiscuits, who from the start showed signs of being a very dedicated player. He not only began drawing many concept sketches right away, he did things of his own initiative, which proved essential later on. As it always happens, several members of my team dropped from the start. The person who was meant to be our background artist did nothing and said nothing, and the person who was meant to be our programmer was active to pretend he was going to work, but also did nothing. Used to this, I cobbled together the first demo, and Mint, the sprite artist coded the rest, proving to be much faster and well suited than I was.
I'm usually very organized when it comes to game dev, this year as I mentioned I took a more relaxed approach, taking things as they came. I made no schedule, I wrote only a very rough outline and I did not forsee whether we could complete the game or not (which addmittedly would've helped). This created its own set of problems, but I will admit, having a casual work style really helps with ideas. It's good to just kick back some times, experiment and let yourself be dragged by the circumstances. It's definetly a good experience to have once in a while.
I'm pretty proud of how the story turned out. My writing style is usually very lighthearted, my choice of setting usually very down to earth. I mostly write silly slice of life stories with some deeper meaning, but it was very refreshing to try and tell myself that I can write serious works too. Writing the worlbuilding was pretty fun, I came up with a lot of social phenomemons regarding androids and AI, as well as little customs associated with the setting. For insatnce, people in Egress have become so non-threatning, they literally never swear. Our protagonist, Ethan throws in a lot of "Oh my gosh!"s at the end of the game, which sounds pretty funny, but it's also a tragic consequence of censorship. I was super proud of the twist, I've heard from a few people they liked it and that means a lot to me. I don't always get the chance of getting feedback for my writing, or any response at all, so every time it's immensly pleasing.
Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful jam. This is certainly my longest and most polished game (once we upload the rest of the music, which is a thing that will definetly happen, for reals), which couldn't have been possible if I didn't have the luck to meet my teammates. It's always a gamble, jams. You want to meet new people, make new contacts, but doing so you always expose yourself to disappointment and failure. I wish I had friends to work with, but until then I don't mind working with every passerby that decides to give me a chance. All things considered, I think I'm finally getting to that point of lettting go and accepting every mistake and flawed released within my games. I'm far from prefect, but I'm definetly looking forward to the day I publish a game I'm a 100% proud of.
Until then, I'm gonna play some entries and take some much needed rest. See you in the next mission!
-Double H