1. How much time did you spend creating your game/games?
A month from brainstorming to execution.
2. Was there anything useful you learned in developing your games.
This was my first game and it was eye-opening to take one to finish. Despite being a one page hack it still took hours to develop. I did very simple illustrations due to the time crunch--I had a kiddo sick with RSV all week so I didn't have as much time as I had expected and wanted to finish anyway.
I was using the jam to talk with my kiddo about game design. I tried to walk them through their own, next year I want to work on them earlier with an obvious timeline of checkpoints so we can both submit something. I feel like one page is very approachable. My husband made one too!
3. What challenges did you face while making the game/games?
I also learned that in Affinity Publisher every time you compress a PDF that it's not enough to check the master file you also need to check the final because the compression can cause weird. artifacting. I had to save mine pre-rendered in order for it to show the font correctly. Unfortunately I figured this out only after there were a couple of downloads!
4. Finally, feel free to recommend either a game that you really like, is underrated, or has a cool premise/mechanics.
I loved the use of the rondel mechanic in auctoratis plus upgrading the mechs:
https://m-allen-hall.itch.io/auctoratus
I also enjoyed my husband's concept telling the story of people who didn't make it home after a journey. It's bare bones but the game is sound for those that love building backstory: