No problem! Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. I think my entry may be my best so far as well. It received the most polish I've given a jam game and it had a sizable scope.
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Thanks! I discussed it in a comment on my entry's submission page, but planning and preparation did not come into play lol. I couldn't really think of a cool mechanic that ties in with the loop theme, so I interpreted loop as repetitive, and whats more repetitive than grinding in a RPG? I had always wanted to make something like this, but didn't think I was able to until possibly now.
So I decided on the RPG and made its scope much larger than I knew it should be. My process was to separate every idea/mechanic into three categories: 1) must haves, 2) should haves, 3) would like to haves. I then starting on building out the core features. At the end of a session I would compare my time estimate to the actual time it took to complete, look at my "would like to haves" and scrap parts that I knew would take longer than I had left. I repeat that process, until I had the must haves completed. By then, I only had time for polishing, so selling items (a should have) got scrapped. Wasn't detrimental, but buying items was more important.
Overall, it was a fun project and I exceeded my expectations!