POST-JAM REFLECTION
So I wasn't able to finish the game, surprise surprise! My sister came in on Wednesday with her two kids (it was an unplanned surprise for me) and so we spent a lot of time together these past few days. The amount of time I dedicated during those days were not enough to finish the game on time for the deadline, nor get through a code error I was hitting. I was also counting on submissions closing late on the 30th as the doc stated but submissions closed early this morning around 3am. So that cut my dev time short by a day, which I was counting on to try and fix my issue while getting in my other gameplay elements. In any case, even if I had that day, I'm not sure how much I would have been able to complete, or if the build would even be playable.
Setbacks aside, this was a really fun game jam for me, and one where I pooled together a lot of knowledge from past game jams, game projects, and studies on coding. This was also a jam where I did not depend on tutorials to get things done, which is surprising because I was making a turn-based RPG. I used data structures a lot and so I really grew with using them, both in understanding and in practice. I also explored some neat design and art direction which really got my creative juices flowing. Scope-wise, I think the scope was mostly okay. I think there are a few spots I could have cut corners with, but for the most part aiming high helped push me in several directions that provided some good creative and personal growth. Jams are one of the few spaces where I can get pushed enough to grow in different areas and come up with a project I'm really proud of. Outside of jams, my time and development process can get thrown off and feel unstructured. I think this means I need to set hard deadlines for myself to aid in my development process. Total development time on this jam was 74 hours spread across three weeks.
I'll be leaving a dropbox link here for those interested in looking at the game. I'm also attaching some art so you can see how the game was looking like. My plans are to improve upon this game as I envisioned and get it done. I'm really excited about this project as I was able to meet my personal goal of creating a Phantasy Star-like shell. Try the prototype out so you have an idea of what it was going to be! Windows Build only. Created in Game Maker Studio 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8bzl5a0xvorideo/CDN_Speedgame2019-v2Build%20-%206-30.z...
