Post-jam post. Yay!
Don't really know what makes a good post-mortem, but I'll write one to bring closure to this devlog.
Post-Mortem
What I think I did right:
- Rescoping whenever needed. Basically I kept trimming the features I used to want on-the-go. They just don't feel necessary... the more I actually developed the game. Pragmatism over theory / idealism, I guess. This also helped me work with the jam's deadline.
- Don't spend too much time on one thing. Because I'm working solo. Don't know about teams, though. Still, I think it's better to spread effort on every part of the game, to prevent being too focused on one thing and ignoring other parts. Sure, I like tweaking the engine and making better battle system but the game is not just the battle system itself. Beats my perfectionist side.
- Debug debug debug. Or maybe looking up tutorials and documentations for others. Still, when first using an engine, get to know it. I slipped a bunch of in-game messages (not just debug text on debug window!) on many parts of the engine. First week spent learning the sequence of events called on the course of battles. Their variables, functions, etc. Bugs squashed early and avoided.
What I think I did wrong:
- Only having a vague idea of a story and forcing to put it in. Plots and characters just float in my head but I can't ground them. Instead of placeholder texts, I forced some dialogs and formatting. Ended up redoing the formatting and bits of the story. And it's still floating...
- Manually, individually evented events. Basically I made one template event and copy-pasted it many times over. Which made me having to do a lot of copy-pasting again later on when I decided to change some details. I know many of those events have their own unique thing (enemy move route, for example, is different for each event), but I could have saved a lot of time if I made them call a common event instead of a series of commands in each event page. The "defeat" and "flee" events are the same for most battles, but I only realized that after copy-pasting them twice...
- Designer's self difficulty standard. Well... I made a rather hard boss battles, meant to challenge myself (with all my theoretical tactics and knowledge of enemy AI) when the player's don't even know the rules and how to play effectively... yet. And so I had to seriously tone down the difficulty. And add more generosity.
- Being inconsistent / carried away by things. I tried on mapping and settled quickly. But on enemy move routes, they change too much too quick. From simple line back-and-forth, then to zig-zag, loops, pseudo mind-reading, to varying speed (ninjas) and homing ghosts. Which was fun to make, but is a headache for the first-time players. Had to dummy-out all of them and redo.
Conclusion?
Well, those points I mentioned are probably specific to people using RPG engines. Anyways, I think it's important to have a clear idea of what game I (you, we) want to make. Keep that idea grounded (or ground them by writing them down) and prioritize the "feel" of the game. What feeling / message you want to get, what you want players to get. It might actually be simple.
Also, keep your commitment through development. Try to be consistent. Plan some and stick to it. And try playing without the knowledge of being the developer / designer, because player's aren't like you. No hidden mechanics, okay? Tell players all they need to know and convince them to want to use those mechanics!
Sorry for the long read, but thanks for stopping by! Gotta clean up the OP.
- Chainsta