itch.io

What I posted earlier:

It’s genuinely concerning how difficult it is to download your demo. You likely don’t want such a huge obstacle keeping people from trying your game.

Fix the download link, make it one working link, and host the files wherever itch.io recommends to make the game installable through itch.io’s desktop installer. Fix these issues and you’ll be doing one less thing to hurt your game getting an audience.

At very least, don’t package the game files in a .rar file, that’s ridiculous. Compress as a regular .zip file, those are ubiquitous and recommended: https://itch.io/docs/creators/getting-started#content

Good luck.

I wasn’t very nice in this comment, and I apologize for that. But I wasn’t mean, either, and I only wanted to help.

I came to try and play this before finishing the Alpha Beta Gamer video because I was impressed. Unfortunately I don't have the disc space to unpack the downloaded files, but that's an issue on my end, not yours.

I'm going to repost what I wrote earlier because I'm trying to help you get your game out there. If you have a problem with the content, say so or ask questions. Deleting valid criticism (especially when it's not about the game) won't help you, and just hurts all of us. I genuinely hope I can play your game someday, but I guess I need to just wait and see, and watch the video for now.

Glad to help!

For some inspiration, you could think about making a 2.5D game. This Stack Exchange answer does pretty well at explaining what that means in games. I like the classification into "2D graphics with 3D logic" and "3D graphics with 2D logic"; it might be a good way for you to simplify one aspect of a project while utilizing other available skills.

The "custom-built engines" exclusion is confusing. Does that mean that some library or code base or other large resource that I put together specifically for this project, but way ahead of the actual jam, would be fair game, even if I don't release the resource publicly or make it available to others? Or is it referring to "third-party resources and third-party custom-built engines"? That would make sense to me, but I can't tell from the way it's worded.

Most people think that a 2D game is less complex to make than a 3D game with the same amount of depth or gameplay. And mathematically, they're right; there are probably more ways to fail in 3D than there are ways to succeed in 2D. But that's assuming you have an equal amount of experience in both formats, whether lots or very little or none at all. If that's not true in your case and you know you would start with a bigger lead by doing a 3D game, then you should do that instead.

The idea is to keep it simple. You'll have limited time and resources so you want to apply most of your creativity to how your game will work and how to implement the theme. You don't want to waste any effort on figuring out something you've never seen before, so it's best to simplify what you can and try to work within constraints you already know about. You want to use what knowledge you already have, and avoid needing to pick up new tools in the middle of the jam. If you have the experience building 3D games and working with 3D-focused tools, then that experience may be more of an asset to you. If you're more comfortable making and troubleshooting and polishing a 3D game quickly, then using what you know is how you can simplify the process for yourself.

Of course, making a good and successful and perfect game is not really the purpose of participating in a game jam. Challenging yourself and building your experience is a big part of game jams for many, and it's a good motivator to try something new. If you wanted to take the opportunity to figure out some 2D game design in the months leading up to the jam and then see what you could come up with, you could probably get a lot from that experience. No need to, though; just finishing in time with a working game would be an achievement as well, especially if it's the first game jam you're participating in. That will definitely be most of my focus, that's for sure.