Snowshard Cavern is my second public game made with Godot, my second game jam entry and my first game jam entry using said game engine.

Although I thought the idea for the game was good, the time limit quickly turned it into more of an experience for me as a gamedev than a quality game. With it, I learned the following:

• I’m not cut out for soloing time-crunching game jams; I just can’t work that quickly on my own. Either the product is rushed, the stress takes a toll on me mentally, or both.
• I focus more on graphics, sound and music than actual gameplay.
• I tend to plan too far ahead in game development without accounting for development time.
• All of the above suggest that I might thoroughly enjoy working in a team on a game jam, preferably as a composer/producer or artist.
• This is more of a tip for other devs, but trying to figure out a feature in your game engine for the first time during a time-sensitive jam is generally not a good idea. Trying (and failing) to get Godot’s built-in pathfinding to work set me back a good few hours, which just made the game all the more rushed in the end.
• One should always test their game engine’s general functionality and export capabilities, too; Even if it’s just a new version of a familiar engine. (I really, really wish Godot had been more clear and upfront about Godot 4.0 not supporting all platforms yet.)

I just needed to get all that off my chest. Hopefully, I won’t stress this much over jams in the future.