Posted December 10, 2025 by Simpl3mn
Now that the boring part's out of the way, I want to use this devlog to talk about the development process in hopes of motivating someone to create their own games or continue on their existing projects.
Every good game needs a good concept first. The challenge was to find a fun idea that also worked in just 20 seconds. For me, mixology has been a hobby for the longest time, and I was certain from the first day that my game would include some sort of drink-making. This part has noticeable influences from games like Coffee Talk, VA-11 Hall-A, The Red Strings Club, and Bartender: The Right Mix.
Well, this might seem obvious, after all, what are games if not entertainment? However, the way to make the game fun is not always so obvious. If Don't Drink and Duel were only made of a longer and more detailed mixing game, it wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is now. For a game like this, you need to not just do an action but also see the consequences. After all, who enjoys a non-alcoholic beer? The consequences showed themselves as a duel mini-game.
Unlike mixology, I had little to no knowledge of Western styles. The entire reason that the second part and the whole game are western-themed is because of the first ever concept art of the game: old fashioned cocktail. For some reason, my girlfriend decided to draw this cocktail first, and as soon as I saw it, I knew that the game should be western themed. And would be more western than some good old cowboy duel?
It started as a simple point-and-click scene, with what you clicked determining the ending. The only difference is that the target was not moving, and your cursor would be visible as a crosshair. The common feedback was that it was not so fun and wasn't worth 10 seconds. I was kind of lost at this point and didn't know what to do until I stopped thinking only of digital solutions and looked at the physical world. A gameplay like light-gun games is exactly what this part needed. Instead of scoring points for hitting the targets, I would simply show the related ending as planned.
I will cut it short: you need playtesters. As the developer, you most probably know about the themes of your game or learned them during the development process, and this causes bias, whether you notice it or not. -For example, during the first conceptualization of DDD, the mixing part of the game would have all the spirits and mixers on the screen at once, and each cocktail would be created with 5 parts instead of 3. The problem is that the cocktails were mirroring their real-life counterparts, even in the way they were built, and if you put the wrong ingredient, it would produce an unspecified drink with no effects. You might already see the problem; however, I did not at the time, so I was having a rude awakening when my friend (playtester#1) created 15 unspecified drinks in a row. This caused the current mixing method, which guides the player by giving the ingredient choices stage by stage and narrowing the options to ensure that a specific cocktail would always be created.
Luckily, the dueling part developed more simply without the need to overhaul the entire logic. The main feedback was that the target was still too easy to hit, and messing with the player controller would hurt the game's feel more than it helped. The solution was incredibly simple: just make the target smaller (as always, the best method is to keep it simple)!
This part goes hand in hand with playtesting, and it loops back and forth continuously until the game is done. I mainly used GameMaker2 and a little bit of Godot, so Unity was a new beginning for me. During this journey, I was dependent on Unity's manual and forum, and of course, the YouTube guides. I honestly don't have much to say about this part because, as a computer science student, this was the shortest part of the development for me (also the most fun). Just be ready to learn a couple of things that you have never seen before if you are also a Unity beginner like me.
This was the most challenging part of the journey, and I honestly regret not asking for help. If you are reading this, please don't be shy to ask for project partners in the Discord server or itch.io forums. I had almost no idea about art other than pixel art and just wanted to challenge myself. And it took almost 4 days to draw every single asset, nearly twice the rest of the total development time. The result is... well, I still feel proud because they are my drawings, but I would 100% let someone more experienced/talented handle it.
After adding the final touches to the game, it was time to build it and publish it for the jam. But of course, the story doesn't end there. I am still interacting with this great community, receiving a lot of feedback, and trying to give feedback to the other participants as much as I can.
This was it from a beginner developer who also just published his first devlog. Of course, everyone's experience is different, but at the end of the day, just enjoy what you're doing. Thanks for reading, thanks for playing, and thanks for creating.