Bug Fixing/Accessibility Update + Postmortem

It's been a little while, and I've been waiting for my game to get played on stream to release an update, but I decided now to just let it be there and keep the Jam Version as a separate download.

This update exists to fix a couple of bugs, add accessibility options, and add a ton of new drawings that show up in the bottom right corner, mainly based on other Bad Ideas Jam 2026 games.

New Patch

In particular, this update:

• Completely overhauled how highlighted objects look, making them much clearer.
• Added 23 new desk drawings to find.
• Allows you to press "P" during startup to enable Performance Mode before any shaders load, which is why there is no more Performance Mode Default version.
• Expanded the Settings menu.
• Added an option to reduce motion, which slows the camera a little and makes the camera in the shop take smaller, simpler zooms into the items.
• Added an increased contrast option, which shines a light on the score sheet and statues to make them easier to see, and changes the colored shadow of text to black to make it easier to read.
• Added a reduce flashing lights option that makes the character at the other end of the table's aura not as intense during later rounds, and especially the post-round 8 cutscene.
• Added an option that makes the current value of a die display above it as a number when hovered over. This is always enabled for Robot Die.
• Made seeds with letters convert properly, so now you won't get a random seed when you type in "Fortnite".
• Added the "FredEx" seed.
• Fixed a bug with Yachts, where they wouldn't properly function with 6+ dice. They were meant to be uncapped and count your 6th and 7th dice the same as the first five, but that wasn't working before, so they were effectively capped at 5.
• Fixed a bug with the Helping Hand statue where having 2 wolves and 2 helping hands would only cause 3 Helping Hand triggers instead of the intended 4.
• Tweaked the lighting in the shop.
• Changed several other small things that I forgot about, most likely.

There are no new items, dialogue, environments, or major content additions in general. This is because I am currently unemployed and do not have the financial stability to work further on the game at the moment. 

Whether or not development of Scrambled Ships will continue past this point is entirely up to the final ranking it gets by the judges, and if I get given the publishing opportunity.

If you would like to (very optionally) give a donation when you download, I would really appreciate it.

Post-Mortem

All of that said, it's been a couple of months, and not a great couple of months. I left my job due to getting paid barely anything per 750+ word article I made, currently living off of savings and by doing art commissions.

While I loved being able to lock in, focus, and make this entire game throughout all of March, it was very, very unhealthy. I spent an average of 12 hours every day working my ass off, making sure the game is polished, and adding everything I could.

Ultimately, the rankings still aren't out yet, so my thoughts on the game as a whole and how it did aren't solidified, but... Man, I'll take top 5. 4th place in a jam with 500 entrants is wild, and even better than any of my GMTK jam games, relatively speaking.

I regret not making a legendary card or legendary statue, but everything else? No regrets. Every minute spent working on it, pushing through brain fog, and getting out something I'm genuinely proud to call my own was worth it.

I really, really hope I get to develop it into a full game. I find myself booting it up, not to playtest or seek out bugs, but to just have fun. I wish there were more content, and I'm the one who made all of the content in the first place.

I have so many ideas brewing in my head, for new items, new story stuff, entire gameplay segments, features, and stuff like challenge runs, plus more secret seeds I want to create and more content I can squeeze into the thing.

I especially want to make the experience of going to the shop better, as I find myself frequently wishing I could at least see what cards, dice, statues, and tickets I currently own, and sell them off to afford something else, and all of that is what I'd work on first if I were making a full version.

I'm equally terrified and elated to know I'll see my month-long tribulation played on stream within around two weeks from now, right before my birthday, most likely. I don't know exactly how the judges will react to my game, but I hope they love it and don't fall victim to any game-breaking bugs I'm not aware of.

More than anything, though, the reception from people who played the game makes me happier than anything else. Reading through the comments and feedback I got on the jam entry page makes me feel good, and I revisit it every so often when I'm having a rough day.

Regardless of all of that, though, the game exists. It's my first 3D game, my first roguelike, and not the last of either of those things. It was great for learning what I needed to, and maybe now I should go try to learn Blender for the third time.