Posted April 02, 2021 by searle
Scope / Completion
I managed to focus largely on the game essentials had a clear(ish) idea of what the beginning, middle, and end would be. I wanted to have a boat that searched out map locations with pings, and the game would tick down giving you time pressure.
For the middle I wanted obstacles (like cannons / landmasses) that you would need to avoid.
Asset Choices
I ended up stumbling upon the right assets to give me a good look / feel right off. I used Flatkit (Unity Asset Store), which I bought a while ago to render the terrain and water. I spent the first day experimenting with the boat controller / look and feel, and then restarted the project once I got the minimum down.
Genre
I've tried to make many genres in the past, with pretty well all of them being left incomplete. I've found that the easiest games to make fun quickly were action oriented games. I ended up using Unity's 3D physics to simulate boat movement, and didn't try to fight the system (which I tended to do in the past). I think choosing a genre that is suited to Unity's focus and is easier to quickly get to the fun parts was key.
Myopia
Too much time went into polishing assets that had only minimal impact. The health bar, for instance, was designed to look like the Slay the Spire bars, which have a two stage change - an initial difference amount, and then a delayed final amount.
Ex/Intro
This was left to the end, and took more time than I expected. I should worked on these a bit earlier instead of doing things like polishing the health bar.
Submission
I totally botched the submission process. I was working largely from the WGJ discord channel, and only read about posting it there. I completed missed the Itch channel. At the time of writing this, my submission has not been posted for evaluation. Damn... lesson learned.