Post by crazyhoundgamedesign in How are you doing with Jam?

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This time I saw the info about the jam in advance of it starting, so I was able to start making some assets before the jam started, under the impression it would give me a bit more time to make the game.

However I bit off more than I could chew with this one, between work, a larger scope of complexity and a couple things I wanted to experiment with, the last few days have a been a crunch to pull it together and get it in a playable(?) state.

Some bits are clunky, some ideas to round out the experience got dropped, 1 or 2 elements might not work (not game breaking as far as I know), and I haven't had the time to test the ending. But it is a game, it plays and the experiments worked out, althiugh they could be further refined.

So not a failure, but not a total success either.

EmberNoGlow12 days ago

In fact, you learned a lot, including that you shouldn't take on such a large-scale project, so this can be considered a success

crazyhoundgamedesign11 days ago

That lesson is one I've already learned. The scope was pretty broad, but not overly excessive, but when the complexity is added, and then my day job being busier than expected as well, it all ate into the time I thought I would have, 1 or 2 days, I barely had time to focus on it, and 1 day I was pretty much burnt out. The lost time meant 1 or 2 planned ideas got dropped and I lost the time I thought I would have to focus on refinement.

The most complex parts, the dialogue and music system, were all pretty much built piece by piece from the ground up in a single pass, only minor tweaks were needed to get all the components working together. Because of the lost time outside of my control though, the other elements of the project were rushed.

On the overall scope of the project, while I've seen a lot of projects in jams with stories sacrifice gameplay for story, I wanted to try and find a balance between the 2, I wanted story, but also a game that you actually play, not just read.

I failed on the balance front, this time, but with it being my first attempt on building a story with a dialogue system, and a dialogue system itself, I'm mostly happy with the result.

EmberNoGlow11 days ago

Yes, burnout is a serious problem. It happens to me all the time, and the only solution is to simply forget about it all. Although this can come at the cost of the final quality of the game, as it did for me. Good luck in your next projects!

crazyhoundgamedesign11 days ago

You too!

itch.io

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