What I said on stream + more ;D
So when you die, you should keep the same scene, just add like the game over screen on top so then when you retry there isn't a lag spike for web. Another thing is that you should test it on web as that's what most people would prefer to play it on.
How to come up with a solid Idea:
I sit down with a pen and paper and write down whatever comes to mind on the theme. This Jam I came up with 4-5 ideas:
- Doomsday countdown
- Different rooms with countdowns
- Bombs with different cooldowns
- Make time countdown faster
Each one of these is a simple idea.
Take one of them, try to expand on the idea. If you have lots of good ideas, then I'd probably run with that one. If you can only think of like 1 new thing: Try to add to a different idea you had.
I ended up going with the different rooms with countdowns and I managed alot of depth.
My notes after the initial idea were me debating on controls. I thought about car, platformer, top-down, and grappling hook.
If you can, I would try to choose the most unique option for a very unique game feel :D
Anyway, I hope this shows you how much planning is important to the whole game jam process.
What your game seems to struggle with is not putting the game loop first.
The first thing you should be doing in a gamejam is making the game playable!! Me personally, I make the game endless first (like a gameloop) then I decide what I want to go with after that. (If its more of a linear game then maybe just focus on the mechanics)
For example, Dif-Rom was a score game where the combos on the timers would just add to your score and you would try to get a highscore. I decided to make it into a game with an ending because then I could add another countdown.
I would also try to do a art form that doesn't take you too much time. It depends on how you want things to be, but I prefer the game feeling nice to play rather than spend like a whole day on art. I did all of my (poor-ish) art in like the last day because it doesn't matter to me
One last thing, don't try to make overcomplicated settings menus, most games dont' even have keymapping anyway so I wouldn't bother.
I look forward to seeing what you do next game jam!!
-Zyiah