For those who don’t know, a post-mortem is a document you write after the fact, stating what’s happened, what went well and what didn’t. I’m writting that right now to consolidate what I have learnt, even if I don’t end up becoming a full time game developer or if no one reads it.
Some context first:
- I am using TIC80 as my game engine of choice. It is an open source fantasy console.
- This is my first big game jam. I have only submitted one game before (Bullet Hell Jam 2021’s “Fueled by Honey”) and I sincerely couldn’t do a lot because of my limited TIC80 knowledge back then.
- Furthermore, even though I have studied a bit of game development before (that before the pandemics, good grief!), I have never made actual games before Bullet Hell Jam 2021.
- I have spent around 10 hours working on “Teresa and her Sheep”, completing the last changes 22 hours before the deadline. Those were some tiresome hours but I believe I have done everything I could programming and art wise.
The results were:
- 3.5 out of 5 in terms of score
- #800 out of 5500+ games
What I have done wrong:
- One of the levels got delivered with a game-breaking design flaw. While it was one of the last levels, I could blame it on being tired but the fact is there wasn’t enough play test. If I had a couple more people playing the game, I would probably have found this bug, fixed it and ended up with a couple more points in the end. I blame it all on the fact I am a loner and I have a hard convincing people, so that’s definetely something to work on: either get help from someone who can do that or learn to do this on my own.
- I kept thinking during development that my game was fun and deep enough. The fact is: it is never good enough and I could probably take that as a given always. These opinions could have only arrived from other people playing the game, not myself.
- Even though I have spent a good amount of time making puzzles, now I feel like I have cut some corners. That’s something to avoid at all costs: there is no easy way to do the hard things. To be able to get good results, I must invest energy and patience to fine tune everything. This includes puzzle layout, learning curve, visuals, music, and accessibility.
What I have got right:
- My game style is cute and funny based on the comments the game received. I think I have figured it out and I should probably invest on this direction.
- I was able to deliver a game that’s a lot more polished compared to “Fueled by Honey”.
- I went on with the first good idea I could think about and went on improving on that. Given I started with a game about boxes and ended up with a game about sheep but following the same basic premise all along, I think I am getting good at design thinking. That’s a wild guess though.
Dangerous conclusions:
- I have seen somewhere that only the top 7% of game developers can get a full time living from the craft. Given I was #800 out of 5500+, I could say I am top 15%? For starters, I have never sold a game, so that’s a huge stretch. Nevertheless I feel like my games are good but not good enough yet. There is a long way before feeling a tad safe about releasing a full game.
- I don’t know about the other results, but I am going to assume the average score was 3. Since I got 3.5 out of 5, I feel like I am getting at the same trend: good but not good enough.
- I am probably learning this really fast? As I mentioned before, the first time I made an actual game to showcase to the public was this year at #bullethelljam 2021 using a game engine I barely know anything about. This is probably tied to the fact I am a professional software engineer but I really feel like I am making progress.
Final conclusions:
- The game was good but not good enough.
- I have progressed a lot in the last months but I am still a beginner.
- I am developing a game style I actually am happy with.
- To make better games, I should improve my communication skills and my play-testing process. Abundant and varied feedback could have made this game a lot better.