Cheesing Nachos | Postmortem | Devtober

Postmortem for the Devtober game jam.

This is the first game jam I have ever finished a game and submitted it. Previously I have entered game jams and it never went anywhere. I would get overwhelmed, think I just need more experience cause I can't make a game in like, 3 days or a week and quit, or think I have a great idea for a game and decide I don't need the jam and quit, try to make it and never finish it. I saw this jam and thought it would be a good opportunity for me to try a game jam without the pressure. I didn't exactly 'complete the jam' as I did skip a few days, but hey, I'm not perfect.

When I started, I was very nervous. I didn't know if I was going to see this through and posting the logs was also pretty nerve-racking as I had never done it before. I had an idea for a simple platformer game and just worked on it. It was going well. I was doing something everyday. Maybe not a lot, but that was fine. I was doing something just about everyday and I was mostly consistent. That alone was a win.

But then came probably the biggest, sucky-est thing that probably could have happened. My laptop died. I couldn't use it. I had lost everything. I didn't have any of the files backed up. I had to use my old laptop and a different engine cause the software was not supported. I was completely starting over from scratch.

I told myself it would be fine. I came up with a new idea for a game and just worked on that. It got somewhat off to a rough start. I was going though it pretty annoyed cause I was just doing stuff I had basically already done. In my game that player can shoot and this is where things got annoying. I couldn't figure it out. I was just kinda lost and didn't know what to do. I watched tutorials and they just didn't give me the instructions I wanted. It was pretty demotivating. I got through it and learned that, things just take time. Just cause I can't make the player shoot something in a day doesn't mean I just can't do it.

I managed to get a basic, functioning game working, and I wanted to submit it, cause it worked, and it was the end of the jam. But I thought that I should probably add things like sound effects, art, and maybe some music. I thought it would take two days, maybe a bit longer, but I managed to get it done in one day. It felt pretty good. All I had left to do was submit it. And while I had some time left in the day, I decided to do it tomorrow (yesterday) with a fresh mind.

So it's all in one place, here's everything I learned:

• It's fine if you aren't super productive and do a bunch everyday. It's normal to have days where you just don't do a lot. As long as you sit down and try, that's fine. Cause it ultimately builds a habit, so that you don't have to rely on motivation.
• Just cause you can't do everything you want to do in one day, doesn't mean you can't do it or you're stupid. Sometimes, you just don't have enough time or you want to do too much.
• If you can't figure something out right away, doesn't mean you can't figure it out at all. It might take some time, but if you try hard enough, you'll figure it out eventually. And it's fine to step back and take some time away from it. Sometimes, a break is all you need. Seeing the problem with fresh eyes can really help.

I'm not sure how to end this, so, thank you for reading!