Starting Off

At the beginning, this theme had me worried (overall, I spent a total of 4 hours brainstorming). I kept landing on ideas that were too close to the previous theme ("unstable" -- instability may lead to an inevitable end), ideas that were not thematic enough (really, most games come down to playing as long as you can, i.e., "delaying the inevitable end of the game"), or ideas where the "game" was hard to find.

In the end, I had three ideas that I bounced off of some friends. Some of the ideas required too much content generation (trying not to repeat the mistake of my LD49 entry). The game I would eventually make began as a simple enough idea: a target that is shrinking as you try to throw balls into it. Every ball you make increases the size of the target.

It seemed like a simple and fun mechanic, and I felt like that (the "fun") was where I needed to improve on my past efforts. As I thought even more, I had a spark of inspiration: I had been wanting to include voice acting in a jam, and I thought a "Cave Johnson" narrator would be an excellent addition to this idea. With that, I had a story in mind, and I set about working on the prototype.

Where did I spend my time?

I always believe that these challenges, in addition to skill, come down to prioritization and scope management. While I think I did a much better job this time around of a) choosing an achievable game and b) identifying the priorities as I generated ideas, I also wanted to look at where I was spending most of my time by recording my work hours into specific categories.

Outside of the "other" category (sleep, eating, and various hours on the last day where I had to work my day job), the majority of my 72 hours were spent on: artwork, add-ons (menus, tutorials), and the narration. If you combine narration and audio, it comes first! Mechanics is much further down the list.

What do I notice?

If you have played my game (please do!), the results will not surprise you.

Mechanics: The narration is front and center. Much of the feedback I have received agrees that the mechanic is just okay (a bit repetitive, menial), but it offers an opportunity to focus on "the star of the show."

Artwork: I don't think that 10.0 hours total on artwork is all that bad. Visuals are definitely an important aspect of games, and not something I would consider myself particularly strong at, so it makes sense that I would take more time to achieve even a marginal result there. I spent a little extra time on art polish the last morning, and I'm glad I did.

Add-ons: I also spent more time on "add-ons" than on mechanics--in the aggregate, this is quite a lot. These are things that might provide a more complete experience, but may not be entirely necessary for a game jam--things that may even go unnoticed. The tutorial was definitely integral (and I think usually appreciated), but character selection would certainly not have been missed, and most people probably don't see the pause menu or credits. Worth the effort? It's hard to say for sure! Maybe it helps with pacing, or lends to the overall experience. What do you think?

What do I learn from this?

Given that a 72-hour challenge comes with constraints (sort of like a "choose 2 of 3" situation), you have two options: You either decide what the strongest aspect(s) of the game will be and lean into that, or you try to go 70% on everything (sort of like choosing "0.67" for each instead of 2).

In my case, I could have chosen not to add additional banter lines and maybe gotten an extra mechanic progression in. Or maybe I could have put the 2.5 hours for character selection or 3.0 hours for menus to better use. If I had to guess, any of these decisions may have resulted in a more well-rounded game instead of a good story with a repetitive job in the background. Maybe the lesson (at least for a solo-dev) is to go for 0.67 route.

But what do you think?