My first ever  Ludum Dare (and game jam in general) experience is coming to a close. What can I say about it?

Well, first, the theme. The theme is actually pretty okay. In fact, if it were any other theme then I would’ve most likely had a harder time in thinking of a game.

Next, the game. It was originally called “Shoot The Clock”, but then for some strange reason I thought “hey, it might be a lot cooler if it was named shoot o’ clock, with no capitalization whatsoever!”.

The concept came to be in a minute or so, since I already had past experiences in playing games with an “increase the timer” kind of mechanic. My idea wasn’t really that innovative.

What (miraculously) went right:

• Theme – I managed to follow it pretty nicely, squeezing in every last bit of the “10 seconds” mechanic I could in the game.
• Music – I learned how to use PixiTracker, and make various mediocre tracks with it! Only two were included in the game, though, with at least one of them being incredibly annoying.
• Save System – I managed to squeeze in a basic save system. I just reused the code I used way back then for a school project (which is why I entered the Jam
• Finishing – Hey, I finished it on time! That’s pretty damn good already

What went kind of wrong:

• Overthinking – Once again, I was able to think of too much possible mechanics to the game. This really slowed me down, as my dozen or so ideas conflicted with each other.
• Graphical Existential Crisis – “Should I change my sprites? Ugh…”, and other similar gripes. Also, the graphics are extremely simple bordering on mediocre.
• Horrible code – I recall some parts being poorly put together. An optimization nightmare.
• Lack of timelapse – I wasn’t able to prepare a timelapse video.

I’m pretty sure there are a lot more (especially on the wrong side), but that’s all I can think of for now. Anyway, it has been fun making my first LD game. It taught me a lot of things, and I did more in the first day than I did in a week or so (during my early days in making a game). I also learned how to balance the mechanics, and to consider that what might’ve been easy or hard for me might not be the same for the player.

Also, my BGM creation skills suck.

Tags: jam, postmortem