When I started this jam I wasn't feeling super confident. I hadn't programmed anything since Ludum Dare 57 and the signal theme wasn't really something that had much appeal to me in a traditional way. I'm one of those people that has an interest in all aspects of games but have really mastered no skills. I have a limited programming set and quite frankly the art skills of a programmer.

Yet somehow, I prefer to work these events solo to try to stretch all of my creative muscles simultaneously. I'm a glutton for punishment and I love the 72 hour grind.

When I finished the brainstorming process and started a very minimal prototype night one, I wasn't feeling my game. It was lacking any sort of aspect that set it apart and just felt like a bland nothing. I woke up thinking I needed to find some sort of angle or change up my concept completely. This is where my game McFoley's began. I promise, it had nothing to do with the wrestler. It didn't even click that it could be a pun until 24 hours later.

McFoley's on the surface probably looks like a million games you've seen before from screenshots.

You take orders from customers, you get paid, the day ends, rinse and repeat. Screenshots do not do the vision justice though. McFoley's as a concept is a game where you convert customer orders into sound clips and send them to a robot which then makes the orders. You never even see the food over the course of the game. It's almost a loose take on the Chinese room experiment where you are translating text into sound. Rulesets are very finicky and I wrote a manual that changes each day to introduce more elements.

The only way I can overcome the generic qualities with my limited skillset is by leaning in to something and for this game I decided it would be great to force myself to learn more about audio. I recorded a bunch of audio snippets for the various ingredients, customers, and more. Every single sound effect in the game is recorded with my microphone. Most done without the use of any props. I played around with randomly pitching noises and getting in variation. I went for a bit of an Animal Crossing-esque voice system because I've always wanted to try that.

Once the sounds were implemented, the game as a whole started to feel more like a program that was in line with my style of creation. If there's anything to take from this post it's that you should not fear experimenting with concepts that ultimately don't work or feel generic because you might just find something that makes the vision stand out even more.

The vision of my game went from being dark and sinister into something light hearted and humorous. Once I saw what the game was turning in to, I added in pricing systems for each menu item and each ingredient. I started animating a results screen that added a bit more of a layer of exaggerated commentary. You can work hard, be successful, and will still walk out of a day earning mere dollars - or even worse, in debt. Every mistake you make, the company will charge you for. Getting negative earnings is pretty easy. You can even just spam ingredients on to your submitted creations just to waste the companies money if you so desire. Just know, it's coming out of your own pocket at the end of the day.

I leaned a bit more in to puns and started referring to the character as a foley artist which was a bit of a take on the obvious foley work and "sandwich artist" mixed together. The drinks were turned in to energy drinks with gas themed syrups. The dipping sauces became weird flavors such as the infamous chicken sauce for your order of chicken nuggets. Some of the character templates got extreme deep booming voices while others were greatly sped up. Every decision I made, I tried to have a slightly more absurd spin on it. Lean in to the silliness of it all.

My game is goofy, a bit rough around the edges, but something I can say does wholly represent my creative vision. A lot of features had to be cut as happens with most jam entries. I know I'm not alone in wishing my game had done more, but that's part of the fun of the time crunch. I like being forced to narrow down what core concepts have priority over others. I entered this jam with a checklist of goals and managed to hit them all. I do consider it to be a success even when I'm my own toughest critic.

If you'd like to play it, give it a go. Don't be afraid to give me real and honest feedback because ultimately I use these jams to try to become better at all aspects of game creation. I only do it as a hobby so its always been helpful to see comments about not just the shortcomings I already know but also some comments about things I never even considered.

If you'd like to give it a try please check it out! Means a lot to me that anyone would take time out of their day to play one of my games. Still feels very rewarding even if this is my fourth Ludum Dare experience.

You can check out McFoley's here.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/mcfoleys

Thanks for reading and congratulations for taking part in the jam whether it's your first or thirtieth entry! Happy rating to you all! I look forward to playing your creations as well.