(Link to BIOFIGHT here)

Man that was a tough last couple of hours. I actually had a nosebleed in the last 10 minutes. Had to stuff some tissue up my nose and just ignore it to get it done on time (could have gone into the submission hour but didn’t want to cheat).

After I went to bed at 4am here in England I couldn’t shake this feeling that the level where you fight all the kidneys wasn’t working. There isn’t a level where you fight kidneys. I had worked myself into a delirium. The exact same thing that happened when I made ‘MOST SUPER FANTASTIC HAPPY TIME EXTREME ADVENTURE CHALLENGE!!’ for Lets Go Jam a couple of months back. It’s a horrible feeling because you know there is no level. You know you are just going crazy yet the moment you stop actively thinking “IT DOESN’T EXIST!” you start thinking about that level again and how broken it is.

Without further adieu. Here is the beautifully organised Post Mortem

What Went Right

Game is Pretty Fun! Sure, it’s not breaking new ground but I think making a full game without about 10 minutes of action content is a pretty impressive feat.

Graphics! were really nice and I spent a fair bit of time making them move around a tinting them to the correct colours. Time I should have spent working on the actual game perhaps but, eh, in many ways enticing people to play through a consistent and strong art style is an important thing with so much competition.

Better Ideas Without Wasting Time! My original idea just had you travelling from the foot after being injected (Archer Reference), up the leg, into the torso then fighting the Brain in the head. Linear corridors. In the end the body cavity hub and having to unlock the door by infecting all the organs made for a much more open game that (I hope) is more enjoyable. Luckily the improvements to design didn’t ruin any work I had previously done as I left everything except player control and combat till the last half of the last day. To many that would seem stupid, to me it seems stupid but I’m at my best under pressure (minus the odd nosebleed). Often my best ideas come to me when I have no time to implement them so this was a welcome treat!

Working With my Girlfriend was Great! We made our first game (her first game ever and first time using photoshop) a couple of months ago for the Lets go Jam and we had a lot of fun. Sadly she works pretty long hours so we had to find a Jam that lined up with that. She was a lot faster at creating the art this time and remembered not to draw on the background layer so 10/10 to her. There was also a fair bit of art to draw with the tilemaps and all the organs, more than most peoples first games so that was an impressive effort on her part. If anyone else has a partner that has nothing to do with video games normally, try and get them to Jam!

What Went Wrong

I Didn’t Work Enough. I use a program called Rescue Time which tracks how long you spend on programs and I only clocked 14.5 hours on Construct all together. The art took 6 hours so in total 20.5 hours were spent on the game. Considering it’s a 3 day game jam and I had nothing else on my plate, I wasted too much time fucking around on the internet that I could have spent working on the game. I would have liked to have spent a lot longer on the Boss fight and have some more enemy types. Also I’d like to have tested the maps some more and improve on their design.

Didn’t Test Enough. I know I just touched on this but I’d like to expand on it a little. Many of the levels got into the final game without me playing them at all until my final run-through (which didn’t work and I still had to publish). I just didn’t have time and up until the final 20 minutes the AI had a bug where if one saw you they all saw you and started rushing you. That bug wasn’t actually my fault but rather a bug in Construct 2 however I spent about an hour trying to fix it before I worked it out, an hour I could have spent play-testing.

Sound Effects Weren’t Good Enough. I speedily recorded all the sound effects myself thinking that you couldn’t use anything created outside of the jam time without taking yourself out of the audio votes. I initially thought they were quite funny but after playing the game a few times I realise they are just shitty. The game as a whole is quite nicely made, the sounds give it an amateur feel that I was trying to avoid. I know Jams are about having fun and the games should reflect that but considering my game was nothing revolutionary I should have pushed harder for quality.

Game Wasn’t Revolutionary Enough. It’s a game jam! It’s meant to be about pushing boundaries and trying new ideas and yet I made a game with an identically control scheme to one I made 6 months ago! Which is also copied from Nuclear Throne! If I could go back I’d spend a bit longer thinking about a fun new idea rather than playing it safe.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Too much procrastination
.

Conclusion

Man that was a blast though! Can’t wait to do another. I really hope you all enjoy it! I was floundering a little in my gamedev before this. I’m actually hoping to become a full time dev but I’ve put in an average of less than an hour a day. You would think if this was your dream you would put in more effort but surprisingly I find it a lot easier to just while away the day flitting between Reddit and Facebook, about to start work than I do working. It’s not even enjoyable. I love making games, once I start I find it hard to stop! It’s just hard to get up and over that initial hurdle of actually starting.

I feel invigorated though (despite getting about 3 hours sleep last night because of the aforementioned delirium). I can’t wait to get out there and seize the day. No more fucking around wasting time. You can do it Charlie!

Disclaimer: I looked at Reddit about 5 times during the writing of this. I have not changed at all and never will.

(Play BIOFIGHT here)