I've never made a game on the scale of Substrate Mining Co. before https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/substrate-mining-co

Never before have I had to write something so crucial in so little time, rushing my final year essay included. Our team collectively decided that we would put most of the weight of the project on the narrative. So out of little three person team, I went from having the easiest job (writing splash text and bits of flavor for our last game) to having to create the spine that would carry our entire game.

No pressure.

Actually, coming up with ideas is easy. Picking out one good idea that you can feasibly make a game around in 3 days that satisfactorily satisfies it is hard.

Eventually we settled on putting our game in a mine, like so many others. Originally we planned to have more of a supernatural element in ours as well, much like Burst Vein, which is a great game that you should definitely try as well (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/burst-vein)

In the end though, that got cut. But I think the story that resulted was a lot more focused, coherent, and just worked better. Also, it meant we didn't have to draw and implement any eldritch gods. Or giant mosquitos, which was one of my pet ideas.

At the end of LD48, if nothing else, I have a story about human emotions in an abandoned mine without sunlight. It's a story where I had to pick about half the characters and ideas I had originally, and bury them in a grave, but maybe, one day, like the memories in Substrate Mining Co., they're just waiting to be rediscovered.