Overview
This past jam was my 13th consecutive jam, but not unlucky - thus far. knocking on wood intensifies This jam was actually really lucky, but to understand why we have to go back a bit.
A rut
I struggled starting out with Ludum Dare. The first six games I made were terribly over scoped, unfinished, messes of unrealised potential with no gameplay. The first real game I made (and was subsequently very proud of) was my LD46 game, Conservation Inc. which at the time I never thought I could pull off, it was just too ambitious. And yet I did squeeze it by. The next jam I made a top down shooter and once again it became something I was incredibly proud of and didn't think I could complete. This continued and I decided I would make an RTS game in a weekend. A terrible idea because of how complex the genre is, and yet I once again somehow managed to pull it off. It was after that, when I got stuck in a rut again. LD50 and LD51 were both unfinished failures. Somehow despite being more capable than all of my past selves, I wasn't able to even complete anything.
It wasn't until the previous Ludum Dare that I had noticed something. At some point the 'fun' had started to fade. I had actually forgotten that a game jam was supposed to be fun. I had resigned myself to grinding away for a weekend on an idea I hated, for a theme I hated, with code I hated. It was a slog, and anything but fun but I felt like I had to. Worse, I hated the product that I came up with. This jam was no different. It was a job, and I was putting out terrible 'games' that I wanted nothing more than to hide from the world.
LD52
I sat down at my desk the second day and took stock of what I had, and all I felt was dismay. The movement was terribly clunky, the initial novelty of my idea had worn off and I was privy to the shallow gameplay it would entail and how little fun players would derive. I looked at the sorry state of my code where I had gotten nothing done as I sat and contemplated for hours how to architect my code the best to be something I was proud of and would allow for an extremely extensible enemy AI and weapon system so I could make several weapons, but had only succeeded in demotivating myself and making fragmented spaghetti code. That was when I made a terrible decision that ended up being the best one I'd ever make. Despite my terrible track record I decided to pivot. Just like with the unfinished Capsule #6453 and my LD50 game.
With half the jam already gone though, I was forced to take on a simpler idea or else I'd have no chance of completing it. So I went with the idea my friend - an avid bit-life player - had, which I dismissed initially as too 'simple'. A non-linear text adventure. After deciding I didn't want to make it in Unity (a first for me) I initially started with .NET Blazor so I could still use C# to make the game. There was one thing, though. I wanted to be able to release it as an app at some point, and Blazor didn't play nice with embedded browser app frameworks (ionic, rn-native, tauri) I spent (wasted) hours trying to get it setup. But I took a break for lunch and when I came back I had a realisation. I don't need to use C# and Blazor. I ended up making it in typescript so I could have the type safety of C#, and at the last moment decided upon svelte-js for UI (this was my first time using svelte in a project, and it was a treat!)
The Pivot
The decision to pivot did some incredibly important things for me. I realised I had unkowningly felt this invisible, building pressure after every jam. I felt like I had to make some big complex game, something with amazingly clean, well-architected code that I could be proud of and show off. Something that shouldn't be possible in a weekend but is. I had liked my friends idea but couldn't do it because it was 'too simple'. I justified this as just me wanting a challenge, not wanting to be bored making a simple game. But really it was this pressure to make something bigger and better than my last game. And it kept building. I felt guilty making a simple game. But starting over halfway through the jam meant there was no time for a complex idea. I was able to do something simple, I had to, and without any guilt.
Thus began the most fun game jam I have ever had in recent memory. Finally breaking away from the heavy Unity Editor and heavier Visual Studio Editor to the lightweight browser window and VS Code with hot module replacement... It felt amazing. I was able to iterate so quickly. And Svelte was so intuitive and so fun to write UI in, and with typescript I didn't even miss C#, and unlike Blazor I felt like I had a handle on my situation, I knew where I was going and how to do it. All these things combined and built on each other. Even my music which had sounded so dull the day before suddenly sounded like the best thing ever.
And through all that I came up with the best game I've ever made. Not really, LD49 still takes the cake there I think, but for the first time in a long time.. I had fun, and now I realise that's all that matters. I don't know if I will be able to stick with this knowledge by the next jam, I don't know if the next jam will even be as much fun, but. The idea I had for this jam ended up being just perfect. I have such fond memories now of writing crappy horse related jokes for Horsepower at 03:00 and I was super excited to make my first truly 'narrative' based game. It was just all so fun.
Closing thoughts
So pivoting during a jam. Is it a good idea? Hell no. But it forces you to do things you haven't done before. And if you are stuck in a rut and not enjoying your LD anymore, it might just be the thing to shake things up that you so desperately need.
One last closing thought, this version is rough, a draft. Because I accidentally hit CRTL+R and reloaded the page whilist working on this and wiped ALL my work and had to start over and... I just felt like I couldn't find the words. This version is so much longer and more rambly... But I just don't have the heart to work on it more after I already lost so much work. Note to self, don't write future look backs IN the ldjam.com editor. That or I need to PR JammerCore and add a 'are you sure you want to leave' popup or something...
Anyway, happy jam everyone, I hope you all had fun, and if you didn't I hope you realise that jamming should be fun and are less hard on yourselves next time. I thought it was just me getting older, having done this 13 times that the fun was gone but this jam has taught me that it truly is as fun as it always was, I literally had a blast, found myself thinking 'just another hour' at 04:00 and contemplating all nighters because I wanted to not because I had to to finish a feature, and that was amazing. So trust me, ld jam can be fun again. I don't have the magic pill or advice to fix your jam but I hope you are able to, at some point.
I'd estimate I'm hopefully 5 hours out from being able to play the game. Then I need to make win/lose states and add a story, (levels???) y'know - make it a game.
Almost forgot about the radar screen. Everything is pretty WIP but I'm excited that I just maybe might be able to finish. Even if minimally.
And wowee has it been a long day. This is just time spent coding, not including time spent in other programs on graphical assets, audio, music, general planning etc etc.... I'm really happy though, I don't know if it's just that I love the game idea I'm doing despite pivoting, or the fact I'm outside of Unity and using a technology that's a joy to work with but I am just really enjoying myself right now. Late night coding sessions whilist jamming out to music have never been so fun I want to pull an all nighter. My playlist has never sounded so good. I don't know I'm happy because I didn't really enjoy the last 2 or 3 Ludum Dare's but this.. this was a blast and I'm really proud and happy with what I've come up with even if it's little and I probably won't complete win/lose conditions to make it a real game in time. but that's my late night rant over.
Good luck everyone.