My experience making this game (a lot of waffling)

I entered this jam on a whim. I was really bored one night and thought, "hey I should enter a jam," and then I did! I really wasn't expecting to finish, as I'd never joined a jam this short before, but turns out I could do it! I'm gonna talk about how I made the game, my thought process,  and my general thoughts on the jam and my experience. This isn't a guide. Think of it like a really long diary entry.

I think it's really cool how you can learn things through game jams. I've never had one go 100% well, and I don't think anyone has really. No one can be perfect after all. Whenever I've finished a project, I've always thought "why did I do this like that?" and "I should've included x, y, and z." and I think that's the best part of jams, other than making the game. It's the fact that at the end, I always think about what I could do to improve. Of course, this is often paired with a feeling of embarrassment, or shame, at the fact that "I did this? Really? Something this bad?" but that just shows that I've gotten better at it since then! And I think that's really cool.

Now, I think I joined the jam a day or 2 before it started, so I didn't have very long to plan before it began. The theme hadn't been announced yet as we were still voting, so I came up with a few ideas for the top themes. Then I thought of the bird people. When I was little, I really liked drawing these bizarre-looking birds, so I thought I'd do something related to that. I also thought about doing something a little silly this time, as everything I'd done before was kinda serious. I wanted to make something fun, and something that I'd enjoy playing.

Then I opened up  Milanote and began planning. I'd learnt in the last jam I did that it was a good idea to have all your ideas in 1 place, instead of scraps of paper and school books as I'd done before. It let me put all my thoughts together and saved me from worrying about where everything was. I thought of the general premise, and made notes on the setting and what it'd look like. I'd based it on those really ugly office blocks that had been built in  my area in the 1970s. Most of them have been renovated or demolished now, but I thought it'd be an interesting setting.

Once I'd done that, I got to work on the tilesets. I tend to make tilesets as I go, starting with what I need (eg. floor and wall tiles) and then adding stuff as the story goes on. I could've made everything at the start, but that would've involved me having the whole story ready, which it wasn't. All I had at that point was a vague idea and a vibe. 

I was looking to do things different to how I'd done them in previous jams. I like trying new things and messing with the engine to see what I can and can't do. I thought about using larger character portraits, so I found a cool script that did what I wanted, and asked my really good friend Salwa to help make them. She's really cool and I wouldn't've been able to do any of this without her. 

I also had a look at my previous projects to see what worked, and whether I could add what did into this project. It's here where I got the chase mechanics, as well as having the date in the save file (I thought that was really clever of me lol). It's where I got my window skin, and my menu and also how I made the maps. It's interesting to see the similarities with my previous games and this one in regards to how I made the rooms. 

I think the most time-consuming part of this entire thing was making the sprites. They took about 30-40 minutes each.  Oh and coming up with an ending. 

That took forever, and even now, I think I could've done better. But it is what it is.

In the end, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It's short, but it tells the story I wanted it to tell, the way I wanted it to, more or less.

Thank you.

- LK_490