My First Jam and Beginning Game Dev

So this is my first DevLog, made after submitting my first Game for a Game Jam, and my first published game.

Decision to Join the Jam

Over the last few months I have been self learning game design and trying to do as much as I can myself; the art, the game design, the game development and the sound.

As I am still learning, even now, I have been split between joining a game jam or just slowly working towards a position where I feel comfortable enough in my own skills to feel that I can produce something worth someone else's time.

In the end it came down to a spare of the moment decision where I decided to try to make a game within the rules of a game jam and the time limit of the jam.

Even though I was able to do it, I didn't even join the jam until the day before it closed.

Why I chose the GameDev.tv Jam

Some of my more recent research using, believe it or not YouTube, included GameDev.tv content, and I have even been able to get hold of a bundle of courses through Humble Bundle from GameDev.tv, though I have yet to start any of them due to "life".

So when I saw their Jam come up, and realised that it was open to anyone, of any experience level, it felt like a good fit.

The Experience

So, after deciding to join the jam and seeing the theme, the process began.

First, I thought about the theme and tried to think of any stories or situations I thought could fit the theme of "Last Stand".  As much as my mind tried to come up with funny interpretations of the theme, like the last hat stand or the last stand of fruit in a shop, I then remembered a story I was told more than a few years ago that fit the theme in a more traditional sense.

Now I had a story, I had to think about all the other elements of the game design and tried to break down the activities into a number of days I would work on particular aspects of the process.

• Day 1, 2 and half of day 3 were focussed on the core artwork for the game (sprites, characters and environment).
• Day 3, 4, 5 and 6 were focussed on developing the game, coding the mechanics and incremental testing of the game.
• Day 7 and 8 were then focussed on the sound work for the game, I have always been leaving this till last because, for me, it is probably one of the more difficult bits to get right and if I'm unable to make the game, it becomes a wasted effort.
• Day 9, with my completed game I uploaded it to itch.io, joined the game jam and submitted my game.

Throughout the game development cycle, I tried new things with the art, the coding and the sound, and while I learned quite a bit, the final result is not perfect.  All of the gameplay elements I wanted to include are there, the menus are there, and there's sound.  All in all there is a game.

The only noticeable bug I have in the game is due to rounding errors in the navigation system built in to the game engine, and the common fix for this seemed to break the NPC movement decisions, so rather than fix it at this time, the only bug is that occasionally the NPC's may spasm on the spot as they wait between navigation signals.

After submitting the game, it feels like I have achieved something, and presented something that I think some people might be able to have a bit of fun playing.  The game loop isn't long, the play time is as long as you survive, the graphics are not super realistic 3D masterpieces, the sound is "passable", but even as my own biggest critic, even during testing, I found myself enjoying playing the game, trying to see how long I could survive and how many enemies I could kill.

So if you happen to read this, thank you, if you happen to play the game, I hope you get some enjoyment out of it.