The GBJAM5 was a game jam where the rules were to essentially create a game boy themed game. This was my entry to the GBJAM5 game jam.
What I like and thought went well:
It was a fun experience to participate in my first game jam. I was aiming to make a side scrolling platform beat em up. Though the game is short, I was able to provide a full game playing experience.
I wanted to experiment with creating a transformation to cycle between invincibility and vulnerability. I like the fact that I was able to implement a transformation.
I'm not much of an artist (a newbie), so I really got to stretch my lack luster art skills. I've made prototypes before, but I've never created the game design, code, artwork, and music for a game in such a short amount of time. The process of generating content within a week was grueling but I've learned a lot! It was definitely fun.
What I disliked and thought didn't go so well:
Like many who first start developing games, I think the scope of my game was too large with the team I had (myself) and the time I had. One of the areas I would have like to touch on more is level design. I had an idea of a bigger level and I originally had the player climb up to the top floor at the end. The level that appears in the game is flat with random platforms that appear every so often... The amount of bugs I ran into ate up a lot of time and I didn't get to put in the level I would have liked.
Speaking of bugs, I ran into several game breaking ones during the last few days. I was making so many code changes when I was getting closer to the deadline that I didn't know where the bug originated. Luckily I was using Git as source control and was able to revert to a previous commit. I lost work, but at least I reverted back to a stable build.
I would have also like to invest more time in the character animations and artwork. With my limited art skills I actually exceeded my expectations, but that won't stop me from being objectively critical of my own work. Definitely room for improvement. The music wasn't the worst thing, but could have been worked on more with more variation.
Overall:
The fact that I was able to get something out the door was a feat in itself especially since I was already busy with other things during that time. Even though my project didn't turn out exactly the way I would have liked, I really enjoyed participating in my first game jam. If you would like to try it, download the windows version instead of the browser (windows version is less buggy).