A couple weeks ago I decided I would join the Simple Game Jam so I would have finally finished a game by myself, which is something I hope to do more frequently. With a theme as simple and broad as "Gravity" it was fairly simple to come up with an idea, I'd make a game where gravity switched, but since there's already so many games where you flip gravity with a press of a button I decided to make the gravity switch according to a timer. I also decided to add a boost that took direct inspiration from Plague Knights bomb burst.

Now is this game very good? No. I think the ideas were solid but it being the first game I've ever solo produced it has a lot of problems, the character get's stuck against walls, I didn't have enough time to make a title screen, the ending is lackluster at best, as well as a bunch of others, honestly too many to name. All of which can probably be attributed to the fact that I spent far too much time making art for the game (I am an artist after all).  All that being said, I'm still extremely proud of the game. While considering it to be "finished" may be highly debatable, it's the closest I've ever gotten to a finished game, and I think that's something worthy to be proud of. 

There are a few things that I've learned after doing this project that I'd like to share with you all, whether to entertain you because of how stupid these mistakes were, or to give you some advice for when you're approaching your first solo game jam. 

1. Keep the art simple.

A big thing that I sunk way too much time into was the art and animation of this game, I even say so in the description. I think the biggest thing to remember is that there is just as much appeal in simplicity as there is in complexity (or, at least, the amount of complexity you could create in the span of a game jam) A game that is just bunch of squares set to a colour palette looks just as good as my game, and takes far less effort, leaving you time to add the things that really matter ( e.g. everything I missed) My game, on the other hand, isn't polished. I think the pixel art I made for the game was pretty okay in a vacuum. You look at the running background on a transparent background and you'd probably think, that looks pretty okay.  But the fact that I spent far too much time on the art and animation hurts the game as a whole, because it took away time for me to do said things that really matter. 

2. Take the time to make a nice game page and icon.

The game page is an important first impression, personally I didn't have any meaningful screenshots, (unless you count rock sprites as meaningful) make sure that you have at least one.  The description is fairly important as well, I'd recommend going for a hook at the beginning and then telling the story of your game (if it has one) and what your game is. For example, a tough platformer where you play as a frog chasing after a bug, or something like that. Also make sure your game has a pretty appealing icon, it doesn't need to be super complicated it's just gotta look nice and communicate something about your game.

3. Capitals Matter in files!!!

This one may be an excuse to tell you a funny story about the end of development... Basically I was super tired and I had just "finished" the game, and since it was the night of the cutoff and I needed to submit before I went to sleep. My head was aching, I was creatively burnt out, I wasn't all that proud of the result, and I just wanted to get it over with and submit it. The only problem? I had no clue how to export it to  HTML 5. Which, I mean, no big deal right? I looked up a tutorial and it gave me perfect instructions for how to export. Click this then that and name the file "index" before exporting. Then you should be able to go on itch.io and open the file. Easy right? Yeah, it is easy. But for the life of me I couldn't do it, I kept trying to get itch.io to open it and it wouldn't work, I'd reexport and it wouldn't work. I was thinking about giving up before I realized... wait... I named it "Index"... not "index"...

I was more than a little peeved by that to say the least. So if you're not technically savvy and suck with computers like me, just remember that capitals definitely matter. It'll save you a lot of stress.

4.Perfectionism sucks.

This doesn't only apply to game jams but perfectionism is your worst enemy. This is something that I actually think I did fairly well with, but sometimes you just have to leave something as it is because there are other things to work on. Functionality comes first, and then you polish if you have time. That's pretty much it for this talking point, not too much to say, just try to stay away from perfectionism.

Up To Earth Revamp

I've been debating on whether or not to create a revamp of Up to Earth where I recreate it and actually make it something I'm proud of.  Yes I'm proud of my game but just because it's my first, I want to make a game that I'm proud of because it's actually good. If I were to revamp it I'd keep the mechanics mostly the same but I'd redesign the movement to feel less slippery/ sticky, actually add a story behind the character and why she's in the cave, add more characters (such as the witches familiar and maybe an antagonist, and I'd visually redesign the environment and character that I already have done. Though I'm not entirely sure if I should carry on with this idea, it will take quite a while and I know when your starting out with game making you should really make small games quick, but I really enjoy the idea of revamping this game and already have the main character redesign halfway done. I'm not sure, I'd love if anyone who's reading this and has more experience would give me some advice for what I should do in the comments section or tell me directly through twitter or Instagram. Thanks in advance!