Devtober 2021 Game Jam Post Mortem

This is the last day of October and I’m supposed to write a post mortem about how the month went.

First things first: The game got finished. Except one minor issue: ad placement on different screen resolutions is probably off. But this is only an issue in the Google Play Store version and should be fixed within the next few day. Speaking of the Play Store: Yes, the game officially available for Android in the Google Play Store which makes me quite happy!

But there are some things that really bother me. The biggest issue I have is that the game is way too small/ simple for the time and effort I put into it. And that’s my main take away from participating in this game jam: Although a game might be of low standards, it still needs good planning. Because if I don’t plan beforehand, I’m constantly tinkering with the game play, thinking of this and that to add and might it not cool if… That turned out to be a huge waste of time in the end. If I would have fiddled with the prototype in the first week and then stick with what I had and just polish that, the game would have been completed much sooner and probably be a bit more good-looking.

Speaking of which: The overall design of the game is quite clean and I think it’s okay. Nonetheless I’m not satisfied. I’d like to make a game, be it small or not, that really shines, that looks like something. But I guess this part of the learning curve. I know somewhat decent how to code (but being far from an expert!) but I do that as hobby for years. Design and aesthetics is a totally different beast and takes equally or probably even more experience before it’s getting somewhere.