So the jam has finished, and my game is done. It turned out alright, and I am definitely pleased with it. It was tough developing it, as I hadn’t done an intense jam session for a while. Overall, an alright game that I’d recommend to friends.

What I’m Happy With

I’m really surprised how well the sprites came out. I haven’t sprited anything in absolutely ages, the last I did was a few small robot bodies for Junkyard. These were also the first pixel art sprites I drew using a tablet. It definitely helped with the time limit, I might consider using it with all future art when possible!

The game has a good feel to it. Like, when you take down a co-worker, it feels satisfying in that shower of poop, as they fall to their dooms. When creating shoot-em-ups, you have always got to make the enemy defeats satisfying if there aren’t many on the screen.

The soundtrack is pretty catchy, and it was my first endeavour with chiptune sounds using FL Studio, which I recently acquired. It’s a lot quicker to make music with this, rather than Famitracker, so I might just keep on using!

The difficulty level seems to be just right. Originally, it was going to be a lot easier. I increased the default difficulty level last minute because I wanted to make the game a challenge.

What I’m Indifferent About

I feel that the sound effects are pretty generic and are nothing special. They make the game feel like a game, but they don’t give it character. I used SFXR for these sounds to save time, so I wasn’t expecting top notch sound effects in the final product anyway.

The background seems pretty plain. I originally had diagonal lines flowing downwards, and wanted to have shapes flailing around, much like the Mr Insane menus. However I was pretty tired and short for time, and I couldn’t bring myself to draw a background in the blank, rotated areas of the game’s view.

I wish I could have added trophies to this game, I don’t ever get time to add trophies. They’re so motivating for players and designing the little icons is always such a treat. I managed to integrate highscores into the game (eventually), so at least it isn’t a failure regarding Game Jolt’s API.

Possible Adjustments

If I ever come back to this game, I’ll add trophies for sure. Not sure about the rest of the gameplay though. The menu should definitely be spruced up too, and a visible options page would be nice, since older graphics cards don’t support the shaders I’ve used.

Closing Words

I had fun with this. It felt like a proper challenge, and I beat it. I don’t care about how it does in the jam, or how many votes it gets. The fact that I finished it and I’m happy with what came out feels a lot better.

Good luck to everyone else’s entry!