Game Jam Lessons Learned


Well my first game jam has come to a close. I am very happy with how Spinny Plane turned out considering I didn't come up with an idea until the very end of the first day. I have a pretty unique game mechanic and some nice sprites and effects (thanks Kenney) and it actually worked after being uploaded which was my #1 fear. No problems there. I received a lot of good feedback from other entrants on my submission page which will help as I add new features. It was really fun interacting with other entrants and playing their games!

I also took this opportunity to experiment with the marketing side of indie gamedev to see what kind of effect that would have on the game. For that reason I set up a twitter, Youtube page, and spent a good amount of time developing the game's page and icon. 

Biggest take-aways:

  • People did not like the limited ammo mechanic. Almost everyone that commented with constructive criticism requested infinite ammo with a reload cooldown and either a time limit or obstacles.
  • There was a bug where if you didn't destroy any planes and they all left the screen they wouldn't be replaced. I actually knew about this going in. Planes were only replaced when destroyed. I thought this would create some tension but I think it prevented players from lining up shots.
  • Social media platforms drove very little traffic to the game page. This was obviously because they were brand new pages. I suspect if a bigger name game dev entered the jam and they advertised on their page, their game would get a lot of attention. 
  • Probably would have helped to have some background music and UI interface sounds. 
  • Game Jams are fun! (As long as you don't stress yourself out) Would be fun to work in a team I think.

Get SPINNY PLANE

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