So, lessons. 0

euske • 1 month ago on 20th Alakajam! entry  RegEx

Hello, AKJers!

AKJ 20 has joyfully finished and I'm happy with my result. This is the first jam for me since 2021-ish, and there has been a few changes to my development environment:

  • The time I can spend for the jam has been greatly reduced (to only a few hours!).
  • I've lost my desktop Linux.

So I've also changed my development style to adapt for this:

  • Make most tasks doable with Windows + VS Code only.
  • Make everything very raw and primitive. No engine and no external depdendency. It's just a plain vanilla JS with HTML. (If you're curious, take a look at the source of my entry (https://games.tabesugi.net/regex/)
  • Proactively make a set of copy-pastable code (a.k.a. "the framework").

This has been working well so far. But jam-wise, I see a few rooms for improvement:

  • Be mindful of the "mechanics" of a game. I tend to cram many things into one game and people see it's "chaotic". (in my game, things like a peculiar one-button control, circular level, multiplying enemies and river, etc.)
  • Think carefully what could be randomized or changed. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't change the control schema (a.k.a "regex" pattern) every time, so that people can get used to control.
  • A little playtesting before submission would have been useful. (The game was probably too hard for many.)

That's it! I'm looking forward to particupate more. Thank you for organizing this event.

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