Soda Stream: Post Mortem

This has been my first ranked game jam, and my second game jam overall. For someone who hasn't done nearly as much as they'd like to with game development, I think I did alright aside from the lack of organization that occurred. Both jams so far have been learning experiences showing me a taste of the game developer life... and boy, what a busy life that is! I was working on this on and off for at least six hours each day, putting my best effort in. My goal coming in as a newbie is to get at least one Top 10 ranking; I know I have a slim shot at winning since I'm going up against a ton of seasoned veterans with amazing games (that I should try once I'm not so busy!)

What Went Right: I finished the game, which I cannot say often. Being able to submit something and show my creativity is always a treat, even if my game is far from perfect. I'd say there's only about one graphical glitch left involving dynamic masking after I wrapped up - about three fewer glitches than I was expecting. I managed to not get too ambitious as well, keeping things simple while adding fun tidbits of features that spiced up the game just enough. I had an idea for little bottlecap guys that stole the pipes on the pipeline that I was tempted to throw in without knowing what I'd have to do, but perhaps that's for after the jam, if you guys want a followup update!

What Went Wrong: Oh god, the organization. My code tends to be quite spaghetti-like in composure, though it has improved from the days of old. I had the issue of doing before thinking, putting down code without thinking of how to go about it. If I didn't do this, I think I would've gotten a little more done and felt a little less foolish. If anyone has strategies for keeping code clean, I'd love to hear. Please comment below.

My Favorite Part: Making the soda guys. The palette restriction was barely a punishment, as it offered some really nice black and white alternatives as well as all the colors of the rainbow. I was able to pull off the style I wanted with relative ease and not worry about how I was going to display my funny little robots. I do well with making simple geometric creatures, so that combined with the irony of having soda-themed robots made these baddies fun to work with. If I had more time, I would've added a soda can guy too!

I hope that you enjoyed my game. Either way, I'm excited to see whatever feedback you all have. Showing my friend my game and receiving a great amount of constructive criticism was very helpful for making the final(ish) product, so the more I get, the better this game can be beyond the game jam.

- Retro, aka Lynx Point Games