This post is inspired by one in the Mini Jame Gam #54, but as a new dev myself I feel its an important one to have!

I'd love to hear about everyone's challenges, solutions, failures, and successes!

I way way over-scoped to start, and overestimated my artistic capabilities lol. Had to do a lot of cutting to make the submission deadline. I think the lesson learned is to really cut down on the grand ideas, and make a stronger attempt at abiding strictly by the theme of the jam. My idea technically fits, but I dont think it really captured the spirit of the theme/object like a few other games have. I also committed the sin of optimizing early, which ended up NOT being optimization because the game turned into a spaghetti mess by the end due to me crunching. Anyways, feel free to share below!

I only had one day to work, but I’m happy with how the game turned out: it’s basic but complete.

I took the opportunity to try a less capable AI model (qwen) instead of Claude Code to help with the repetitive and boring parts, and it didn’t go so badly: the entire game engine is written from scratch and based on standard, open-source web technologies.

I wanted a more complex dungeon instead of simple rooms/arenas, perhaps with a darker setting, but I didn’t have time: maybe for the next jam! :-)

The graphics are generated with Artificial Intelligence but starting from 3D scenes quickly created in Blender with the fantastic assets from KayKit and Tiny Treats.

You can find the complete source code here: https://gitlab.com/massimoavvisati/bones-need-milk

This time, I’m proud that I finally finished a game jam under the deadline.

I’ve joined multiple jams before but was never able to finish, so this is a great accomplishment.

I also recorded some behind-the-scenes footage and the process. I’ll share it soon on my devlog.

If only haha

Went too ambitious for the time given. Buh I'm happy enough with the demo that came out ig

Yup. I wanted to do more on the gameplay side of things, the game is too short, but I was happy to make a functional game with my own assets. This was the most amount of work I put into making assets for a game jam project, so I'm happy with how it turned out.

Wasn't planning on participating really, but when the theme got announced I decided to go for it anyway. There are some minor things I would have liked to take more time for but my Godot project is a real mess and I would have broken more than I fixed by that point. I think I ended up with a fairly polished small game in the end.

More importantly, doing these jams has really given me something back that I had lost over the years: having fun while making art and music without much stakes but with a clear goal, and having a finished product I can be somewhat proud of.

Here's some assets I didn't use in the end: