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Mid-Jam Check-in: How’s the crunch going, everyone?

A topic by Alexey Nazariev created 65 days ago Views: 1,033 Replies: 94
Viewing posts 1 to 20 of 31 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+2)

Hey guys!

We are officially past the two-day mark, and things are getting real. I was just reviewing my schedule, and following the best practices of seasoned jam veterans, I’ve decided to play it safe: I reserved one full day for publishing/building and another dedicated entirely to bugfixing.

This leaves us with about three days for actual development. Right now, it feels like I’m on track, but to be honest, I’m not 100% sure yet. Scope creep is a sneaky beast!

How is your progress coming along? Are you sticking to your initial plan, or has the cutting-features phase already begun? Let’s support each other.

Submitted(+1)

I'm doing quite well, just looking for playtesters. I hope everyone is having a good time.

Submitted

Awesome to hear you're ahead of schedule! I’d love to playtest your game when you have a build ready. Best of luck with the testing phase!

Submitted

Just the prototype to playtest. I just want to know if the game loop is enjoyable.

Submitted

Got it, checking the core loop early is a smart move! If you ever need help playtesting it, just let me know, I'm always around!

Submitted(+1)

I was planning to continue development until day 5.5-6, havent put much thought into publishing, and trying to prevent bugs along the way. Still on track though

Submitted

Thank you! Same to you, hope you smash your goals. Stay on track and don't forget to get some sleep before the deadline!

Submitted

Hope everyone's projects are going well

Submitted

What are your games about btw?

Submitted

I’m creating a puzzle game with shooter elements! I actually have quite a bit of dev experience, but this is my very first jam. Before this, I spent a lot of time just learning and dealing with imposter syndrome.

I might drop a screenshot or a GIF a bit later when there’s more to show, but shh... 🤫 What about you? What are you working on?

Submitted (1 edit)

I usually make plaformers in a pixel art style so im switching that up and making a roguelite where you are the spinning wheel, and each time you hit an enemy it chooses a random power from your inventory, but you can jump to stop the wheel at a specific time (while its spinning you cant see the powers). Yours sounds great though

Submitted

Wow, playing as a spinning wheel with a casino-style mechanic sounds incredibly unique for a roguelite! Stopping the wheel with a timed jump is a super cool twist. Thanks for the kind words about my project, can't wait to see how your concept turns out!

Submitted(+1)

This isnt a criticism, but are you a native english speaker?

Submitted

Haha, actually no! I'm just trying to practice my English and write better, though it might look a bit funny from the outside. I live in the CIS region. What made you ask, and what's your native language, if you don't mind me asking?

Submitted(+1)

Just the wording lol, all good though. I'm a native english speaker but I grew up learning french so I'm bilingual

Submitted

Oh, being bilingual in English and French is awesome! That's a flex. Thanks again for the feedback on my wording, makes me feel much better about my English skills!

Submitted (1 edit)

i am making a pixel art game about a sock stuck in a washing machine. You must dodge other objects and try to survive as long as possible.

Submitted(+1)

I saw! Seems cool

(1 edit)

this is going to sound weird, but it's about a little dude trying to spread joy and creativity in a very serious and work loaded environment

by defeating reginal leaders who are enforcing stricter environments, You defeat them in a card game where every card's value randomly gets selected by a spinning wheel.

btw i started on this last day so there's only two leaders before the boss

Submitted

a seal trying to get a job using a monocycle.

now that I'm writing it down it just seems so dumb lol

what's the name of it?

Submitted

its going well im alr 60% done but i realized my game is not that fun
still not giving up
i dont think ill place very well tho

Submitted

all that matters is that you have fun deving. Also you don't have to place well, just  try your hardest. 

Submitted

yay thx! its my first game

Submitted

That’s the mid-jam crisis talking! Honestly, when you test your own mechanics 1000 times, it always starts to feel boring. Huge respect for not giving up though! Just cross the finish line—sometimes a game feels much better to other people than it does to the dev. You've got this!

Submitted (1 edit)

If you have a prototype I can offer an outside perspective, but keep at it and it'll be good, don't beat yourself up about it

Submitted

tysm brick :)

Submitted

One of the hardest things about game dev is coming up with an idea and then playing it and thinking "this just isn't fun..."

Sometimes a small change can turn everything around for you!  LMK if you want a quick look over it

Submitted(+1)

I crunched so hard I finished day 1

Submitted(+1)

I take my jams very seriously

Submitted(+1)

Wow nice

Submitted

Finishing on Day 1?! Teach me your ways, master!  You took the jam's name dead seriously and just killed it. Huge respect for the speedrun!

Submitted

I made a prototype and it's surprisingly fun even without  most of the game. I'm trying to submit a day early for bug fixing, but idk how that will happen.

Submitted

If the core prototype is already fun, you've nailed the hardest part! Submitting a day early for bug fixes is the ultimate dream, hope you manage to pull it off. Good luck!

Submitted(+1)

Thanks, you too!

Submitted

I had Friday off work, so I went full crunch mode this weekend. I've already got a playable version published and submitted, and at this point I'm mostly focused on bug fixes, polish, and quality-of-life improvements.

Scope creep has actually been pretty manageable so far, but now that the core gameplay loop is finished, my brain keeps coming up with "just one more feature" every five minutes. Trying to stay disciplined and get the game polished before I start adding things that definitely weren't in the original plan. 😆

Submitted

Congrats on submitting early! 🥳 Oh man, the 'just one more feature' trap is real, especially when the core game is already working. Stay strong and protect that polish phase, you've done a massive job over the weekend!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

I poured soda on my computer, I'm now starting from scratch on my backup :(

This is a very serious issue.

Submitted(+1)

Oh no, that’s an absolute nightmare.. Major respect for having a backup though, you literally saved your own jam. Don't let the soda win, you can still rebuild it! Sending you cyber-prayers!

Submitted(+1)

Thanks for sharing! I was aware from past experience  and seeing similar picks about the need to allot time to such things but I think having set times is good since I tend to underestimate the time those steps will take.
As for me I felt behind since I started an idea and then trashed it, started a prototype, and only got working on the actual idea yesterday. Now that I write it out, it seems pretty reasonable and not much of a delay at all. Anyway, I made good progress today. It would be cool to get playtesters a day or two before submitting, although I imagine people are going to be pretty busy with their own games.

Submitted(+1)

Dropping the first idea and restarting is a classic jam experience, glad you realized you're not actually falling behind! Making good progress is what matters. Also, don't worry about playtesters-once you have a build ready, hit me up! I'd love to test it (and I really hope you'll check out my game too).

I actually started with an idea I was afraid I wouldn't finish even in a month, but now I’m somehow on track. The hardest part for me is the art, because it requires a VERY SERIOUS amount of sprites and animations. But I managed to pull it off with some tricks-like copying objects and just changing colors or slightly redrawing them (honestly, that's meta, even the great Toby Fox did that). So good luck and have fun, buddy!

Submitted

I may be slightly cooked just based on me not knowing where to go next

Submitted

Im doing awesome sauce!!! I think it's kind of a downgrade from my last game but I still feel I'm going pretty good!!!

Submitted

Awesome sauce indeed! Love the John Egbert avatar btw, classic Homestuck energy 👌 Don't worry about comparing it to your last game, as long as you're having fun and pushing forward, it's a win!

Submitted(+1)

Thanks!

Submitted

I have already done my project with code, but visual is awful, many assets and very fast for human eyes, today i wanna fix that and submit my project for juniper stream tomorrow

Submitted

Having the code ready is huge! Fixing the visual speed and polish is the fun part. Good luck getting it ready for the stream tomorrow, you've got this!

Submitted

I just started, but trust me I am very serious about this jam. I’ve put off doing taxes for it.

Submitted

That is a very serious step! (taxes can definitely wait)

Submitted

Haven't started yet😭 coming home from a concert

Submitted

I'm sure it was totally worth it, you still have plenty of time to catch up, buddy!

Submitted

im already in the polishing phase, but i still need more enemies and the boss, soooooooooooooooooooo its not so good, and not so ba

Submitted

Actually, we all know that the ultimate boss is the polishing phase itself:> Can't wait to play your game, good luck!

Submitted

so uhh, can you see this, please?:
/jam/theveryseriousjuniperdevgamejam/topic/6516958/3-day-game-rev...

Submitted

Hey! I just checked out your thread and left a reply over there. The game looks awesome, keep it up!

Submitted

Honestly, I think what I'm making may be the best thing I've ever made!

Submitted

That's the ultimate game jam feeling, keep that energy up!

Submitted (1 edit)

Hello, one more time! I've submitted my project, I don't know should I create more updates, because this game is pretty for me, but I need feedback from players. Check out my profile, if you wanna see that (project's name : Spin To Win, originally, I know)

Submitted

Congrats on submitting! Added your game to my checklist, I'll definitely check out "Spin To Win" and leave some feedback once I'm done with my crunch phase. Good luck!

Submitted

Hi! This is my first jam, so I'm just using it as a way to learn some basics. I've managed to get a very basic prototype built and I'm starting to add on to that. Really just hoping to be able to submit something playable before the end of the jam. 

Submitted

Welcome to your first jam! Honestly, I feel you like nobody else - this is my first jam too, and it's already a VERY SERIOUS one! Even though I have quite a bit of experience (7 years in game dev), I still have a crazy amount of gaps because my past games were mostly just drafts, or I was just helping out with small indie projects that got lost over time. So, in a way, this is my first TRULY SERIOUS project as well. Good luck, my friend, we can absolutely do this!

Submitted(+1)

Thanks for the encouragement and good luck to you as well!

Viewing posts 1 to 20 of 31 · Next page · Last page