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AndresTapa20 hours ago(+1)

Thank you so much! That really means a lot to us!

I think the key was having a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve from the beginning, and finding general solutions and systems that we could reuse throughout the whole game. For example, the saw and the moving platforms inherit from the same base class, so we could reuse the same core behavior for different obstacles.

Less is more! There actually aren’t that many gameplay mechanics. There are a lot of systems working under the hood, but the mechanics themselves are mostly simple. For example, automatically detecting which input method the player is using and updating the navigation hints accordingly is relatively simple to implement, while designing, testing, and polishing an entirely new gameplay mechanic can take a lot of time.

So we focused more on how the game looks, feels, and what it communicates rather than making the gameplay overly complex.

Thanks for playing our game!

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SystemK20 hours ago(+1)

Thanks for the explanation ! That makes sense (I'm mostly a learning programmer so I see exactly what you mean), but you re-used your mechanics in a very clever way that doesn't make the game feel redundant. 

That's part of what I still have to learn to scope my games and still make them entertaining. "Less is more", I've seen this advice a lot and I think it's key for small teams/solo dev. But on my end it still needs practice and mistakes before I can do something as clean as you did !

You talked about how the game feels - I think you also did this very well. Are you planning a commercial issue with a bit more content after the jam for this game ? (I think it could work, personally if I saw this game on Steam I'd wantlist it)

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AndresTapa20 hours ago(+1)

Thank you! And yeah, I think scope is probably one of the most important — and dangerous — parts of a game jam.

You have to plan your steps somehow. You need time to think, implement, and especially test a lot. The more freedom and flexibility you give your systems, the more opportunities you give the player to break them haha. So for a jam, I try to keep things tight.

Something I usually do is make sure that by the end of the first day, I already have the core loop working, including the beginning and the win condition. I never want to leave the ending for the final days. From that point on, I can expand, polish, and add content, knowing that technically I could build and submit the game at any moment. In a jam you're always going to run out of time — sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end, but you're going to run haha.

For me, a game should be fun, but I also want it to be meaningful. Sometimes I achieve that, sometimes I don't. I usually have a little mental checklist:

  • It has to be beautiful.
  • It has to be meaningful.
  • It should be about a journey, whatever kind of journey that may be.
  • It has to tell you something.

That's how I try to make people feel something. I think we all have something we want to share, and games are an amazing way to do that.

As for a commercial release... I don't know yet. I work at a game studio, and I know firsthand that making a commercial game is hard, long, and expensive. I definitely want to make my own commercial game eventually, but right now jams are training for me, and the feedback I get from them is probably the most valuable part.

You can learn these lessons here, or you can take your chances somewhere else where the stakes are much higher. The sad truth is that outside of a jam, you can make a game and almost nobody may play it, even if it's free. Players are incredibly demanding customers. You might buy something you see on the street just because it catches your attention, but with a game, people will read reviews, watch trailers, streams, and gameplay before deciding whether it's worth their time and money.

So the short answer is: not right now, but eventually, yes. And hearing that you would wishlist this one on Steam definitely means a lot to us!

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SystemK19 hours ago

Hey, thanks a lot for this long and interesting reply ! Can I copy-paste it to keep it somewhere in my tips folder ?


I gathered you were probably pro given the quality of your game, it's really nice to share your knowledge like this <3 I totally agree with the idea it has to be meaningful. It's actually also one thing I love with jams: there are some games that are not super-polished, but their creators have a way of telling stories / sharing emotions that clics for me and I love that. That's also why I'm thinking of turning toward a more narrative genre for my next jam entry - but I think it will depend on the theme and what I decide to learn next. 

As for the visuals and conception, I still have a lot to learn. I'm in my 30s but I'm disabled and working at companies and having to go there just doesn't work for me - I already burnt-out twice. But I can work from home 10h/day 5-6 days a week on games. So I figured I'd try to turn my main hobby into my job. Maybe it will take time but  I don't really have another choice and so far I love programming and want to learn art and game-design basics when the time comes. (Otherwise I think I could do with just programming, and paying artists for their work). So "beautiful" won't be there for me at first but I hope I'll be able to make it ultimately !


I hope you'll manage to publish your own commercial games some day then. I think you do have talent about story-telling, game-design AND actually making the game. Good luck !!!!

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AndresTapa18 hours ago

Of course, feel free to copy-paste anything I wrote! If something I learned can help someone else, I’m more than happy to share it.

I actually started my game-dev journey in my 30s too, so I really believe any time is a good time to start, as long as you keep learning and moving forward.

I’m sorry to hear about what you’ve been through. I’d recommend approaching game dev as a side project at first if your situation allows it. Look at what other solo developers have done, study their successes and especially their failures, and learn from them. Making a living from games is already difficult enough, so having some stability while you learn can take a lot of pressure off the creative process.

Narrative games are interesting because they can be relatively simple mechanically, but keeping the player engaged through a story is a completely different challenge. You need momentum: knowing when to push things forward, when to reveal something, and when to slow down and give the player some breathing room. I’d really recommend reading about dramatic structure before diving too deep into one.

And try to have the core of your story figured out early. Once you've built half the game around a narrative, changing its foundations can become very expensive haha.

Also, don't worry too much if “beautiful” isn't there at first. Programming, art, design, storytelling — they're all skills you develop over time. You don't need to master everything at once, and working with artists is absolutely a valid path too.

Thanks a lot for the kind words, and seriously, feel free to ask me anything. I always enjoy helping other devs when I can!

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