This jam was the first time I have actually finished a game and I feel like I was forced to learn so much to get it finished. I was introduced to pathfinding, creating my own signals, and resources. I also felt a lot of overall improvement in my fundementals and workflow, looking back on my code now there is lots of things I could have done better in hindsight and I'll make sure to avoid some of those pitfalls for my next project. Another huge area for growth while reflecting on my 9 days is that that first planning phase is so important. Scope creep hit me hard as I got too excited about all the ideas I wanted to add and halfway through I had to do a full rethink of all my ideas that needed to be cut for sake of time. During this process I feel like I lost the connection to the actual theme of the jam. In the future I want to spend a lot more time planning the core gameplay loop and what the essential mechanics are for it to work. Playing your games has also taught me so much as I have been trying to figure out how things were made, and how you can do so much with a little, like the amount of unique games that can come from hopping frogs!!
I'm coming up on midterms and I've fallen way behind on homework so it might be a while before my next Jam lol. While there are lots of things I would love to change about my game, I'm happy to leave it how it is, I'm proud that I finished it and anyone else who submitted should be proud of themself!
I would love to hear about all the different things you learned during your experience, and any tips you have for me and other developers would be great to hear!