What to try some rough as hell jam games? I made 2 this weekend:
https://dgalga.itch.io/confettiman-tries-to-fight-guns
https://dgalga.itch.io/growth
"Growth" was submitted to Trijam 121, which had the theme "Exploring spacetime". I (and most of the jam participants) could only initially think of games focusing on vehicles in space, but I rejected this as too obvious. I've spent the past 6 months learning C++ and not finishing games, so I wanted to do something more personally interesting. I decided on doing a multi-part, artsy, exploration-of-the-short-life-of-an-alien-parasite thing. I didn't get in everything I wanted with a 3 hour deadline, but I got all of the key points in and I'm happy with the result.
"Confettiman tries to fight guns" took me 10 hours out of a special 20 hour Bean Jam #20. The jam was held in a far off time zone, and I started late, but I'm still happy with the result. It's super basic, and I don't actually think it fits the theme very well, which is "World's worst superhero".
I made Confettiman far too powerful. His jump allow you to completely dodge bullets! However, this also marks the first game I've ever made that somewhat fits the beat-em-up perspective, and it's this I'm proud of.
Now, I was originally planning to take part in 2 more jams before my classes resume next week. However, I had to drop out of one when I realized it was all getting me very stressed before what looks to be a very stressful and compact summer semester. Shortly afterwards, I decided to drop the second when I realized something odd: I miss working with C++.
C++ is hard. However, I can see a future in it. I can even see myself making games using it with more practice, and I credit my experiences of this past semester with improvements in my game design and workflow. I don't see a future in Godot, or tinkering with Unity. Tinkering and hobbyist projects won't teach me the concepts I need to build better projects.
I need a future of the kind I see in programming. I plan to do a few game jams between semesters, and I plan to keep this blog for that. However, I can't pretend anymore that the tinkering way I was for 2018, 2019, and much of 2020 will ever get me where I want.
See you in around 2 months probably.
