My first game jam

Hey there, 

My name is Thomas, i've recently taken up game development as a hobby and this was my first attempt at actually making a game. All in all i'd say it went well, i managed to release it with plenty of time to spare! I've learnt alot of stuff, but i couldn't have done it without all the amazing tutorials out there(i followed too many to credit them all sadly). 

The original plan

Now, i think it goes without saying that i had a lot of scope creep (as i've heard is customary with your first game). My first idea was to make a full on rpg, this quickly became a small inventory, equipables and a shopping system.  I spent a whole day trying to make an inventory system, but i ended up having to scrap it because it broke everything else.

It was just too much work for me as a solo dev who has never made a game before (any aspect of it) .  So i ended up settling for a top down shooter with 2 guns. I also wanted to add way more types of enemies, but time was a major constraint for me(especially after the wasted day) and i wanted to do everything myself. Which was tough because i had never done pixel art before this, nor had i made my own music. I also didn't really know how to code before this (still don't, but i understand what the tutorials say now).

It all went well though, however it took alot of willpower, because after being stuck on a problem for 3 hours you start to doubt if you should keep going or if your just wasting time. I especially felt this when trying to make the gun rotate around the player and flip at the top, i couldn't find any tutorials on it and i tried to do it myself, but no matter what i did the sprite flipped on the sides only. I'm glad i kept going though because when i did find it, it was the most satisfying feeling ever!

All in all, i'm really glad i did this, I learned alot and i really enjoyed it!