Postmortem - Beneath the Bite (Trijam 293)

So, I've submitted a game for the 293th Trijam. The theme was "at the bottom of the ocean" so, I've settled on a horror shark game. Here is how it went.

What went right

• Delivery: First of all, I also participated last week but I wasn't able to finish in 3h thus, I didn't publish my game. I know that I could just go in overtime but according to the rules, a game can only win 1st place if it was done in 3h or less. For me tho, going over 3h and cheating by saying that I didn't was just a lose-lose situation. What I mean by that is that if I cheat, winning wouldn't be rewarding at all, and losing would be a shame thus my decision. That's why my first satisfaction this week is that I was actually able to deliver something. 

What went wrong

• Scope too big: Even if I was able to deliver, I was WAY to close for comfort to the deadline. This makes me think that I should definitely reduce the scope of my game for my next submission. 3h is short. Very short. I have to keep it in mind while designing a game.
• Assets before gameplay: Before I code anything, I've used 1h30min to make sprites, prepare the UI and animations for the game. Looking back at it, I think it should have been the other way around. I should have made the game using squares to get it working and then use appropriate assets and polish once I have something stable. I would have been way more relax during the Jam if I had something working sooner.
• Fun: When designing the game, I was mostly focused on making something that fits the theme of the Jam. After I was done tho, I realized that this game wasn't really fun and that was pretty disappointing. Maybe I'm biased because I'm the creator but honestly, I don't think that this game is fun to play. I wouldn't play it in my free time. So, next time, I'll definitely focus on the "fun" aspect when I'm on the drawing board.

Last word

This postmortem isn't very cheerful. The only good point I found about my participation was that I delivered on time. With that being said, I'm still motivated to continue. I have to keep making games to design better ones. This should be a lesson that I'll keep in mind for my future submissions.