Lessons learned
I was tasked with making a chicken mini-game, and by the time the 48 hours for the jam were finished, I had gone through four iterations.
Know the limitations
Making sure the design is within engine limitations is crucial. By using the most up to date and stable version of an engine these problems can be prevented; however, by the time I had found the limitations within the engine, we had already gone through hours of development. So, we changed the design instead of potentially breaking other parts of the game through an engine update.
Plans change
Clarifying that the design is final from all parties before continuing work is crucial. Despite wanting to save time by programming as quickly as possible in order to make up for lost time, I wasted time. But this was a short-lived setback. After other members of the team fully voiced their thoughts and opinions on where the mini-game should go, I was able to get back on track.
Scope
We had to cut back the design for the mini-game two more times in order to get the game in a polished enough version to show. It wasn't the result we'd hoped for, but it worked; Going forward, I tried to focus on making sure that something worked before trying to make it great.
Last Lessons
There were two lessons that I had learned in tandem with figuring out the chicken mini game. First, I need to ask for help. This is less of a lesson and more of me putting it into practice and knowing that I should do it earlier in the future. Second, I should scale back sooner. Or rather, focus on the minimum viable product first, so that there is not wasted time and effort.
The hidden heroes jam
Description
"The Hidden Heroes Jam is a celebration of those who have shaped us. It is a game jam for creators to share the never-before-told stories of older and extended family members, teachers, co-workers, mentors, and friends – people whose wisdom have meaningfully impacted our lives."
Concepting
In our first meeting, we had a blue sky session to try and come up with a general idea for the game and our hidden hero. I had come up with the initial idea of the hidden hero being the family member who is in the kitchen and brings us together with meals. We bounced ideas back and forth until we were satisfied with following the same recipe across three generations, from the recipes inception to it being made in a college apartment.
The family member we had chosen to be the hidden hero, was my grandmother. A sweet woman of Italian descent who gave us the recipe we used for the game.
The 48 hours
We had from Friday 5pm to Sunday 5pm to have a working build of our game.
I first focused on research for the recipes and the settings for each generation it would be made. Then, after working with the other designers, we decided on all of the mini games that would be played for each generation.
I was assigned the chicken mini-game. The most complicated and problem riddled mini-game that taught me valuable lessons as I mentioned above.
I implemented the animations for the chicken and cow mini-games, and changed the cursor to a hand that had a grab effect when you clicked on something.
Post 48 hours
The day we finished was focused on polishing and bug fixing everything that we had done the weekend prior. I stayed fixing menus and U.I until sometime past 12am when we submitted the project.