Lessons from Building Power

Building Power

About a month and a half ago, I participated in the Bigmode 2025 Game Jam. This was the third and longest game jam I've participated in thus far, and it was brutal. Over the course of a week, I rushed the development of a top-down endless wave game based on the jam's theme: Power.

I joined this jam on a whim, suddenly seeing on Friday afternoon that it started and immediately wanting to try my hand. This was my first mistake. I had no ideas applicable to the theme, no plan, and no preparations with regards to my schedule. I thought I would be fine, so I did it anyway. The next day I brainstormed a bit, wanting to make some sort of game where you're in a power plant. My boyfriend suggested the idea of a wizard's water mill that powers his spells, and I loved it. As I had been rereading The Hunger Games series, I immediately wanted the player to shoot electrified wires, using them to power poorly organized machinery and doing extra damage when electrifying enemies.

So I got to work, choosing Unity as that was the engine I was most used to, even though lately I was experimenting with Godot and SDL3. Most of the code went smoothly, but I had serious difficulty developing the enemy pathfinding AI and the electrical wire system itself. It didn't help that work left me exhausted every day, leaving me with only the energy to work on small things each night. With only the weekend before the due date left, I had a lot of work to do to make it not only playable, but good.

I tried so hard. I spent every waking hour working, tackling one thing at a time, taking breaks just to clear my growing headaches. In the end, I submitted a functional product. I went to test it, and... it was really broken. Strange black lines flickered across the screen. Enemies got stuck in their spawn. The shop wouldn't even work.  I'm going to be honest, seeing these bugs was very disappointing. I felt I had let myself down, that I wasn't a "real" developer. My vision of this game was so spectacular, but the end result was so lackluster that I wanted nothing to do with it.

It took some time. Plenty of rest, reflection, and distractions. Eventually I confided my feelings to my boyfriend. After talking with him and then seeing some really kind feedback about the game from other jam devs, my mood was lifted and my perspective shifted. I did fail, but it wasn't a failure. I proved to myself that I am still capable of creating something, even if it was broken. After such a long time being frozen stuck, too busy with the stress of everyday life, I needed to know if I could still do it. Now I think I can.

To summarize what I've learned:

1. Have a development plan thought out before the jam begins!

2. Balance your energy if you have other responsibilities.

3. Recognize and accept your own limits.

Upcoming Games

Lastly, I just want to touch on some of the projects I've been working on. Over the past year I've been focusing on my life, which has made game development tough, but I've always had the itch to develop in the back of my mind. Fragments of Ego will be released this year no matter what it takes. I'm still going to take my time with it and polish it up though. First, however, I will be releasing a short free horrorish  game that's a fan-game of a fan-movie of one of the greatest games of all time. Here's a hint: It's longer than you think. 

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll have more posts soon to keep you all updated as I unveil more of my projects.