I decided to enter my first ever game jam. I have only been doing game dev for 2 days at this point, which was making a small speedrun game called zippo. I use the engine Construct 3, which was based on conditions and actions. This meant it was very quick to prototype games, as no code writing was necessary.
The theme was announced, "One Light Source", and I got a first thought of doing a game about keeping a campfire going while hazards arise to stop you. A made a quick sketch on my phone to explore the idea.
I then decided that I didn't want to go the obvious route with the theme. I decided to take "light" and interpret it as weight instead. This is when I drew up ideas for the sinking items kept afloat by a single balloon.
I went through the week adding the elements, from a floaty menu, to random spawning items over time, to the high score system and even a difficulty ramp. I got the game to a solid state, that was decently polished for a game jam game, and for a week and 2 days.
What I took from this jam is that a small scope works well. Time management is a huge part of jams, and I spent enough time on each area to reach the point I wanted. I was quite happy with the result of the game, given my short time span.
Comments