This is our 4th time participating in the GTMK Game Jam and we always look forward to it as Mark comes up with some really challenging and interesting themes not to mention that to design and make a game in 48 hours adds onto the challenge.

The Good

Given that we have used up almost the entire first day trying to come up with a game at all, we are contempt to have been able to finish a game especially because we thought at one point it was better to stop and just shoot for next year. We settled on interpreting the them as "the game rules are out of control" by making it so that the conditions by which you can collect the flag changes each time. In the end, we created a game that we hope entertains and at least makes you smile with its silliness and not just frustrates you trying to figure it out. 

The Bad

During the beginning of the jam, our spirits were rather low to the point of giving up especially because,  hard as we tried, we were struggling to get excited for any idea mainly due to the fear of not being able to deliver anything seeing we had more like 24 hours left to work with. Therefore we spent more time in trying to add as much functionality around the theme that we neglected to test player feedback and ended-up creating an experience that often leaves player saying "But wait, what just happened?" rather than the desired "Oh, I get it! I'm clever" experience we were aiming for.

In other words, we forgot the number 1 rule of making a game "make it fun to play" and did the same mistake that many big AAA companies do which is "stuff it with content". Often time, less is better especially when it is fun. :)

The Learnings

We have come a long way since the first GMTK back in 2017 which was the first Game Jam we ever competed in. Back then we barely knew how to open unity. Still to this day it amazes me how we managed to put something together not knowing what we were doing but that's the beauty of doing a game jam. You do it out of the love, passion, and desire to make a game that you yourself can enjoy.

Though we have gotten faster at putting games together, because we are more experience and knowledgeable with the tools we are using and can better estimate how long something will take us to complete, it can be tempting to only focus on the technical side of things and lose focus on the reason why we make games in the first place. (Meaning, I did this because I can vs I did this because I love it)

"Flagger", though a completed game, could have been so much more if we would've taken more time in focusing on how the player interacts with the game rather than trying to put as much content with the time we had left. Still, it is great that we were able to come up with an entry and we will take this experience and work towards making better and more entertaining games.

Thanks for playing!