This was our first entry in the GM48 event. We made MANY mistakes (well, I did, Chris Weller nailed it with the sprites, the art, and the animations) We devoted a least 6-8 hours on the final boss fight... WHICH WASN'T EVEN REACHABLE due to my rushed level creation. On the 3rd level, I place a platform in the wrong spot, that prevented the player from getting a necessary fruit to create the last bomb to destroy the last baddie...
We were so bummed with this, as we created a REALLY challenging and fun boss fight, with really cool mechanics, however no one got to see this.
Our takeaways for this entry
- Testing: No matter how much time you have, just spend some time PLAYING it, and preferably playing it early. Don't wait until the last minute.
- Get a solid gameplay up front: We went through a few character designs, and kept changing the mechanics that we wanted to implement, that we wasted several hours completely scrapping something that we originally planned, but had better ideas. Spend some time up front, get a solid plan, and then stick to it. If you can accomplish that, then try to add other frills.
- Challenge/Level Design: With the exception of messing up and making the game unbeatable, the levels were not challenging. There was lots of walking, and if I had spent 5 more minutes, I could have added so many more spike traps, platforms, pits, and other things I already had created, just had to put them in.
We placed 33rd. Not the result we were expecting, and we can't help but kick ourselves for our mistake preventing players from experiencing the last boss.