Courage & Chaos Postmortem

In this post mortem I'll be discussing the development of my first ever gamejam submission. The focus will be on what went wrong, what went right, and what I (if anything) I have learned. First a short introduction on my previous experience and how the project got started.

My main goal was simple: "Make a Game", with which I really meant:  start with an idea and make a game from scratch, front to back, an original release. For me the best way to achieve this was to participate in a gamejam, that's why Courage & Chaos was made for the Brackeys 2021.2 gamejam. There was no significant reason for specifically picking the Brackeys gamejam. It simply looked interesting and the timing was right.

I must admit, even though Courage & Chaos is my first release, it is far from my first project. As a gametech student, I have done many small to large programming and game projects using C#, with previous experience in Java. Unity, however, is not something I am comfortable with, being used to very minimal environments like monogame or processing.  

This is not something I was prepared for when picking unity as my engine of choice for creating Courage & Chaos. I picked unity because it handles a lot of the back-end stuff, making it a lot more straight-forward for my game to run smoothly on other people's devices. I am glad I did this, but I could have done with a better beforehand understanding of unity. Apart from being written in C#, the whole structure and way of thinking when developing in unity is very different from monogame. Many times I ran into problems, wanting to use constructors, as an example. I had no problem fixing these problems, but it took a lot of time finding the right resources. I have now learned a lot about unity, which is good. I'd rather had obtained all that knowledge before entering a very time sensitive competition. It is common practice to have the training before the competition, rather than during it.

The main hurdle with releasing Courage & Chaos was time. Apart from having to learn how to use Unity properly, I also lost a lot of time implementing features I felt were not specific to my concept. It was a huge waste of time to implement systems and features I am going to implementing in each of my upcoming games. My intention is to have a framework ready for upcoming gamejams, to make sure I wont be wasting more time making every button play a sound when clicked. This framework is currently in development and not far from an initial release.

It might seem surprising, but regret was not the only emotion I felt during the jam. Beforehand I prepped a pretty decent schedule and clear concept. If there would be one thing I'd deserve a pat on the back for, it would be sticking to the concept, despite the severe lack of time. There was no room for the initially planned sprites, or the cool FX, but the core idea was carried out with care. This would not have been possible without a clear concept description and sketch, nor would it have been with no coherent schedule. They allowed me to remain focused and make educated choices on where my efforts were needed most.

Don't be fooled, like most first-time participants, I fell for one of the most common gamejam pitfalls: Ambition

Apart from the fact that I should now probably change my allegiance to Slytherin, it also almost killed my project. The concept was far too complicated for a gamejam when it is your first. On one hand I am happy I went for something that felt original to me, on the other hand it was not far from being too much. It is the true reason Courage & Chaos did not get past a gameplay demo, with a severe lack of polish or game feel. It is the reason I felt it was essential for me to write a postmortem about a game that does not look finished. Please, if your goal is to make a game, don't set the bar too high. This is to everyone starting a project, and to the future and past me.

In the end I achieved my goal. I started with an empty project and created a game. Against all my predictions it received a lot of positive feedback, taken in the context of it being a concept. I am happy how it turned out, in the scope of a project, not as a product. I hope next jam will allow more time for details. With more knowledge of Unity, a premade framework, and realistic expectations, I think it will. Until then, check out my game, it is small, short, and can be played in your browser. 

Stay creative, and I'll see you in the next jam