I finally knocked off a bucket list item and competed in my first ever game jam! I made a game from scratch in 72 hours all by my lonesome. This was the second game I've ever completed and the experience was very fulfilling. I was working on it until the literal final minute!
The theme was Limited Space which I interpreted as the self-applied social anxiety of a crowded subway car and trying to just not be in other people's way while they could not give a rat's ass about the world around them.
This was potentially my Unity swan song as there wasn't time to learn a new engine before the jam began and once I get some well deserved sleep I will be spending the rest of the year trying out/learning Godot and seeing how that feels. If it doesn't click, on to the next thing. I'm in my experimental phase.
I'll definitely be doing some more jams down the road - I had a fantastic time and really had the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and buckle down on finishing a project top to bottom. Some things went well, other things were challenging, but in the end I learned a ton of lessons that I can carry forward to the next one. Maybe something that gives me a little more wiggle room next time.
If you want to try out my subway game, Clogged Tube, you can do so with an in-browser HTML5 version over at my itch.io page
For anyone else that competed in the jam, please feel free to leave me some feedback. I know I need improvement and the advice I receive is actually a huge help to me. I'll be spending a large chunk of tomorrow rating other people's games for the full experience.
This won't be my last game - I'm going to keep going until I make something that I'm really proud of and I can feel the improvement each step of the way.