Postmortem

In preparation for potentially starting another Metroivania game jam, I want to break down what went wrong (and right) with the development of Azltan. Overall I scored #71/87 which was a pretty disappointing showing and I'm definitely aiming a lot higher for the next one.

Development Approach

Upfront design

I decided on a lot of the mechanics up front, designing them in a document before bringing them into my sandbox and I think this really helped me keep my pace up and actually implement features. I'd definitely do this again and has shown to work for other titles I've done since.

Playtesting

This is definitely where I dropped the ball the hardest, I didn't really get playtesters (Lep) involved until near the final week and so a lot of the game was already fairly set in place and it was hard to pivot much of how the game and level was laid out - so it mostly served to hunt down as many bugs as possible. I've definitely been looking to deliver early slices much faster and start being more cutthroat about the design.

I also didn't playtest it much myself beyond bug testing, maybe if I had I would have realised how unfun the movement was.

Agile vs Waterfall

In much the same vein as the playtesting, I planned out a whole project and how the world would be laid out and then set to work assuming the end result would come together. This meant the game was barely ever in a state to ship, as I couldn't just submit the first area or two if it was looking like time would be tight. It did mean I shipped a fairly large world, but one that lacked quality in a lot of places. I completely changed that approach for Vault of Samsara and while that's not the most fun game either, I think it came out a lot better due to that approach.

Genre(s)

This is the part of the game I actually did well. The idea of exploring a world metroidvania style and instead of having combat and bosses to fight, instead collecting rare items to progress your romance arc with characters still has a lot of appeal to me. It may well have contributed to a lower 'Metroidvania' score as it's a departure from the core genre and it definitely lacked some depth in the characters and relationships, but I like the concept and maybe I'll revisit it one day.

Rank Scoring

Theme

The theme of the game jam was Ruins. I was aiming for an ancient ruins in the forest asthetic - focusing on aztec culture and designs. This didn't really come across very well in the game itself - the initial area was grassy, there wasn't any story or dialogue around them being ruins or what that meant for the game itself. I liked the aztec theme in the UI and characters, but I missed the mark here.

Metroidvania

Superficially, the game meets this criteria (You unlock new items such as the leaf to gain access to new areas and complete the game) but clearly didn't resonate with the players (A Rating of 1.7/5, #71). I expected the distinct area's tileset and theme to convey the metroidvania mechanics but it seems like it barely did so. Perhaps more clearly indicating that it was an area you will be able to go to and how they're unlocked would help.

Sensory

I scored virtually the same on this as for Metroidvania which in hindsight surprises me! I got a lot of positive feedback in the comments about the visuals and animations, but that didn't translate into a high score at all. I imagine the janky player physics and lack of particularly fun mechanics pulled this score down a lot.

Enjoyment

Understandably I got a pretty low score here, the movement is slow and the landing animation only makes that feel worse. There's little that sings the player's praises or rewards them - despite the majority of my planning being around what player mechanics I could add to unlock new areas and create puzzles they were functional rather than fun.

Execution

My lowest score of the jam, a 1.443. The game had some problems with bugs and glitches, particularly ones that softlocked the game when items couldn't be obtained as intended.

Learnings

• Keep the game in a shippable state at all times, so that excess can be cut off to ensure a good delivery
• Playtesting as early as I possibly can
• Way more focus on fun and polished movement and movement techniques