Game Jam Devlog #1: Containment

This was my third game jam ever, and it's the one I've spent a decent chunk of time working on. I learned a ton but I'll keep it short as a reminder for my next project and maybe anyone starting out.

1. Object Structure

I had watched a few tutorials on top-down action shooter type games, and they all used state machines. I understood the benefits of using them, but ultimately decided to dive into the jam without applying states to my objects. That decision bit me in the butt, because when I decided I needed to do a major rework of the monkey's logic I was too confused my my spaghetti code. Eventually I just had to rewrite the monkey's logic from scratch into various states. Even then, I didn't do a great job of this. My mistake was that I didn't have a great idea of what I wanted the monkey to do so even though I had states, they still weren't organized.

Which brings me to the solution: First start on paper with what I want each of the major game objects/assets to do, then implement those features using states.

2. Optimization 

I was careless with my code, but after watching some tutorials I improved how my game runs in a browser. It still isn't as good as others' embedded games, but it's much better than it was initially. I'm not sure of a solution to this other than to watch some more tutorials. Next game jam I'll have to re-visit this and see what specifically I should (and shouldn't) do!

3. Art

Like many people doing game jams, I'm not great at art. The answer to this is simply to practice more! Though, I can also play to my weakness here and try to keep the projects art-scope minimal. I had a grand vision of how this project would look, but kind of gave up on the art halfway through because I'm just not sure how to make a lab environment....

In conclusion next game jam I'll try to revisit these three things to see what I did better, what I learned, and where I still have room for improvement. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading!