Jam Post-Mortem-ish

I don't typically do a post mortem-type of post until I wrap it into my post jam update but I really wanted to make a post going over how this jam went. I don't think I've been so simultaneously proud and disappointed with a jam entry. Overall, feeling really great about the entry but I was so close to having a lot more but just ran out of time down the last stretch. Most of the two weeks was spent setting up systems so that the game could be thrown together very quickly and on the whole, I mostly succeeded with that. 

The biggest problem is that I ran into huge optimization issues just two hours before the submission time which forced me to scrap the entire level layout I had and to throw together a new level/progression in thirty minutes. The fast throw together also resulted in some weird issues with the pathfinding that causes enemies to walk through walls that they shouldn't be. It also resulted in enemies spawning in further on rooms even though their activation script was supposed to be disabled until the previous room was cleared. Largely, the optimization issue comes down to me thinking I wasn't doing too much in the Update loop because of how simple most of the game's mechanics were which was a bad oversight on my part.

That brings me to a lot of the positives of the whole experience. I built a new tick system in about 10-30 minutes down the last stretch so I could move large chunks out of the update loop which dramatically improved the performance. These issues stemmed from too much processing occurring due to the pathfinding, which this project was the first time I created A* pathfinding so I wasn't prepared for the performance issues because of that. I also worked with Unity's EventSystem for the first time so I could ensure you could navigate the menus with a controller as well. The sound effects were a first for me as well as I downloaded Audacity and spent a day recording various sounds in my house for them. 

My biggest regrets are what features had to be cut to ensure I had reliable game performance instead. I had a very simple ending scene planned with 2-3 potential endings which is what I made the scientist sprite sheet/death animation for. The final scene was going to play a short animation of the player walking into a room with the scientist opposite them. The scientist would then reveal that there is no antidote and the player would be presented with two choices, spare or kill the scientist. If they spared them, there would be some dialogue about sparing the scientist in the hopes that they could discover a cure, etc. If you chose to kill them, it would play the firing animation and the scientist's death animation before a fade to black. I was also going to add a third ending where you would be given a "Consume" option if you had a high enough infection level on entering the room, which would be similar to the kill ending but essentially involve the player giving into the virus and becoming something else entirely. With the sprites already done up and the fairly simple scope of the scene/checks, it likely would have taken 30-60 minutes longer but unfortunately my optimization mistake left me without the time.

I also planned to make a couple of simple tracks using OpenMT for the game and I had made a couple simple chords to build from but that also had to be scrapped for time. I wish I had solved the optimization issues fast enough to use my original map layout which I've included a screenshot of. It was a much bigger map with several hidden/side areas for me to stash pickups in. With so little time left after implementing the tick system though, I decided the three room gauntlet run was the only thing I had time for that would result in a decent play experience. I also really wanted to have a good example of the twin-stick combat so I could figure out if the control scheme worked well for both controller and keyboard, so I decided the small tight rooms would give me better playtest feedback than a larger, emptier map. 

I have been considering starting on a twin-stick shooter with abilities later this year, so any feedback on the overall gameplay, control schemes or mechanics would be a huge help. I mentioned in the game's description as well but I've written a GDD before either so any feedback on that is very much welcome and appreciated.