The following is my postmortem for my project, The Heist Will Fail, a crime thriller where you get a mysterious message from your future self.
I developed the game for a game jam on itch.io and received 2nd place overall out of 15 projects. The game can be found here:
Here is the postmortem:
I am very proud of the work that I've done with The Heist Will Fail and want to do a little self-reflection via a postmortem.
Since this is also my first time doing a game jam, I'll probably include some of my thoughts about my jam experience.
This postmortem will be organized by: what went well, what could've gone better, and what will I commit to doing in the future. For the sake of making this easier on the eyes (and for my organization) I'm going to keep everything to bullet points. Let's begin!
What Went Well?
I finished! Completing a game within a given time limit is always rewarding. I felt like I organized my time effectively and never had to crunch.
Working with Lisette for music was a delight. It's amazing how much music can really set the tone for a story.
Bouncing off of the previous point, the art I did for characters and backgrounds really helped to make this story a multi-media experience. I am very pleased with how the visual style turned out.
I flexed my skills with Twine. Figuring out how to incorporate music transitions, backgrounds, images, etc. was a bit of a headache at first, but once I figured it out, I was floored! There's something so rewarding about having breakthroughs with tech.
It was rewarding to figure out how each element of the plot worked together, which is especially important in a crime thriller. I am pleased with how the game's plot turned out.
I just really enjoyed writing the characters! While the game's focus was on ironing out the plans for a heist, I wanted to make sure the characters had strong relationships with each other and the player. I feel like I really did well in this regard.
What Could've Gone Better?
While I planned my time well for getting the project done, I didn't set aside enough time to test some parts of the game. Upon release there were a few typos and broken pathways that were easy enough to fix, but also easy enough to find if I played through it a few more times.
I feel as though I could've included more action in the game since it is a crime thriller. If I could do it again I would focus more on the actual crime than the planning leading up to it.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I began the game in Unity. I love using Ink in Unity and I've made games with both programs many times before. The reason this is in "What Could've Gone Better?" is because of how much I stressed myself out over this experimental phase. I think I was worried about "wasting my time" testing out game engines when in reality, the day I spent testing things out helped inform my vision of the project.
What Will I Commit to Doing in the Future?
Set out more time for self-testing to catch those simple mistakes!
Focus more on action rather than planning.
Remember that experimenting is part of game development. Even if I end up scrapping a plotline or changing engines, I likely still learned something about the project during the process.
Time myself when I write! I wrote a lot, but I want to keep track of how long I spent writing so I can more accurately plan my time in the future.
Final thoughts:
I am very pleased with my work on this project and how much I was able to get done in about a week. I love, love, love creating games like this and I know that this experience will help me when I'm developing in the future.