At the jam's end

Time sure flies, huh? It's been 66 days since the first devlog.

I've had some life problems in the middle of the jam that set me back,  and only returned to my game one month prior to the deadline. I decided to redo the way my nonograms were made, which involved a lot of coding (and thankfully a lot less copy pasting).

I released a first version of my game behind closed doors on September 19 as a pure test of the mechanics. The main point was whether the game was too long for the jam (1 hour max). It turned out that my first testers didn't understand the tutorial, so I had to go back to the drawing board and make several iterations of it. I've considered making a devlog at that point, but got roped into real life endeavors and my free time dwindled.

Then came the writing. If you've looked at the page of the game anytime before 2 hours ago, you'll notice that the summary of the game was different. I wanted to break away from the "chosen one saving the world as we know it" into a smaller scope, which ended up being that of a country. That meant I opened myself a door toward political conflict! There is a tiny bit of setup toward it in the present game. Less than I'd have liked, but I had to stay low on the number of terms and names.

The final stretch was pretty painful. Anxiety came kicking, so I had to ask my friends for help to overcome my procrastination. On top of that, the character illustrations (made by the amazing Aelorz) came late because I decided to get through  with the project late. But here we are, with a product I can accept calling finished.

In truth, the hint color system is incomplete. You need to surround the groups of black cells with crosses and the changes are reactive rather than proactive, which means you do not get any hint about where you can go next. I intend to go back to it for the next release of Puzzle Over.

'Cause the current version is only a sort of demo. To be honest, I did that game to challenge myself to go through with a project. I cannot say it is remotely Fire Emblem-esque, which, while being the point of the jam, surely doesn't fall into its intended scope. The jam was mostly an excuse and motivator. It worked, and I'm amazed at myself for pulling it off.

I sincerely hope that I will be able to lead Galdi's story to completion. Maybe I'll try other projects first (I have an oooold plot idea I would love to see come to life), but my first game will always have a special place in my heart.

Until then, have fun!

Alana Eclogia