0.1: participating in my first game jam

 i've decided to participate in the 1-bit game jam, which was my first game jam. this was my experience:

i decided on using pygame beforehand as i wanted to learn coding with python. when the theme "light 'n' dark" was announced it was difficult to come up with good ideas at first. i did not want my game to include something like a flashlight, as my last project was exactly that. over the days, i slowly came up with ideas like creating some sort of jump 'n' run where parts of the level where obscured by darkness and one had to change some light switches or some to make those parts visible. i did not go with this idea as it was very hard to assess the scope and i imagined the actual gameplay rather tedious. i proceeded on to create a prototype for a fake 3d game where one was trapped in a dark tunnel and there was a distant and bright exit one had to go to. i wasn't able to introduce gameplay, which is usually a very natural process. eventually i had to come to terms with that game having no future, at least in the time restrictions of the jam. 

now, only having one day left till the jam ends i decided to make a fan-game of a "pot of light" made by one of my favourite indie devs, ikiki, in late 2021.  it fit the jam theme perfectly and was very easy to recreate. i have so far only changed one mechanic from the og game: when you hit the screen restrictions, instead of dying you just turn around. in the og game, the game background is black at the beginning, and the more light you catch, the more transparent the black layer will get and reveal a city, clouds and a blue sky. as this was not possible in my version due to the 1-bit restriction, the pot emits a circle of light instead that will get bigger as you collect more light. i am very pleased with the overall result, although a bit unfinished due to time restrictions. i found a command line tool called pygbag online which made exporting to web super easy. i would have loved to improve the graphics, code and implemented saving the players highscore, a proper death screen as well as other unique features that would make my version stand out from the original. i will definitely release a post-jam update with windows builds to address these points when voting is over. 

i have learned a great deal in this game jam. my main takeaway is to start prototyping immediately on day one instead of reserving the first few days for coming up with ideas, even in longer jam formats like this one where time seems plenty (the jam lasted 7 days). pygame has been great and i will surely use it for future projects. it's crazy powerful and makes things very easy. 

features:

• try to get as high a score as possible without the lights hitting your body
• feeling risky? the more lights you collect, the more will spawn.