So, I just finished my first game jam game. It's kind of crazy that I was able to finish it in one week. I am relieved, proud, and distressed all at the same time! For starters, it's a huge weight off my shoulders not to stress over this thing anymore. For some reason, though, I feel invigorated! Or, at least, I did. Ever since the jam ended and the game ran through the judges, I gave into the temptation to go back and apply their feedback before publishing it publicly. This just led to me making a lot of changes which, although undoubtedly beneficial to the game, probably caused me to over-extend myself. Now I'm just tired. I think I'll take the weekend off... Oh, who am I kidding? I'll probably already have a new project by then.

Even though this game is buggy and way too hard, I am proud of it. I'm proud that I was able to overcome all the roadblocks that come with your standard game development journey and actually finish the thing. For years I've struggled to make a game, any game (my last game on here was... 2 years ago?!), and this was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things. I felt such a rush when I was working on this game, like I never wanted to stop-- something I haven't felt since I was on Scratch. I can't wait to feel it again!

Although I am excited for the future, I also feel a little distressed about releasing this game. There are still so many bugs, and it's so damn hard I worry people won't enjoy it. Maybe if I worked on it for just one more day...

But it's already been almost a week since the game jam. The experience I've gained from completing this game is probably best put towards the next project. They say "a painting is never finished (and granted this one doesn't really stop at an interesting place)," but I think what's best for me now is to put down the brush and call 'er done. On to the next one!