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7 Ate 9 Final Dev Log 

7 Ate 9 was born when I saw Learn You a Game Jam: Pixel Edition: https://itch.io/jam/learn-you-a-game-jam

Game can be found here:https://alindaelia.itch.io/7-ate-nine

Dreaming Big

I have completed several other games but all from tutorials with a bit of my own flair and none of my own brain children. I mistakenly thought the jam was for an education game with a theme "You are the Monster", so I decided to create a fluffy guy named Smoglu who eats numbers to learn and grow up; my partner came up with the title 7 Ate 9. 
Initially the game was meant to start with Smoglu with his parents and them sending him on a journey to grow up. I planned on including a World Map with multiple levels and throughout the game, lil Smoglu would grow horns and wings just like his mama and papa and then journey home to show them. 
I quickly learned that was a bit ambitious. I quickly decided to forgo the world map and unfortunately even Smoglu's mom and dad. I had a lot to learn and only 6 days to do it in!

What I did first

I first created a very minimal flow chart for items I knew I needed to complete first. I used a free online tool called Whimsical. As you can see, I did not spend enough time really hashing out the details into my flow chart, I ended up with pages upon pages of scribbled notes of things that needed to be fixed or added. Not ideal. Lesson learned, even in a time crunch, it is best to plan properly!

Pixel Art... where to start? 

I purchased Aesprite a few months back when I decided I wanted to get into Pixel Art. I 100% recommend it but I imagine there are other just a excellent tools, however, I cannot speak to any of those. 
I had already watched many hours of YouTube videos on this topic, so I felt like I had a good bit of knowledge to get started. I was able to create all of my assets and images in a pretty short time. I highly recommend Pixel Pete and Saultoons if you want to learn more or if you want to be entertained, these guys are great. 

Anyhoo, I worked up a quick sketch of what I imagined Smoglu would look like.. and off I went. I soon realized I need a lot more pixel art than I originally thought, like buttons, and a title page, and a background, and bushes... ahh! I wanted to add so so much more to the game art but ran out of time. Next time I am going to record the actual pixel art process, but I don't currently have a tool to do that and didn't think of it until after... d'oh.

aw, how cute is he?

Short Term and Long Term Goals for you and the Gamer

I have completed a handful of game design courses on Zenva and one of the important facts I took away was that gamers need to feel like they are accomplishing something. They need to feel like they are making progress. My plan was to have both short term and long term goals.

Short term goals of feeding Smoglu and earning candy pieces. The original plan was to make a store where the players could redeem their candy for add-on outfit items like hats or shoes... again, I was dreaming a bit big and pushed that to the back burner. The long term goal was to complete the game and earn Smoglu's horns and wings and return to his parents after his learning journey. I couldn't squeeze that in either.

This leads to me to an important point, while I don't think there's anything wrong with dreaming big and putting your ideas down on paper, I can 100% tell you that if I didn't take the time to prioritize what was required in order to have a functioning game vs what I really WANTED to add. I would not have finished 7 Ate 9 in time for the Game Jam finish!! 

Write down all those fixes, bugs and desires and determine what is most important!!

Problems and Learning

When you're trying to do anything for the first time you are likely going to fail, or not achieve what you set out to do. However, as long as you are learning, you aren't failing!! I watched so many YouTube videos on this and that class and method. How to add a score, how to best customize the camera. Noob stuff, but hey... I'm not judging myself and you shouldn't judge yourself either,  everything I googled or watched is another thing I hopefully keep in my rusty file cabinet of a brain, haha!

I would recommend ChatGPT also, if you are getting a specific error and you aren't sure what is wrong. It helped me more than I care to admit. However, I will caution you, using ChatGPT too much can hinder your learning. Be careful not to become dependent upon it!!

Whew, I did it...sorta

Welp, I was a bit surprised that I was able to finish 7 ate 9 in the time limit provided. I started the Game Jam on June 20th and finished the evening of June 25th. I couldn't be more proud of what I did, and I think that's important to stop and relish in your accomplishments. Don't dwell on what you didn't get to finish. Don't ruminate on how you felt like you had to Google too many things, or worry about those things you didn't know. YOU'RE LEARNING! It's okay. 

Is 7 Ate 9  perfect? No.
Is it free of bugs? ..haha no.
Am I happy with what I accomplished? HECK YEAH!

What did I learn?

Planning is important, and don't worry about dreaming big! Prioritizing is equally important, ensure you're completing those important game aspects that allow your game to function as best as it can in the time you have. If you get stuck, take a short break or walk to clear your head or maybe shift to a different part of the project. Try not to get discouraged...game dev is hard and anyone who tells you it's not, is fibbin' to you! If you're still reading this, I hope I was able to help you in someway or at a minimum provide some interesting reading! 

Stay weird and may the odds be ever in your favor

- Alindaelia