Postmortem for Very Realistic 2D Golf (Devtober 2021)

In the devtober 2021 game jam you apparently need to write a postmortem on the last day of october. I think no one will read my postmortem but if its the case, then enjoy reading it :)!

For the people that haven't played my game or/and don't know me: Hello guys, I'm Daniel, a 16 year old teenager living in Germany. I made a very cool 2D golf game and I want to share my experience with you.

How I came up with my idea

I kinda wanted to make a small and simple game that wouldn't f*ck my brain up (It still did). I had randomly mini golf in my mind. I imagined it like the real mini golf, but in 2D and later I realized that i could make the idea better if I include things in the level that make the game more fun (for example a thing that boost your velocity). In Short: I stole mini golf but made it worse.

What went right

I was able to do the most things which is good. Programming was not a big problem for me because I quickly understood how I need to make things. Art design was really easy because my game lacks on good graphics. Sound design went surprisingly well even though I used an iPhone 8 and some balls for recording. Polishing went also great. My todo list was already empty on the 25th day, so I made more levels, changed things and fixed a bug my friend found. I also posted everyday my progress on twitter which is great (I still don't have fans).

What went wrong

I f*cked some stuff up. I haven't prototyped my game. That was a big error I've made because I could have made the game a bit better if I just tested out variants of my idea and stuff. My game had some stupid bugs because I forgot about important stuff. I haven't started optimizing my game right of the beginning and that is not good. The goal of the jam was to work everyday on your game and to be honest: I made a break on one day for a stupid reason (I was tired). On some other days I just had no time but I still worked a bit on my game. Another big error was to not give enough people play my game. I had a lack on feedback from my friends and I haven't even improved my game after their small feedback (this is very dumb). I asked people on reddit to play my game and I haven't received any feedback from the 2 people. I don't have much friends nor an audience, so this problem will probably last on my shoulders for a long time.  

What have I learned from it

I used more of Unitys features and now I know how to use some of them. I also kinda re-learned video editing, because I made a devlog for the first 15 days. If you have read "What went wrong", you now know that I realized my mistakes and that I have learned from them. I also learned more about vectors, because I've used them more frequently. Im also now a bit better at coding. I've also learned that it's very important to show the internet your game (for example on twitter) because people will then know that you're working on a game. Even though I gained nothing from posting everyday on twitter, I still think it's important. There's many smaller stuff I've learned but I think its not that important to write it here down. I've also realized that I can come very far with my projects, if I work every day on my game. 

I really enjoyed the journey with the goal of working every day on a game. As I said, I realized that I can come very far if I work every day on my game. Thank you Ellian for this awesome game jam!

If you finished reading this: Thank you!

Have a lovely day :)!