The Anchorite - Game Jam Reflections

I recently took part in the Adventure X Game Jam 2024 (https://itch.io/jam/advxjam2024), my first ever game jam, and it was a very interesting experience.

For a start, I created a game that wasn't (strictly speaking) horror, although it could be argued that it had elements of existential horror (not really by me, you can call it what you want!). This took me out of my comfort zone, because even though I have written other kinds of fiction in the past (my first book The Binary Man was sci fi/dystopia), I haven't done so for a very long time, and I never had much of a following for my books, whereas there are a few people who follow my games now (thank you good people). The response so far seems positive, which is great - Alpha Beta Gamer even played it, which has helped with visibility a lot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDXG58guuMs&t=3s). I enjoyed writing it despite the anxiety, and I tried to concentrate on a story that I found interesting, just hoping others would too. I won't spoil the story here, in case you want to play it yourself (please do) - it can be found here: I could have written a horror based on the prompt (3 rules), but this was the first story that came to mind and it felt right.

Play the Anchorite here: https://beyondbooleans.itch.io/the-anchorite

It was a challenge getting everything done so quickly, and I had to balance time spent plotting, background detail and putting in some flavour animations with getting the thing over the line, and while I did ok, I think that I will definitely try to reduce the scope a little bit on the next game jam (if I do another). Well, I say that now, but I suppose it depends on the prompt!

I learned more about coding and animation during the experience and that was great, but the biggest takeaway is that I need a lot more testers of my game (outside of myself) to pick up bugs. I have swatted most of them now thanks to some lovely players on itch.io, but I would have preferred they would have all had a better experience first off. Of course, time was also a factor here due to the two week deadline, but I have no deadline for Carnival or The Tragic Loss of M. Slazak, so I will definitely be putting out a call for help in the future to get those games as solid as they can be for their eventual releases on Steam.

All in all, it was great fun, and I would definitely do it again!