Dev Log Blog ("Finish Your Game" Jam 2024)

Wow! What an 18 months it has been. When I started this project for a 30 day 'Pixel Art Game Jam' in Apri 2023, I never would have thought how much I would learn from this project. That first game jam was a great time; it may have been crunchy, but I was really proud with how much I got done. I diffidently didn't finish however, and I continued to work on it over the year at a pace I am happy with. That said, it honestly didn't look too much different back then than it looks now. It's true what they say: "the last %10 percent of your game takes %90 of the time.

"Finish Your Game" Jam 2024 was a great opportunity and one that I have actively been checking for on itch.io for a couple of months now. Regardless of the fact I got a late start on this jam, I still can't call Sirens Abyss finished, but I was able to make some major steps in the right direction. I won't talk specifics here as those are in my last post, but I will say that nearly all work done for this jam was about fixing and polishing what I have in order to put it into a playable demo state.

The jam is nearly up and it's time to take a break, so here's where I stand on the demo: 

GAMEPLAY : it's okay - I don't necessarily find the game fun yet, but I do have plans that I hope will really start increasing the fun factor; I think the real issue is just how bare-bones everything is right now. More enemies, gear, mechanics and biomes should help spice things up and add dynamic gameplay. 

PERFORMANCE: HORRIBLE. You despite being a 2D pixel game, you need a gaming rig to run it properly. I don't have too much experience in optimization, but I do have some and will be working on it eventually.

BUGS/ISSUES: I've tested it as much as I could, and I think I have combed out any potential crashes. I made some more changes today that I am scared will cause issues, but the last few times I have played I have not had a crash, and I think everything is working as intended, for the most-part at least.

I still have a lot of work to do both on the backend/documentation side as well as the gameplay and UI; I hope you're willing to stick around and dive deep into the world of Sirens Abyss!