Ghoul Must Eat

Made with	Unity
Timeline	1 week + post-release improvements
Playable	Itch.io
Source	stevepdp/ghoul-must-eat

Retrospective

Made for Weekly Game Jam 203.

The Idea

The jam theme was “Eat the Enemy”.

I like to explore antagonists and the anti-hero archetype. After some thought, I settled on the idea that the player would be the bad guy and that they would be eating the good guy.

What Went Wrong

I spent too long musing on features and aesthetic decisions. Most of the code went in on the final days. Particularly in the final few hours where I had to cut back and focus on quick-wins.

For example, I decided to cut back on how I represent a horde of ghouls. The plan was to present the ghoul with child ghouls following in a grid-like formation. I instead opted for displaying the number and scaling the player.

What Went Well

Despite it's flaws, the product has a beginning, a middle and an end. It shipped within the deadline. As one of the comments read, that’s an achievement in and of itself.

I received plenty of well-meaning feedback and feature requests.

Lessons Learned

• If allowed, prepare the game's scaffolding in advance.
• Focus on the gameplay. Leave pixel art and aesthetics till the end.
• Test exports throughout to catch issues early.
• It doesn’t matter what you intended to make, you will be judged on what you shipped.