FRUITLOOP

Final Update & Jam Postmortem

Well, that was that.

This last update adds a couple nice QOL features, some rebalances and adjustments, and attempts to squish some last bugs (many remain though). We might go on to add a character or two, maybe some extra level-segments if we feel particuarly inspired, or bug-fix if it's particuarly egregious; but for now, we're happy to leave FRUITLOOP as it is now.

A huge thanks again to everyone, it was a year-highlight, and maybe a first-step on something new and fulfilling.

Changelog Version 0.0.2.0:

• More hitbox adjustments, wheel-speed adjustments and other small tweaks.
• Added a Character Unlock system. Each wheel turn unlocks a new fruit. (I've just realised that the popup saying a Fruit's been unlocked occurs even once you run out of Fruit to unlock (Round 6ish); may fix, but if you make it that far, it's a feat in itself.)
• More level overhauls and updates.

Jam Summary

It was a first crack: we came into this as a couple who's sum game-dev experience amounted to hobbyist art projects (none of which was pixel-art) on the one hand, and the other who's small number of failed game projects and pixel-illustrations which made the idea of somehow creating an entire game in 4 days seem pretty wishful.

But we did! We submitted something, had people review it, and ultimately we ended up with scores that we were beyond encouraging for whatever project ends up coming next. We weren't in the top 10 games submitted, of-course we weren't expecting that, but in a few catagories just being in the top 10-20% was exciting to witness.

There's a list of things I'd wished we'd done differently as long as several of my arms, and I'll certainly be mentioning these lower down, but we'd always have things we'd want to adjust, and it's given lessons learned about scope and project-management we'll definitely be taking into future games and Jams!

What Went Well?

1. That we submitted something: This was never a guarantee, indeed the biggest fear I had with this first Jam was that without any benchmark to assess timescales to, we had no way of knowing whether the idea was too ambitious or complex. Many MANY people who sign-up don't get a submission out, so that in itself was an achievement.
2. The gameplay matched the theme: Our highest score was on Creativity, and in some ways I attribute it to the way the game's concept was a twist on something familiar, that brings the Loop theme into the equation. Whatever the excecution of the game's mechanics, flawed and unbalanced as they were, I was encouraged to see reviews mentioning that they enjoyed trying to plan their next loop in advance, as it was exactly what I was going for.
3. The ARTWORK: Megan had never done pixel-art before. Megan had never used Aseprite before. Megan hadn't been forced to put a bunch of artwork out in a handful of days using a very limited colour palette from her incredibly annoying partner before. So when after less than 24 hours of Jamming she pulls out this incredibly cohesive, beautifully realised art-style from seemingly nowhere, complete with all of the characters, blocks, and logo all consistent in tone and undeniably retro-pixel, I spent most of the rest of the Jam scraping my jaw off the floor. The reviews said as much too, and it was our second-best voting category.
4. The MUSIC: MuscleWizard is a friend from work, and alongside seemingly invested skill-points into every single stat possible with a frankly absurd amount of hobbies and different talents, also happens to be a gifted music-artist. So when I remembered mid-Jam that he had created a bunch of retro Nintendo-inspired tracks during the lockdowns, I was blessed to get permission to use a few tracks. Honestly I agree with some of the reviews saying they wish they could survive long enough to hear the rest of the song, and I'm kicking myself that the bugs and input-issues meant only a small slice of that brilliance could be heard.

What Went Not-Well?

1.  Front-loading the polish: It's a common problem I've been guilty of since I started developing. Being formally a creative before being a coder, I've a tendency to want to try and iron out the "vision" before the any of the technical details. This often means I'm worrying about title-transitions, exact animation-speeds, and essentially any other element that isn't making the game. In-fact one of the first things that got made in FRUITLOOP was the animated circlular wheel that pops into existence at the start of the level: it's just not a good way to develop. It's what's killed all my other game-projects, and it may very well could have killed this one. Actually submitting something "finished" is testament to lesson's-learned, but given every other issue below is rooted in this fundamental problem, it's one to work on.
2.  The Bugs: Possibly the biggest complaint we had from the Jam was how unfair a lot of the deaths were. The two main causes for this were the Input-issues (discussed below), and the ceaseless hitbox and collision bugs. Sometimes the player would pass through blocks if they travelled too fast and trigger a death, sometimes they would pass through a spring as it triggered and kill them that way, sometimes the hitbox for an on/off block would break the switch-loop early and cause the player to fall through whatever block they were standing on. Ultimately this turned a lot of players off, unsurprisingly. I lay the blame squarely at the first point.
3. Lack of Input-Buffering: The single best piece of advice from the reviews came from Unknown-3200 in one sentence:
   
   This single addition took 3 minutes to implement and completely changed the way the game felt. In the submitted version, if you registered a jump-press even one frame before you touched the floor, it wouldn't trigger and typically this would end your run. Input buffering completely removed this issue, but my lack of experience with platformers meant this never occured to me, but I'm grateful that this has been a learning point.
4. Lack of level-variety: The majority of the levels were made on the final day. This in itself wasn't an issue: we submitted early and essentially had just that to work on. But creating these level-segments after making everything else meant I was so tired and lacking creative-motivation that designing a level that might have taken an hour now took twice that; the quality suffered too. Another casualty of the focus on visual-polish.

What Will Change Next Time?

We know what needs focus on the next loop (haha): building a more sturdy game foundation before anything else. The funny thing I found from the post-jam updates is that if I'd spent even half-a-day more on the gameplay a lot of these issues wouldn't be there. Front-loading this aspect is the key objective next time. 

Overall though, given how many dead projects burn within the pyre of my Archived Game-Project Folder, I'm just so grateful to have been able to produce a finished game. 

Being able to do it with the love of my life is a pretty sweet bonus.

- Michael Kent.