[Afal]

Whilst I'm kinda disappointed that my game (Space Ham https://github.com/dafrancis/SpaceHam) was 104th on the list, on the other I shouldn't really. I didn't spend much time on the game at all and although I could have spent time making the theme coherent and making a solid and fun/engaging game I ended up submitting what I managed to build anyway since at least then I would have something to show.

I also took part in Fuck This Jam (http://bmo.fuckthisjam.com/) in November which could also explain my lack of effort. Since I did the mistake of "not using a game engine" or "not knowing how to do graphical game interfaces" my games tend to look rather crude and mspaintlike. I did learn a lot about canvas though in the last month so it wasn't all for nothing.

Github Gameoff and Fuck This Jam were the first time I've gone and participated in a jam on my own. I've learned a lot of things and I think I will be better prepared next time I decide to partake in another jam. Perhaps I'll take a few art lessons as well...

[efnx]

I don't think not using a prebuilt game engine is a mistake. It's a bigger challenge. It may be an issue of 'who came here to win' versus 'who came here to learn'. My game (The Moonening https://github.com/incorrectangle/game-off-2012) is completely from scratch as well. Of course, there are bugs, and the poster mentioned that in his one liner - but if you're building everything from scratch you're severely disadvantaged and bugs are expected. It's a game jam! So try to give yourself some extra credit when you compare your efforts to others.