Oh No! My Coins!

Welcome on my first Game Jam result! 

For the curious, here is my journey through my first Ludum Dare Game Jam (and for my first fully finished game!): 

Saturday morning:
Up at 5:30, I don't really want to wake up but I can't resist to take a look at the theme. Life is currency. I think it's the one I found the worst. I think about it trying to fall asleep but it's too late. I need to start and write some ideas. By reading posts on the Ludum Dare website, inspiration begins to thrive and I finally found a idea that I like and respecting the theme. I remember a Unity tutorial covering all the the basic features I need (the 2D Roguelike project)  so I spend the whole morning following the tutorial to get a first prototype for my game. 

Saturday afternoon:
It's time to do some graphics! With my idea, pixel art seems perfect and easy enough to do some good-looking programer art ;) I have hard time to find inspiration on the web but I end up pretty happy with my main character after a few hours of work.  I continue with walls and floor.
I add some features in the game like jumping and going through walls. Using my boyfriend as a beta-tester, I tweak them until he likes them. I end my day by searching music and sound effects on Open Game Art.

Sunday morning: 
I begin my day with more graphics. I finish all I need to have a prototype of the game with my own graphics. Then, I start a new feature: adding cops that follow the player and trapdoor to hide from them. For that, I used an A* star algorithm found on Github and it saved me so much time! I end my morning with this feature complete (at least on the programming side).

Sunday afternoon: 
I go back to graphics for the cop. Then, I add sound effects and music background. I polish the game by adding a start screen and a game over screen. I also take a long break after all this work! And back to it, it's time to add levels! 
When I finish almost all the levels, I do some beta-testing again. I tweak some levels and add more. I also play with the different parameters of the game to make it not too hard and not too easy. 

And voilà! My game is here, ready to be played. 

I'm very exciting about all I did this weekend. I'd never thought to make a game so polished at the end of this game jam. I wasn't even sure to have something to post at the end when I began. 

I hope you'll like it! And congratulations to everybody that go through this game jam :)