My Game Jam Adventure: From Big Plans to Tiny World

I had big plans for this one. Fortunately, thanks to excellent courses from GameDev.tv, Godot's comprehensive open-source docs, free asset packs, aggressive scope cutting, and strategic LLM assistance, I actually managed to create something that resembles a game this time around!

How I Used AI Tools

Writing & Art: Claude helped polish this very post (I tend to ramble), and I used Stable Diffusion for cover art and background graphics. Not gonna lie—I'm no artist, and with only a week to work, generated assets helped me focus on the actual game development. All the core game assets are hand-crafted freebies from the Anokolisa collection (huge thanks to the artist and GameDev.tv!).

Code Assistance: Got help with dialogue integration, explaining unfamiliar code samples, and generating starter code that I then debugged and updated from outdated Godot 3 API calls. Learning experience all around.

What Made This Possible

• Assets: Anokolisa's gorgeous pixel art from the GameDev.tv giveaway saved me—my pixel art skills are still very much in beta
• Education: GameDev.tv's "Complete Godot 4 2D" course was my foundation, supplemented by Godot docs and strategic Googling
• Tools: GitHub Copilot for explanations and rubber duck debugging

The Dream vs. Reality

What's missing (for now): parallax backgrounds, audio, health bars, game restart on death, challenging enemy AI, climbable chains, moving platforms, switches, bigger levels, varied skeleton behavior, better movement mechanics (coyote jump anyone?), one-way platforms, secret passages, player combat, interactive objects, and proper level design that doesn't fit on a single screen.

The original vision: Players couldn't directly hurt NPCs, but two enemy factions could damage each other. Environmental switches would control spawning, creating a blend of platformer and strategy where you navigate while managing NPC interactions like pieces in a puzzle. Think Factorio meets Metroidvania in a tiny world. If this sounds cool and I never get around to it, please steal this idea and make it happen!

Known Issues

• Door collision problems with skeleton spawner
• Skeletons render above dialogue UI (oops)
• Physics bodies occasionally trap players in walls/floors
• Probably a dozen more I haven't discovered yet

Despite the rough edges, I'm proud of actually shipping something playable. Sometimes "done" beats "perfect," especially in a week-long jam!