Lessons from Miz jam 1

The morning that results came I woke up and started looking for my game. Page 1, 2, 3, 10, 20... Cat Saver is nowhere to be seen. Maybe it was deleted, maybe I've violated some rules, lots of maybes just filled my mind. Turns out, the game just was lying on 412th place. This result felt like a disaster to me, because I think that the game was totally fine, it had plot, jokes, gameplay progression, cutscenes and almost no bugs (at least that I know of), so it should've been in the best 50% of the games at least. And then came the realization, almost no one even saw, or played CS, so it didn't get votes. And I've started to think of how to fix that in the future.

1) I should've made browser version. When the votes started, I've noticed that downloading a lot of games, then unzipping and only then start playing, is a chore. The solution to this is simple: make a browser version, it removes the chore and a lot more people will see your game because of it. But don't just drop other versions, because on my pc, for example, browser versions bugged a lot more, so, desktop versions are kind of needed too.

2) I should've left more comments on other games. I try not to fill the internet with my thoughts if I don't have strong opinion about something, so I've played around 20-30 games and left only 2-3 comments. But I've played every game made by people who left comments on my game, and I think a lot of people do that. So, to get more views, votes and opinions, you should leave YOUR votes and opinions on other people's games.

3) Transparent tutorial is really important, mine wasn't transparent enough. No one can read your mind, and this is an important thought to have when you make any game, because when you make a game, you get used to it's mechanics, graphics, levels and so on. But other people, especially in jams, just don't have time to figure out how you think. So you need to imagine yourself going totally blind into you own game, and remember each and every step, so when you do make a tutorial it would be more helpful and readable. Giving your game to friends really helps too, especially if you can see their reactions. Personally, I thought that simple wall of text with only small hint of how to get to victory will force players to think and have more fun. But, I was wrong, I should've written everything straight into the face and maybe even make some fun tutorial picture explaining my idea and how to play. Will do next time.

4) Presentation of your game. I'm a modest person (I think) so I don't really like writing big chunks of text about how my games are cool, interesting, fun (even if it's true to some degree) and all that, so CS had a very dull and almost empty description. This was a mistake, because big words attract people, and humble words don't, so I should've wrote about my game more. Also, I should've made gifs of gameplay instead of only screenshots, I think this would've attracted people too.

I know that some things from this list are like alphabet to some people, but I wanted to share my thoughts anyway, thank you for reading!