This is going to be a short, informal postmortem, and it’s going to be a bit more philosophical than usual. I’m not going to pick apart the project, what went wrong and what didn’t, but just reflect a bit on where it came from and how it turned out.

So Bad it’s Good Jam 2024 is over, and The Excessive Sound Guys placed 32 out of 86. In relative terms, it did better than last year’s entry, you have to make the game, which came in at 18 out of 35, though its score was slightly worse.

Honestly, I’m surprised it did that well. I was optimistic while I was making and submitting it, but by a day or two into the rating period I’d realized I’d made pretty much every possible mistake.

• Slow-paced, complex, but chill gameplay
• Awkward controls and tedious mechanics
• Narrative focus over gameplay
• Dry, satirical humour
• Assumes background knowledge players don’t have
• Not web playable (at least not on release)
• Banner feature (demo mode) is technically impressive, but has no gameplay purpose

These are all things that don’t play well in jams, and in this jam in particular, and I knew that going in. Once I settled on an idea and started working on it, though, I lost sight of that and got excited about the project instead, with concerns about how well my game would perform falling by the wayside.

I’m not going to lie, it stings to go from consistently placing in the top ten to hanging out in the middle. But how I approach game jams and what they mean to me has changed dramatically in recent years. After the jam, I had an idea which I think would have scored better, but I wanted to make this weird home theatre building game. It helps a lot to frame it in those terms, that I created something I really wanted to exist, and despite it being way out there it ranked okay.

Jamming as an adult with responsibilities is far different than jamming as a student. I can’t put my life on pause and do nothing but jam- not for a month, not for a week, not even for a weekend. I put in maybe 3-4 hours a day on average (less on weekdays, more on weekends) and even still I was feeling pretty burnt out and behind on other things by the end. I’m blown away at how much time people are putting in and what they’re accomplishing, and I can’t help but feel I can’t compete with that. Jamming is still fun, but it’s also draining to the point where this isn’t something I can do very often.

The rating period is almost worse. I used to love trying out all the games and seeing how they all came together, but it’s increasingly feeling like a chore. Part of that is simply because I’m coming out of the jam period tired to begin with. I think my main issue is that I’m trying to approach it the same way I always have, but with much less time to do it and consequently much more time pressure. I still feel a compunction to play as many games as possible and offer feedback to each one. Not being able to get to them all sucks, but running into one I really like but only being able to give it a cursory play sucks more. Compounding things was how dense this jam was; 85 entries and a week to rate them (later extended).

I can’t do as many jams as I used to, make as many games as I used to, or make games as big and complex as I used to. That’s tough to accept, but it’s something I’ve learned to live with. I’m happy I was able to put this weird little thing together, and given the limitations I was working under I feel it turned out pretty well.