GB Jam 13 - Retrospective

Nick
Screenshot of Spilled Milk

_This is going to be a bit different than my other blogs, I am just sharing my notes on the game and it’s post mortem. I’ll be sharing a more… readable and entertaining post at a later date.

Introduction

  • Game Title: Spilled Milk
  • Release Date: 9/22/2025

Overview

Goals and Objectives

  • Initial Goal: Create a narrative experience with game mechanics that mimic creating routines.

  • Objectives Met:

    • Create a playable game
    • Focus on dialogue and narrative experience
    • Fleshed out set pieces
    • Decent animations

  • Objectives Not Met:

    • Finished story
    • Music/sound FX
    • Create compelling gameplay mechanics

Development Process

Project Management

  • Vibe Project management 😎

Technical Challenges and Solutions

Technical Challenges Faced:

  • Working with the limitations of GB Studio, primarily with variables being incredibly inflexible.
  • State management
  • Iterating on gameplay decisions

Solutions Implemented:

  • Removed all boolean variables and made everything a number.
  • Utilized a single variable that would increment to advance the story.
    • This was not ideal, and the value of each increment should be documented externally. It became confusing to keep track of each step.

Gameplay and User Experience (UX)

Feedback from Players/Target Audience:

  • Positive Reception: TBD
  • Negative Reception: TBD
    • Easy to softlock - Using the kitchen equipment was difficult for some users, and there are multiple ways to softlock the game.

Lessons Learned and Future Plans

Key Takeaways:

  • I can do it! I can make games still.
  • I still need to learn how to make a simple game. I did over-commit to an idea bigger than what I can reasonably do.

Future Development Plans:

  • refine game loop. Make each coffee step more. I believe that there is more to be done here, like making each step a mini-game even if all it is is a point-and-click.
  • Finish the story. The story is supposed to be a 5-7 day process, each with unique story elements that break up the monotony. There should be unique customer interactions, new recipes, conversations.
  • Refactor variables. The variable situation is not good. There are badly named variables (is_intro), recipe constants that went unused, and a whole lot of room for better state management.
  • prevent softlocks.
  • Soundtrack - This game NEEEDS chiptune coffeehouse music.
  • Sound effects - the game is flat and boring without the noise of machines, character interations and other sounds.

Conclusion

  • Overall Assessment:

    • My excitement about the game has waned the more I think about it. It was a great concept but the execution is just not what I would be happy with. The hope with using a tool like GB Studio was to limit distractions and need for unnecessary boilerplate so that I could solely focus on game mechanics and other aspects, and that didn’t really seem to come to fruition. I still was mired by mechanic issue. On top of that, the improvisational method for both developing the mechanics and the story was a blessing and a curse. It led to some more honest dialogue, but also became hard to plan and account for. In hindsight, a general script would have been exceptionally helpful for planning out how the story would go.
    • Making games is hard. It is a skill that I have not been maintaining and so I need to not be surprised that I have a lot of work to do. It is not for everyone and it requires an insane amount of skill and energy. Be kind to yourself and remember that you are learning and re-developing skills that you haven’t used (or taken the time to master) in years.

  • Would You Develop This Game Again?

    • Yes, and I probably will. I would like to keep working with what I have, but that will require a pretty intense re-write.

This article was updated on September 22, 2025