The Art of making Bad Games

I just got the scores back from the latest LD Jam. I don't really expect to do anything groundbreaking this time, but I will admit that Lineman was my most complete and polished game that I've made for a jam in literal years. I was proud of it, it was a unique enough story, the game was polished, albeit a little clunky in some areas, and it had a cohesive visual style. 

All that said, I was a little discouraged when I got the scores back. 


Ratings and feedback are one of the reasons I like the Ludum Dare. Its a process that isn't super common with most other jams I feel. I genuinely find it interesting how games rank when the dust settles and what gameplay mechanics stand out. 

The lineman was a rare time that I started a 48 hour jam and finished with something that was arguably complete. It had issues I knew, like the lack of a soundtrack, confusing in-game direction, short story primarily. Even with that, I was still surprised I was in the bottom half of the compo games. 

It can be discouraging to make something and feel like it wasn't rated the way you thought it might, but at the end of the day, to me, the important thing was I made something. Ludum dare rankings are important to me, but I have found it's secondary to how the process of making the game makes me feel. I Need to be honest with myself, I will almost certainly never make a game that I would sell. I don't need to put the pressure of making something commercially successful or appealing. At the end of the day, the only person who really cares about the game is me. 

While I do want to make games that are actually fun to interact with, However, I know that some ideas won't stick with people, and that's ok. I won't know unless I actually make things.