Thursday, 1 PM GMT:

So... it's currently 1PM GMT on a Thursday, I'm waiting for this Jam to start while I'm clocked in at work, so I'll have to start a bit later than everyone else. The theme of this Jam has just been announced. It's "Bullseye." I'm not too sure what to do with that. I feel like a lot, if not all of the games are going to be "hit the thing with the other thing" and I've always been more of a story-driven person. We'll see if I can come up with anything.

Thursday, 3:32 PM GMT: 

I used my entire lunch break to come up with game ideas and nothing is sticking for me. I feel like even if I manage to find a story concept that works with this, the theme will be secondary, as it'll play a minor role.

Friday, approximately 2 PM GMT:

I have a game idea! I've started writing down some story concepts. The game's set to start in a smokey saloon in the Mexican old west. I can tell you now I'm going to call the Mexican old west Spanish on at least one occasion and it's going to drive me insane, but alas.

Friday, approximately 5 PM GMT:

I started drawing up some art for the game. I really like point-and-click games, especially the old-style ones, so I'm designing the game with that in mind. It might be a POV game, as I'm not sure how much time I'll have to create a character controller and all of the animations associated with that. I currently have an old west town, and I'm really happy with it. It just needs some light shadows and it'll be done. Right now I'm taking scenes that I like, tracing them out with the line tool in Aesprite, and then sketching over that free-hand with a mouse. It gives it this whacky, cartoonish look that I really dig.

Saturday, approximately 5 PM GMT:

I'm going to probably have to drop out of this jam. I'm pretty sick and it doesn't look like I'm going to be any better for the next few days. I didn't get anything new done today. Sunday, 1 PM  GMT: I'm back. The jam ends tomorrow and a bunch of people on the Game Maker forums seemed to really like the silly art I did for the town, so I really feel like doing some other art now.

Sunday, 4 PM GMT:

That was wild. I drew up 4 other rooms - every building in the game, all of the characters, and all of the various items. I still haven't written a single line of code. Don't think this is possible at this point, but I had fun doing some art.

Sunday, 1AM GMT:

I'm very proud of myself right now... and very, very tired. I sat down, brought in all of the art, and programmed pretty much everything. I also came up with the full story for the game and a fairly intricate puzzle, given my time constraints. I'm hoping I left enough hints in there so that everyone can solve each puzzle element, but there's not a huge amount of stuff to interact with, so I'm sure through trial and error they'll work it out eventually. This system I've set up is very limited, and almost everything is hard-coded. There's a single object that remains in every room that controls basically everything. Each room has "hotspot" objects on the screen that, when interacted with in a certain way (look, interact, talk to) trigger different code depending on some variables. I.E. If you've never met the barkeep, he'll say an intro first. If you try to take alcohol before meeting the barkeep, you won't be able to, etc. etc. Also everything is just multiple full background images. If you take the bottle of alcohol, that's not just a bottle of alcohol sprite updating, it's the entire background. It's not the best way to do things, but it is probably the fastest, again, given the time constraints.

Monday, 4AM GMT:

I am very upset at my decision to add over 70 voice lines using a text-to-speech voice, because now I have to voice act those 70+ lines.

Monday, 7AM GMT:

Well, I did it. I recorded all of the voice lines and even an intro + outro with accompanying art! The voice work is not good and I don't have time to add music, because I need to go to work shortly. The game is ready to upload, but I have no time. I'll come back on my break and get everything ready to go.