Hello everyone, lunzyde here!

I participated in the #devtober challenge once again! This year so far has been really great for the game, it brought the final beta phase which was supposed to be released on the Google Play Store, but it will be there once the beta phase is officially over. 

Also, it was showcased on Yo Soy Un Gamer's Puerto Rico Games Showcase and Latinx In Gaming's UNIDOS Online 2020 Games Showcase (Thanks to the Puerto Rico Game Developers Association for bringing these amazing opportunities). 

Anyways, let's break things down!

When the challenge started, I was participating with a team in Latinx In Gaming's UNIDOS Online 2020 Game Jam. During this jam, we created the game called: "GastroMaster's Tour: A Humble Beginning". The game is a casual simulation game in which you make mofongos for customers, and everything is based on Puerto Rican Culture.  

I did all sorts of creative tasks, but my primary task was creating the music and sound effects. As I worked on the game, it was also a first for me to work on the following genres: Salsa, Merengue, and Traditional. I hope that I can work further on the soundtrack as I really want to release it!

Overall, the reaction from players has been amazing, do give it a try!

Additionally, I created a game page for an old Global Game Jam 2018 entry, which is called "Gobble-Tron". In this game, you get to play as an experimented turkey with a helmet that makes it smart, and you must survive the endless waves of a robot army. 

The game did receive updates after the jam, but it was never released publicly (even after further development was canceled). I did decide to take action on it and finally released it! While this game was left in a rough state, the purpose of the release is for portfolio reasons.

If you would like to give it a try, do understand the unpolished nature as it is an abandoned game.

When I finished the other game tasks, I started working on PixelTwips for the rest of the month. The development for the most part was focused on squashing bugs, making balance adjustments, and polishing the game. As for new stuff, the only plan I had was for the Music Rework. Once finished, it became the first major update the game would receive during devtober. 

However, that was not the last one as the other two major updates included the casual play style and the visualizer feature. Apart from these, I brought back the pause system, added new content, made a new game trailer, and even made the game page more presentable.

Here are a few things I learned from the challenge:

• If your game is generic, actively spreading the word about your game will not do much.
• You will be creatively blocked when you ignore development breaks.
• Challenge yourself to do the boring/tedious tasks first, those tasks might not be hard at all.
• Do not feel desperate even if you do not receive feedback when you most need it.
• Do not half-ass playtesting, no excuses at all.
• Self-care is important, do not ignore it.

Conclusion

This challenge was a good reminder to look forward during these trying times, participating once again has brought me positive emotions. I still think that I have not done much for the game, but I was able to get things done that were not intended for the beta. I am proud of the development of this passion project, hoping to get it finished as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, hope you learn something from it!

Here are my other postmortem-esque devlogs:

• Devtober 2019, Postmortem
• Struggles of Designing User Interfaces
• The Development Hell of "PixelTwips"

Check out my Twitter to see what I did each day for the challenge:

• twitter.com/lunzyde
• twitter.com/i/events/1322835593898971136