Taken from the original post-mortem written here.

Post Mortem: Postal Pigeon

You can check out the game on itch.io!

Overview

This Godot game, developed for Micro Jam 024, is a puzzle game about helping a silly little pigeon deliver mail. The theme of the jam was Wind, with the added constraint of only three buttons.

The idea was to make a game reminiscent of classic ice-sliding puzzles (like in Pokémon), but without the ability to move in one direction (in this case, down) to satisfy the constraint. To balance this limitation, wind elements like gusts and cyclones were added, that push the player in various ways, forcing them to figure out how to use wind to their advantage to reach the goal.

Additionally, I decided this would be a “great time” to learn pixel art, game music composition, and the Godot game engine — all at once…

Timeline

5th October 2024

• 4:30 AM - 5:00 AM: The prerequisite/constraint was announced. I brainstormed ideas for a bit before calling it a night.
• 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: Set up Godot and installed the export templates. Tried exporting and uploading an empty project to itch.io to test that everything worked.
• 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Took a break for lunch.
• 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Created several of the game’s sprites, including static objects like rocks and trees, and dynamic ones like the pigeon, gusts, and cyclones (without animations).
• 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Adjusted the camera size and fine-tuned pixel art settings.
• 8:00 PM - 10:30 PM: Took care of some chores and then went out for dinner.
• 10:30 PM - 12:00 AM: Designed the game’s icon. Animated the pigeon, gust, and cyclone sprites. Found and imported the monogram font.

6th October 2024

• 12:00 AM - 1:30 AM: Watched a few tutorials on Godot’s UI system before heading to bed.
• 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM: Stepped out for a few errands.
• 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Created icons for the buttons. Learned about, and created, a Godot UI theme.
• 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Learned how to connect and use button signals and set up scene switching. Created the settings screen and volume slider. Created a game state singleton to track settings and cleared levels.
• 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Took a break before the final crunch. Feels counterintuitive now.
• 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Created the About scene.
• 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Imported the remaining assets, set up tilemaps with static and animated tiles, and designed Level 1 and Level 2.
• 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM: Wrote control code for the bird to move until a wall or static object was encountered.
• 11:00 PM - 1:00 AM: Added gusts and cyclones to the gameplay, fixed animation bugs, and worked with Godot’s animation system to improve the bird’s movements.

7th October 2024

• 1:00 AM - 3:30 AM: Designed Levels 3-8.
• 3:30 AM - 4:00 AM: Created a help screen as a substitute for a proper tutorial.
• 4:00 AM - 4:30 AM: Quickly composed and added background “music” to fill in the silence and make the volume slider useful.
• 4:30 AM - 5:00 AM: Exported the game and tested the web build before uploading it to itch.io.

What Went Well

• Art and Aesthetic: Despite the time constraints, the pixel art for the pigeon and the rest of the game turned out as well as I could have hoped for, considering it was my first time making game art.
• Core Mechanics: The ice-sliding mechanics combined with the wind elements and the inability to move down turned out to be a good formula for a puzzle game. With more time and better level design, it could become very fun.

What Could Be Improved

• Music and Sounds: The music was a last-minute addition and could have been done in a different style to better suit the game’s aesthetics. Adding sound effects for the player would have improved the game, too.
• Level Design: While some levels were decently challenging, adding more types of obstacles and a better difficulty progression would have made the game more engaging.
• Tutorial: A more interactive tutorial would help players grasp the mechanics faster, instead of relying solely on them reading a wall of text on the help screen.

Takeaways

This jam was a rewarding experience, and I especially enjoyed creating all the pixel art myself. While not everything I envisioned made it into the final build, the experience will help me plan better for future jams. The idea also isn’t half bad and is something I’d be happy to continue improving and polishing later.

Special Thanks

• Godot Engine
• Aseprite
• Bosca Coeil Blue