In the 2019 Global Game Jam (GGJ), I worked in a team to create the game I Home You. Although a GGJ game is typically developed in around 48 hours after you know the theme of the jam, I Home You was created during a mere 24 hours. What seems to be quite a feat was actually the result of a big struggle in our team during the first 24 hours of the jam.
The reason is that we didn’t prepare well for this jam. Because even if the theme is only released right before the jam begins, it is very beneficial to know the tools that you are going to use to create your game. And we didn’t, at least not entirely. We decided that we wanted to use Java as a programming language, because this is what we used during our regular jobs and knew the best, but we didn’t look at and decide for any engine / game creation framework. As a result, we had to research, try out and discard one framework after another, which was not only tiresome but also very time-consuming.
In the end, we managed to create a game. You can play it, it is possible to win and it is also possible (very possible) to lose. So, I would consider the game jam a success, because we were able to bring a game idea to life. However, if you play the game, you will notice that it is very unpolished. The controls are a complete mess and it is very hard to understand what’s going on. We provided some help on the GitHub page, but also decided to leave the game as it is after the jam: a finished but subpar result and a learning experience for us.