The result of GBJAM 7 was released last Sunday. The Adventure of Rick ranks 79 among 115 entries. Gameboy-ness category ranks 26 thanks to GB Studio and the fact my tileset are based on a Pokemon tileset I found online. I didn't put any sound in the game, so Audio ranks 93 is understandable. Graphics and fun ranks around 80 really shows the problem. I am going to dissect the problems of the Rick game. Hopefully I can learn from them and make better games in future jams.

Problems

Scope is too large

The core problem of the game is the scope. The map is too big for me to handle. It has many different areas: hometown, university, conference venue, airports. Each area has buildings and interior. All of these add up to a lot of work: each room needs sprite, map and triggers. This problem leads to other problems mention below. Because of the large scope and lack of focus, I didn't have time to make a proper introduction and story line. I didn't have time to polish the core mechanics to make it shine.
This is a good lesson, not just for making game jam games, but for making any game. Game developers should narrow the scope, make minimal viable game, iterate and slowly add components. Most of top ranking games, at least those I have played, are very focused. 

Storytelling is poor

The most common feedback from fellow jammers for the game is: they found it very difficult to figure out the goal of the game. The game doesn't have introduction and tutorials. There should be sign post for the places and NPC dialogues to build up the story.

As mentioned above, I didn't have time to make them because the scope was too big. But I imagine even if I had enough time, I wouldn't do a great job in this area. I should test my storytelling ability in the next game jam.

Other GB Studio submissions have very good stories. American standard horror story has weird but immersive story about a flooding toilet. The sprite and animation are so believable. It plays like an Ace Attorney game. Angelo's little adventure is even better. I love how the story unfold by talking to different people. 

Core mechanics is not well made

The core mechanic of the Rick game is to fight with examiners in qualifying exam and final defence using raw data and papers. While the idea is interesting, fresh for gamers and familiar to researchers, dialogue-based combat experience is really bad. The dialogues are repetitive, and there is not much tactics involved. I found an example to make Pokemon like combat system. I think the game would be much better if I could incorporate that. Again, this is eventually caused by lack of focus. If the core mechanics is not good, all the other details don't matter. I should focus on making the core mechanics in future game jams.

GB Studio is too limited

Since GBJAM is about making GB games, I chose GB Studio as the game engine, which is a user friendly game engine for making actual GB game that can be played on the real hardware. However, the game engine is extremely limited. All programming is made by drag and drop. This process is extremely tedious, very hard to develop and debug. I should avoid using any game engine that doesn't support scripts.

Don't get me wrong. Limitation is not the problem. PICO-8 is also limited, but it has high flexibility in the script. The limitation of color, sprite size, code length in the PICO-8 case is actually an advantage. When you use PICO-8, you will focus on making the core game, not on how to make the game look nice. Game engine like Unity, has many features but that makes game design difficult to focus. Limitation promotes creativity. That's why gameboy won over other handhelds. That's why Nintendo consoles won many console wars. That's why PICO-8 is popular in game jams.

 What I learned

Enough of negative things. Let's write something positive about the jam. Of course the mistakes I mentioned above are the biggest learning points. But in addition to those, I also learned the workflow of 2D pixel games. I learned how to make sprites using Aseprite and how to make tiled maps using Tiled. They are both great software. One thing I wish I had time to do was to make SFX. Well, that is one goal for the next jam.