Let me start with the cliché and say that this was my first-ever game jam.

On the 1st of September, I decided to learn Godot. It had been more than a year since I had dropped Unity and my little projects (a couple of two-week self-challenges). I followed the Brackeys tutorial, played around with some nodes, and then discovered that this jam was starting soon. I decided, why not? My only goal was to finish something. To have anything close to a game by the end of the week.

Of course, I overscoped and ended up with a relatively complex game, featuring different mechanics and systems. I also had no idea if the game was fun or if people would enjoy playing it. By Thursday night, I was considering dropping the whole thing. I would need to refactor a lot of systems and rethink how to approach things like the combat system and object collisions. But a couple of friends tried the game, and they seemed to like it, so I decided to keep going.

And I’m so glad I did. Mainly because I made a game that I enjoyed playing, and so did my girlfriend—which is the highest compliment for me. Also, I met a lot of amazing people over the past few weeks and played tons of incredible games. It was really great to be part of a community like that.

After the game was submitted, I was actually nervous about looking at the ratings. I knew that with so many games, a lot of them wouldn't get the attention they deserved. I would have been thrilled if just 20 people rated my game—and they did, on the first day. Soon, Overforged was the 11th most popular, which I couldn’t believe. I thought it had to be some sort of recommendation thing, so I tested it in a private tab, and the same thing happened. Of course, with so many games, I didn’t expect to keep my spot for long, but it was more than enough for me. The day after,Overforged  was 5th most popular, then 3rd, and just this morning, we hit the top 2 most popular games in the jam.

I can’t describe how happy I am that so many people played my game—and that they seem to be enjoying it! I’m so grateful for every piece of feedback I’ve received. It’s an amazing feeling to create something and have so many people take an interest in it, sharing what they liked and how it could be improved. I’m doing my best to play and rate everyone else’s games who rated mine, and I really hope I can get through them all in time.

I’m aware that the game needs some balancing. It’s hard to nail the balance in a game like this with so little playtesting, especially when you’re trying to build an experience that’s both quick and challenging. In this short version, it’s hard for the player to guess the best strategies to optimize everything. Also, because the game doesn’t inform you that it ends after the third wave, a lot of people seem frustrated by dying so early—when in reality, they were almost beating the game.

I’m also aware of a bug where the rats and soldiers don’t fight each other, which at least two people have experienced. I’ll patch it as soon as the ratings are over, but for now, let’s just call it the pacifist route.

Besides that, there are a lot of quality-of-life improvements and additional variety I could add to the game—stuff I had to cut to make time to finish and polish it. I was working on an endless mode in the final hour before the submission deadline but was afraid I’d discover more bugs with so little testing, so I decided not to risk it. If that sounds like something you’d like to see, let me know!

Finally, I want to thank some people who helped me get here.

First of all, the other half of this team, MadTricks. I was randomly checking the community tab a few days after the jam had started, and someone was offering to do the sound for a game. There were already a few comments, but I decided to throw my hat in the ring. Not only did his SFX and music really elevate the game—being directly responsible for all the praise about the game’s feel—but he also helped me with menus, sound implementation, testing, and keeping me company on the project this week. Please also check out his solo project, BoltRider, a thrilling cyberpunk racing game!

I also want to thank the Brazilian game dev community on BlueSky, who followed my journey. Shoutout to the people from lvl 100 studio, who made Pizza Station, an amazing pizza-making/bullet hell game that is ridiculously polished. Maochite, who made The Judgment’s Eden, a game with an amazing atmosphere that had me dying to know more about the lore. And everyone else who followed my journey these past few weeks, helping with testing and feedback.

Then, I want to thank the people that have playedOverforged in stream so far. I had a blast watching you guys play. Simpathey who was so nice and fun and made Rain in the Drain, an amazing frog game that is a cozy only-up. And Steve von Brand who made an amazing card game/worker placement, Monsters of the Storm, and that I'm really sorry for having to deal with my pacifist route bug!

And lastly, my amazing girlfriend Iris, who helped me test every single iteration of the project, didn’t complain about me staying up late with my noisy keyboard, and has been checking the rankings of most popular and most-rated games every day—making me feel like Taylor Swift and her charts.