Jam-Ops V post-mortem

Well, I'm not going to lie, out of all of the game jams I've done, this one is the entry that I'm least happy with. Its a shame as well because I absolutely love FIST, a game which I often give the tagline 'Cold War gone weird'. Its simple and an utter delight to read and play and I would happily recommend it. So why am I not happy with Operation Green Box, my entry to Jam-Ops V? Do I see anything I did right? Will I stop asking questions and start answering them? Well to that last one: yes.

The Bad
My time management was, in a polite word, a mess. I was trying to multitask and do two jams at the same time, Jam-Ops V, and the Minimalist Jam. I decided to put the former Jam on the backburner and focus on the latter; for anyone who has read my December Blogpost, you will know that this did not help me and left me with basically two weeks before the deadline for Jam-Ops. This would be the cause of many of my gripes and issues, the biggest one being the lack of creativity. I have little doubt most of you will be able to spot the entities which were inspired from the SCP mythos, and the Mi-Go are of course from the Cthulhu Mythos. I'm also not happy with Hyde and Warick, the reason the players are getting involved. I feel like I could have been much more creative with them. I also feel like I haven't really made a good FIST adventure because I didn't give enough chances for players to embrace to do everything action movie heroes do, like get into gunfights or car chases, instead they are sneaking around a warehouse, looking for their objective while trying to avoid eldritch abominations. Ultimately, I can't help but feel that I made an adventure for the wrong system

The Good
Well I got it done and submitted by the deadline, so thats a win. Other than that there are some things I like about operation Green Box. First of all I do like the idea behind it, even if I feel like it was poorly executed. The inspiration came when I remembered the ending seen of the raiders of the lost ark, with the Ark of the Covenant being left in a vast warehouse, also immediately lost amongst dozens of other crates. The idea of players having to root around a warehouse to find an objective screams 'shenanigans!' Secondly the Labyrinth Company Logo: I am really happy with how that came out despite it was basically done in an hour and the fact that images are something I am not particularly good at.

The Future
I am not happy with operation green box, but that doesn't mean its a total waste of time. Despite all the mistakes I made, I've learned, taking another step forwards in creating better games and supplements. Other than revisiting an overhauling Operation Green Box, this isn't going to be the last time I create something for FIST. Like I said, its an excellent game that begs to be hacked. Heck: you'll see its fingerprints on my ongoing project when its released. In the meantime I'm going to take a rest and enjoy Christmas: after which I'll try and get a review of the year video done sometime in January as well looking at my ongoing project. If you have any thoughts and feedback please do leave a comment. Regardless I hope you have  happy and safe holidays and I'll see you soon.

-Tableplant

ADDENDUM 24/12: Welp, I forgot this jam had rankings, which kinda made my decision to focus on the minimalist jam an even worse choice. Oh well, its been an learning experience.