First game

This is the first game I've ever actually finished. I did start making one nearly a year and a half ago, but the intended scope was too big and I was too busy to continue it, so development lasted only 2 weeks (though it gave me most of the knowledge I needed to make this). Other than that, I haven't ever really made anything other than very small tests.

This began with me talking on Discord about gamedev stuff, then a friend telling me I'm always talking about making games but never making anything, then I said I didn't have time or mental space to do it right now, then he started yelling at me in caps telling me I will never in my life have time, then I said ok I'll show you I'll make a game in the weekend, and here we are.

In the end, I don't think even I know what I ended up doing with the gameplay. I think it's kind of awkward and it's not actually fun at all, but maybe someone will find a good use of it.
I should've found a better, more concrete, and more dynamic mechanic other than the gun jamming to make the interactions in the game fun and competitive. It ended up being a luck game, while I wanted something decided by (mostly) skill, reflexes, and/or mindgames.

This is also the first time I've used Aseprite (originally wanted to try doing normal 2D but ended up going this way for one reason or another) and holy shit, that program is good. It is not a program, it's a work of art. It was so good in fact, that I had initially pirated it (building it seemed really bothersome and convoluted) but liked it so much I bought it.
Sadly, my artistic skills are close to 0, so while the background ended up looking pretty cool due to the dithering tool and some rare creative ideas, the cowboy sprites are as bad as they can be. What ended up making them even worse than they should be is how I didn't add any detail or dithering to them after having made the background, so they contrast excessively; the worst offender is probably the lack of shadows, which the cacti do have.

What I think does compensate a lot, or at least impressed me, is the sound effects.
I would spend nearly an hour looking for SFX and cutting and leveling and moving them in Audacity, and then I would put it together with an animation and it would blow my mind just how incredible it felt, and replayed the game several times like an idiot just to see/hear that part over and over again. If the SFX are good, they raise the credibility (or as the Japanese would put it,  the sonzaikan) of animations by orders of magnitude.
I think I should've been a sound engineer or something instead of a programmer.

Speaking of programming, I gave up most notions of sane code and practices here since the scope was small enough, given if I spent too much time thinking about how to properly architecture things I wouldn't end up getting anything done.
It also surprises me how little I had to think about code, these game engines (or Godot, at least) are really something (granted, I did steal code from my own unfinished game). I would say only 20 or 30% of the mental effort was spent on coding. Really ended up spending a lot of time drawing/animating stuff in Aseprite and scavenging for SFX. Of course, getting stuck in one problem or another did take up several hours.

Finally, there are some additional effects I wanted to add, such as (better, looping) clouds, a changing sandstorm or orange light overlay effect, player shadows, and that typical rolling plant thing that appears in deserts, but I didn't have enough time.
Might add them later, though I don't see much of a point to updating this game.

Notes for the next game I make:

• Decide resolution/aspect ratio before making the background so it can be properly made to scale.
• Make other people make the sprites and animations for me, or magically learn how to art.
• Sound effects are REALLY important. Always put the same amount of effort I put in here or more in them. When I ever make an actual big game, buying SFX will also most likely be worth it.

PS: Might start using Aseprite as an MSPaint replacement.