EDIT: I've asked Dan to remove my game from the competition, as I submitted a broken link and thus didn't comply with the deadline. More importantly, I omitted my splash screen and rules instruction, and my wargame "Tobruk" is a complex wargame with an unusual simultaneous-execution ("WeGO") model. So no one understands how to play. FYI, you give all orders before any units actually move.
How to play: (1) Left click a British (brown) unit; (2) click on a highlighted hex to order the unit to move there during the execution phase; (3) give orders to more British units; (4) hit Enter to execute all your (and all AI) orders simultaneously; (5) press spacebar to step through each phase of the execution phase.
I didn't realize I'd be unable to make devlog entries after the deadline, so my "game topic" post has no devlog to speak of. Live and learn! So here's a little substitute after-the-fact devlog. (Should I put the following paragraphs in a spoiler to save forum space?)
1. My game
Tobruk is a wargame set in North Africa in 1940, featuring Operation Compass, the British effort to push the Italians back from Egypt. You play as the Brits. The goal is to take Tobruk, Bardia and Sidi Barrani within 20 turns; VPs are awarded for each city, and for units killed. I used a "WEGO" system: the player and AI plot orders, and then the computer executes them simultaneously. You plot orders by left-clicking on units and left-clicking on a destination -- a UI feature I described at the top of the screen, but not in sufficient detail. Combat happens as the turn is executed by the computer. Messages report combat results. Units can take two hits; if hit once, they get red markings and reduced stats. This I didn't explain well at all.
2. On "three simple rules," my idea was: resupply, move, attack. But I didn't stress those three basic rules enough in the game itself, especially supply, as my supply rules were too cobbled-together to describe in a pithy way.
3. The game does model supply, in a basic way. I implemented basic pathfinding (flood or breadth search), which was good enough for orders, but not good enough for supply. Supply requires a more sophisticated search algorithm, and I didn't have time for A* pathfinding. I used brute-force workarounds for supply instead.
4. I spent a lot of time on Day 1 just researching the historical orders of battle -- what units to put where. I probably should have thought of this ahead of time, lol! Still, I learned from the exercise.
5. I am pleased that I implemented victory points and victory conditions fairly early. This is my first "complete" game: it can be played from start to finish, it has coherent rules, and it has specific victory conditions.
6. I waited too long to worry about presentation things: opening screen, basic rules instruction, music, sound, etc. I didn't want to have to click through an opening screen every time I compiled the game. I guess that's dumb, because I never got around to implementing one. You guys just suck it up and click thru the opening screens every time you test?
7. Likewise, I found music I liked but had trouble integrating it into the game and gave up on it. I did manage to make sprites for all 30+ unique unit counters, but I ran out of time to make adequate alternate sprites for damaged units, so I had to slap on red squares indicating damaged sprites instead. I couldn't find any public-domain "tank" or "infantry" sounds and gave up on that.
8. I wanted to implement waypoints for ordering units, but that was a bridge too far.
9. I spent too much time on features important to me that likely no one will care about! E.g., tweaking my AI, trying to refine supply rules, implementing stacking (!), hex overlay, toggle-able units, hotkeys to show hex control, etc.
10. I'm proud of my effort, but it could be a two year project! Next time I will design a less ambitious game. I am pleased with how much I achieved, but 3 days is just not a lot of time to make a detailed wargame about Tobruk, complete with historically-accurate orders of battle.
Anyway, I hope people will play my game, not because I expect to win anything (I certainly don't), but because I'd like feedback on how to improve. Thanks.