◀ 12.2a12.2b

12.2b — Placeholder Jam: Day 2 + Year Retro

The last B day of the year. If the placeholder jam got its topic, today ships it and shows it. Either way, the class ends with the year's retro — the one document that tells September-you what you learned, written by the person who actually learned it.

Ship (if jam) ~30 min

If a topic landed: the 10.1e polish + freeze contract, compressed: feedback pass on every action, three sounds, 30-second first impression, BUILD the build, test the build. Then a ten-minute mini-showcase (arcade row, star votes: 10.1f contract). Every jam this year ended the same way on purpose: shipping is the skill; the theme was the excuse.

If flex: finish yesterday's portfolio item (12.2a) and push it. The projects page with real entries IS the class's final artifact.

Year Retro ~25 min

Write it, then say it. Both count. Five things to write:

  1. The pattern inventory: name every pattern you personally own now — cooldown, state machine, singleton, events, list traversal, bounds checks, input → behavior → output. Count them. That count is your year in one number.
  2. The moment the floor tilted: the single day the class stopped being "assignments" and became "my game" — for most people it is the 7.5 sketch or the first 8.2 phase change. Why yours?
  3. The constraint lesson: your three jams' constraints (2-button, lists, grid) — which one made you most creative, and what does that say about your NEXT project's constraints?
  4. The data lesson: when did numbers beat vibes? (9.5's insight, or your 11.4b error table, or a playtest that humbled a favorite idea.)
  5. The September letter: three sentences to the person who forked the starter in 1.1 — answer the three questions in the Reflect block below.

Reflect: the September letter, in three sentences

What does September-you not know that you now know, what should they stop worrying about, and what should they start on day one?

Checkpoint — the year, complete:

  • Whatever the placeholder became, it is shipped and pushed
  • YEAR_RETRO.md written, with the pattern inventory and the September letter
  • Repo tagged year-one — the whole course, versioned
  • You can name, from memory, what you know how to make

Reference Docs

Need a deeper explanation? These pages cover the same concepts:

The sequence is complete. There is no next link — only next games.

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