{"author_link":"\/users\/ithildin","author_name":"Ithildin","author_uid":"ithildin","comments":[],"epoch":1512741697,"event":"LD40","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":70256,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"106829","p_author":"Ithildin","p_authorkey":"1000455","p_urlkey":"322639","p_title":"Mountain Diver - Postmortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD40","p_time":"1512741697","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1000455","us_name":"Ithildin","us_username":"ithildin","event_start":"1512086400","event_key":"70","event_name":"LD 40"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD40","removed_author":false},"_superparent":49883,"_trust":8,"author":455,"body":"After having failed to submit [Thunderbolts and Lightning](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/39\/thunderbolts-and-lightning) on LD39 because of some vast miscalculations about the scope of the entry, I was determined to submit this time at all costs. I was relatively happy with it even if, as always, there is a lot of room for improvement.\n\nHere is the link to [Mountain Diver](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver)\u2019s page on the LD site. Please play it and rate it :grinning:\n\n[![cover-pixel.png](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e47e.png)](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver)\n\n## Tech\/Tools\n* __Unity 2017__, plus the free __DOTween__ plugin for interpolation.\n* __Aseprite__, with __Photoshop CS6__ for additional processing.\n* __Recordr__, __Jfxr__ and __Audacity__ for audio.\n* To track tasks I used __Trello__. Below is a screenshot of my board by the time I submitted:\n\n![trello.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e47f.png)\n\n\n## Process\nI learned about the theme at around 6 or 7. After a couple more hours of sleep, I went outside to have breakfast and do some brainstorming. This time I thought the theme was pretty good and it could spawn lots of different ideas, so it didn\u2019t take me long to start coming up with concepts. You can check the notes in the following video: \n\n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/DnKnW5opwVU\n\nOf all those, two started to take shape relatively soon:\n* The first one was inspired by a verbal blunder of Spain\u2019s PM (he\u2019s mastered those f*ck ups into an art to the point there\u2019s even a [Monkey Island-inspired parody game](www.islamoncloa.com)).\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TGGtSHtaEfI\nThis stuck with me the whole morning the way bad songs do. Eventually it evolved into a full \u201ccorruption simulator\u201d game idea, where your goal would be to arrange contracts with corporations in exchange for commissions. Those could be used to finance your party, bribe the press or enrich yourself, but if you were too greedy you would attract the attention of the anti corruption brigades, exposing yourself to jail and electoral defeat. The last notes on the video reflect how I had started to approach this.\nWhile I liked the concept the more that I developed it the less convinced I was about it. I also feared that it would be too local and some jokes (read: envelopes) would be missed by a non-Spanish audience.\n\n\n* The second was a bit more personal. It revolved around how as time passes and you keep accumulating fears and doubts the harder it gets to speak up your mind, share your true feelings, or simply take action. I was thinking of some linear action-RPG game with some choices. However, every time until now I've tried to translate more intimate stuff into a game I just go blank trying to bridge the gap between the \u201cplot\u201d and the core mechanic (a perfect example of the point I wanted to make, on the other hand). Also, this was likely to have gone out of scope easily.\n\nTime was passing while I kept trying to decide what to do, falling into yet another one of the concepts I\u2019d sketched: Analysis paralysis. I had been thinking of so many different things that I couldn't pick one. Eventually the free-fall \/ climb mechanic that would become Mountain Diver came to mind. In comparison it was way simpler than the other two (which was good scope-wise), and it just sort of felt right. The winter mountain setting would come naturally some hours after that.\n\nAs soon as I had the idea proper development started I started focusing on the player movement and the camera. I\u2019ll deal with these on the next sections, this has already become too long.\n\n## What went well: \n* The __scope was very scalable__. Even if I missed key features such as multiple levels or even level generation, the core gameplay was simple enough and is solid.\n\n* __Change in mechanics__. Originally I had added an energy attribute that would be depleted during the climbing stage. Picking crystals would increase the depletion rate, effectively making the game harder. I\u2019d also considered encumbrance, impairing jumps, but At some point I just ditched the energy and went on to experiment with the crystals <=> platforms idea. Now I believe it was the right choice. \n \n The theme connection was still there and it laid the ground for some more interesting choices (\u201cShall I pick this or that? will it be too hard for me to jump then? If I don\u2019t, will I still be able to pick the required ones even if I need to use the boost?\u201d) I had to make some adjustments so players that had failed at the diving stage could still have a chance at beating the level and, while that part wasn\u2019t fully balanced, I also think it played the part nicely (even if the boost was buggy)\n\n* __Camera not too clunky__. Together with the controls this was one of my main concerns and I\u2019m more or less happy with how the camera works (although it\u2019s by no means perfect). I\u2019d been following an awesome study I found some time ago about 2D cameras and chose some classic target tracking, smoothed with interpolation, plus edge snapping and, on the second part of the game, platform snapping. \n\n* __Sound__. Just two hours before the deadline I decided to try to put some sounds. I didn\u2019t want to just use 100% generated effects and I thought it would be a good fit to have at least some wind blowing (at that point I didn\u2019t have the snow particles either) and some basic sounds for user feedback, so I downloaded a recording app and started to blow at the phone.\n\n* __Relatively comfortable development pacing__. I did iterate quite a bit with controls, the camera and even the main mechanic, but at no point did I get the impression of being stuck or sluggish.\n\n* __No tech issues__. For LD39 I\u2019d switched from Unity 5.5 to Unity 2017.1, and it was a bit unstable, with lots of crashes over the 3 days (I was never sure if that was Unity\u2019s fault, that I\u2019d enabled the experimental new .NET support  or perhaps Touchscript not being fully compatible). This time it all worked flawlessly.\n\n\n## What went wrong:\n\n* __Belated start__. By the time I finally committed to the dive\/climb idea it was past 17h. I don\u2019t generally start coding before lunch, but still I wasted a couple of hours sketching things for the corruption idea or just deciding. \n\n* The most important thing to me: __Glitchy controls, and slippery horizontal motion__. I was using acceleration-based calculations for movement, and even if I\u2019d added some drag it still felt too hard for everyone who tested it. \nI still feel the sting of guilt when someone tells me \u201cI\u2019ve tried your game, but I\u2019m so bad at it\u201d. I could just cheat and say \"oh yeah, it's intended to be hard\", or \"well, you're on the snow, so of course you'll slip\", but I'd be lying. It was broken all along :flushed:.\n \n For example, a stupid mistake I made was not paying attention to the differences in input devices. The game was slightly less slippery on a gamepad, and I didn't realise that on a keyboard (which was what most people were using) the amount of horizontal impulse was just 0 or 1 (on the gamepad you'd get a broader range), making it less permissive. In the end I removed acceleration, and it seems to be better now.\n \n Additionally, the boost skill is mapped to a separate input than the jump. I\u2019d tried to have both on the same button, but given the way the jump works it didn\u2019t feel right, so I added a separate button to control the boost's charge and release. Still, it was quite buggy and had to patch it too. I\u2019m tempted to revisit all that logic and try to combine them again now to see how it works.\n\n* __No proper character art__. I ran out of time to create some decent sprite for the main character and animations, and the placeholder I\u2019d created to sketch how it would look like made it into the final build. I like the design, but it wasn\u2019t final by any means. \n\n* __Insufficient feedback__. It takes a while for most people to realise about the catch of the game. While I wanted players to discover it by themselves and potentially keep playing the level to improve their score, I think I could have added some in-game hints to communicate it beter. For exampe, I had in mind camera changes (travellings, increasing the distance so there was more visible space and could anticipate better, or maybe some visual cues).\n\n* __Timed out__. Nothing new here. Just look at the Trello screenshot from before :sweat_smile:\n\n## Recap\nDespite the initial frustration at deciding the game I wanted to make and the issues with controls I really enjoyed making Mountain Diver. As always, I\u2019d like to keep improving it a bit, but, also as always, I can\u2019t predict if I\u2019ll stick to it for long.\n\nThank you for reading up to this part, and if you try the game I hope you enjoy it!\n\n![Captura1.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e480.png)\n","comments":0,"created":"2017-12-08T12:58:24Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":70256,"love":3,"love-timestamp":"2017-12-08T15:51:14Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-12-08T15:51:14Z","name":"Mountain Diver - Postmortem","node-timestamp":"2017-12-08T14:01:37Z","parent":59250,"parents":[1,5,9,49883,59250],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver\/mountain-diver-postmortem","published":"2017-12-08T14:01:37Z","scope":"public","slug":"mountain-diver-postmortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":205335},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"70256","n_urlkey":"322639","n_parent":"59250","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver\/mountain-diver-postmortem","n_slug":"mountain-diver-postmortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"455","n_created":"1512737904","n_modified":"1512748274","n_version":"205335","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver\/mountain-diver-postmortem","text":"After having failed to submit [Thunderbolts and Lightning](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/39\/thunderbolts-and-lightning) on LD39 because of some vast miscalculations about the scope of the entry, I was determined to submit this time at all costs. I was relatively happy with it even if, as always, there is a lot of room for improvement.\n\nHere is the link to [Mountain Diver](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver)\u2019s page on the LD site. Please play it and rate it :grinning:\n\n[![cover-pixel.png](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e47e.png)](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/mountain-diver)\n\n## Tech\/Tools\n* __Unity 2017__, plus the free __DOTween__ plugin for interpolation.\n* __Aseprite__, with __Photoshop CS6__ for additional processing.\n* __Recordr__, __Jfxr__ and __Audacity__ for audio.\n* To track tasks I used __Trello__. Below is a screenshot of my board by the time I submitted:\n\n![trello.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e47f.png)\n\n\n## Process\nI learned about the theme at around 6 or 7. After a couple more hours of sleep, I went outside to have breakfast and do some brainstorming. This time I thought the theme was pretty good and it could spawn lots of different ideas, so it didn\u2019t take me long to start coming up with concepts. You can check the notes in the following video: \n\n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/DnKnW5opwVU\n\nOf all those, two started to take shape relatively soon:\n* The first one was inspired by a verbal blunder of Spain\u2019s PM (he\u2019s mastered those f*ck ups into an art to the point there\u2019s even a [Monkey Island-inspired parody game](www.islamoncloa.com)).\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TGGtSHtaEfI\nThis stuck with me the whole morning the way bad songs do. Eventually it evolved into a full \u201ccorruption simulator\u201d game idea, where your goal would be to arrange contracts with corporations in exchange for commissions. Those could be used to finance your party, bribe the press or enrich yourself, but if you were too greedy you would attract the attention of the anti corruption brigades, exposing yourself to jail and electoral defeat. The last notes on the video reflect how I had started to approach this.\nWhile I liked the concept the more that I developed it the less convinced I was about it. I also feared that it would be too local and some jokes (read: envelopes) would be missed by a non-Spanish audience.\n\n\n* The second was a bit more personal. It revolved around how as time passes and you keep accumulating fears and doubts the harder it gets to speak up your mind, share your true feelings, or simply take action. I was thinking of some linear action-RPG game with some choices. However, every time until now I've tried to translate more intimate stuff into a game I just go blank trying to bridge the gap between the \u201cplot\u201d and the core mechanic (a perfect example of the point I wanted to make, on the other hand). Also, this was likely to have gone out of scope easily.\n\nTime was passing while I kept trying to decide what to do, falling into yet another one of the concepts I\u2019d sketched: Analysis paralysis. I had been thinking of so many different things that I couldn't pick one. Eventually the free-fall \/ climb mechanic that would become Mountain Diver came to mind. In comparison it was way simpler than the other two (which was good scope-wise), and it just sort of felt right. The winter mountain setting would come naturally some hours after that.\n\nAs soon as I had the idea proper development started I started focusing on the player movement and the camera. I\u2019ll deal with these on the next sections, this has already become too long.\n\n## What went well: \n* The __scope was very scalable__. Even if I missed key features such as multiple levels or even level generation, the core gameplay was simple enough and is solid.\n\n* __Change in mechanics__. Originally I had added an energy attribute that would be depleted during the climbing stage. Picking crystals would increase the depletion rate, effectively making the game harder. I\u2019d also considered encumbrance, impairing jumps, but At some point I just ditched the energy and went on to experiment with the crystals <=> platforms idea. Now I believe it was the right choice. \n \n The theme connection was still there and it laid the ground for some more interesting choices (\u201cShall I pick this or that? will it be too hard for me to jump then? If I don\u2019t, will I still be able to pick the required ones even if I need to use the boost?\u201d) I had to make some adjustments so players that had failed at the diving stage could still have a chance at beating the level and, while that part wasn\u2019t fully balanced, I also think it played the part nicely (even if the boost was buggy)\n\n* __Camera not too clunky__. Together with the controls this was one of my main concerns and I\u2019m more or less happy with how the camera works (although it\u2019s by no means perfect). I\u2019d been following an awesome study I found some time ago about 2D cameras and chose some classic target tracking, smoothed with interpolation, plus edge snapping and, on the second part of the game, platform snapping. \n\n* __Sound__. Just two hours before the deadline I decided to try to put some sounds. I didn\u2019t want to just use 100% generated effects and I thought it would be a good fit to have at least some wind blowing (at that point I didn\u2019t have the snow particles either) and some basic sounds for user feedback, so I downloaded a recording app and started to blow at the phone.\n\n* __Relatively comfortable development pacing__. I did iterate quite a bit with controls, the camera and even the main mechanic, but at no point did I get the impression of being stuck or sluggish.\n\n* __No tech issues__. For LD39 I\u2019d switched from Unity 5.5 to Unity 2017.1, and it was a bit unstable, with lots of crashes over the 3 days (I was never sure if that was Unity\u2019s fault, that I\u2019d enabled the experimental new .NET support  or perhaps Touchscript not being fully compatible). This time it all worked flawlessly.\n\n\n## What went wrong:\n\n* __Belated start__. By the time I finally committed to the dive\/climb idea it was past 17h. I don\u2019t generally start coding before lunch, but still I wasted a couple of hours sketching things for the corruption idea or just deciding. \n\n* The most important thing to me: __Glitchy controls, and slippery horizontal motion__. I was using acceleration-based calculations for movement, and even if I\u2019d added some drag it still felt too hard for everyone who tested it. \nI still feel the sting of guilt when someone tells me \u201cI\u2019ve tried your game, but I\u2019m so bad at it\u201d. I could just cheat and say \"oh yeah, it's intended to be hard\", or \"well, you're on the snow, so of course you'll slip\", but I'd be lying. It was broken all along :flushed:.\n \n For example, a stupid mistake I made was not paying attention to the differences in input devices. The game was slightly less slippery on a gamepad, and I didn't realise that on a keyboard (which was what most people were using) the amount of horizontal impulse was just 0 or 1 (on the gamepad you'd get a broader range), making it less permissive. In the end I removed acceleration, and it seems to be better now.\n \n Additionally, the boost skill is mapped to a separate input than the jump. I\u2019d tried to have both on the same button, but given the way the jump works it didn\u2019t feel right, so I added a separate button to control the boost's charge and release. Still, it was quite buggy and had to patch it too. I\u2019m tempted to revisit all that logic and try to combine them again now to see how it works.\n\n* __No proper character art__. I ran out of time to create some decent sprite for the main character and animations, and the placeholder I\u2019d created to sketch how it would look like made it into the final build. I like the design, but it wasn\u2019t final by any means. \n\n* __Insufficient feedback__. It takes a while for most people to realise about the catch of the game. While I wanted players to discover it by themselves and potentially keep playing the level to improve their score, I think I could have added some in-game hints to communicate it beter. For exampe, I had in mind camera changes (travellings, increasing the distance so there was more visible space and could anticipate better, or maybe some visual cues).\n\n* __Timed out__. Nothing new here. Just look at the Trello screenshot from before :sweat_smile:\n\n## Recap\nDespite the initial frustration at deciding the game I wanted to make and the issues with controls I really enjoyed making Mountain Diver. As always, I\u2019d like to keep improving it a bit, but, also as always, I can\u2019t predict if I\u2019ll stick to it for long.\n\nThank you for reading up to this part, and if you try the game I hope you enjoy it!\n\n![Captura1.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/7c1\/z\/e480.png)\n","title":"Mountain Diver - Postmortem","wayback_source":[]}