First of all, come play my game if you haven't!

CLICK HERE TO PLAY!

The Idea

I went to sleep immediately after the theme was announced, lol. I hated the theme! I do like the game I came up with though, so the jokes on me. I was going to quit except I've quit the last few times... I'm tired of quitting! I went through a few related ideas for games, like having a huge inventory you had to sort through as you progressed, but I came to the "collect coins and the stack blocks your path" idea pretty quickly, while hanging Christmas lights outside :)

What went right

• Music -- Listen here! -- I've written so many songs I can spit one out, easy-peasy. The ending is just a low-tempo, low-energy variation on the main theme. Cheater.
• LÖVE & engine -- LÖVE is super easy to use, especially with a few years' experience under my belt. On top of that, I've written a tiny engine that works for me. Prototyping never felt so good.
• SFX -- LabChirp, y'all. It's good. It's so intuitive to me, while still having a ton of control. I spent more than I'll admit on coin_collect.wav, getting it nice and shiny sounding.

What went wrong

Not that much went wrong, surprisingly! - Time Management -- Always a problem with me. I spend a ton of time on stuff that doesn't even make it to the final game. I wanted a whole lot more art and levels and little touches throughout -- I wanted plants and insect! -- and had NO TIME! But I did spend an inordinate amount of time on the programming for the coin stack animation. I wholeheartedly do not! regret it. Look: It's so wobbly and wild! That was worth an hour or two, right? - Startup Time -- Not sure what to call it. But basically, since I don't start projects that often, I'm always rusty on starting a new one, all that require business, and writing the main file. I need to work on a pre-made solution so I can jump right into game making next time!

Conclusion

I love Ludum Dare! I'm proud of the game I made, even if there's a lot of improvements I want to make. And I'm super happy I got out of my losing streak -- the last LD I completed was Ludum Dare 34! Too long! I love the community and I love seeing all the cool games that get made. I'll keep doing Ludum Dare as long as it runs!