{"author_link":"\/users\/astavie","author_name":"Astavie","author_uid":"astavie","comments":[],"epoch":1513766255,"event":"LD40","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":71437,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"107555","p_author":"Astavie","p_authorkey":"1052699","p_urlkey":"323365","p_title":"Populous - a post mortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD40","p_time":"1513766255","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1052699","us_name":"Astavie","us_username":"astavie","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":2,"author":52699,"body":"### [Play the game here](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/populous)\n\nAt the time of writing this, the game still has only 5 ratings. I'd really appreciate it if you rated it :heart:\n\n\n![Shot.png](\/\/\/raw\/bdd\/c\/z\/a422.png)\n\n### Summary\n\nPopulous is my first Ludum Dare entry, and also my first ever game. It is a card game where you manage population growth and CO2. Population and CO2 gradually go up, while food goes down. Use your cards to lower CO2 and increase your food supply.\n\n### The Idea\n\nThis theme was my least favourite of all of them. At first, I thought of a game where you carry things, but I didn't feel safe coding a physics game, especially because the engine I used was also pretty unknown to me.\n\nI then thought of a resource managing game, which sounded pretty stupid. Then of a diamond production card game, which didn't really fit the theme. But then: I had it.\n\nCombining the resource managing from my second idea and the cards from my third idea, I came up with \"Populous\"!\n\n### Day 1\n\nSince I live in Europe, the compo started for me at 3 AM in the morning. So I slept (maybe a bit too long), had breakfast, and then started coding.\n\nIt went pretty smooth at first, creating the GUI, planet, people, resources, infobox, etc, but then I had to code the cards.\n\nI have never coded a card game before, let alone getting a game balanced. But I did know how to JSON, so I created a JSON file to store all my cards in, which could be loaded at launch. This required a few overhauls to accomplish (I admit, my order of coding things wasn't prioritised correctly) but then I had cards.\n\nA few overhauls later, they actually did something, and so I went back to sleep.\n\n### Day 2\n\nWith the mechanics pretty much done, I felt confident that I'd finish it. And so... I decided to do some polishing instead of adding more cards. Specifically, making the people jump around the planet.\n\nBut after that distraction, I wrote some cards. But then I realised that the game was pretty easy now. There was a point where you could just click on \"Finish\" indefinitely and your food and population would just rise on its own.\n\nBut I had to celebrate Sinterklaas (Dutch Christmas) with my family, so I was going to continue in the evening.\n\nBack at my desk, I realised: \"Wait... CO2 still does nothing\". So I coded in that CO2 gives a penalty to population growth and food production, and all was well (well, not for the people on lil' Earth).\n\nFinally, I added some sounds, music, and published it a few hours early, because I had to wake up early the next day.","comments":3,"comments-timestamp":"2017-12-20T20:22:16Z","created":"2017-12-20T10:11:49Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":71437,"love":3,"love-timestamp":"2017-12-22T02:34:17Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-12-22T02:34:17Z","name":"Populous - a post mortem","node-timestamp":"2017-12-20T10:37:35Z","parent":52707,"parents":[1,5,9,49883,52707],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/populous\/populous-a-post-mortem","published":"2017-12-20T10:37:35Z","scope":"public","slug":"populous-a-post-mortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":210143},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"71437","n_urlkey":"323365","n_parent":"52707","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/populous\/populous-a-post-mortem","n_slug":"populous-a-post-mortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"52699","n_created":"1513764709","n_modified":"1513910057","n_version":"210143","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/populous\/populous-a-post-mortem","text":"### [Play the game here](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/populous)\n\nAt the time of writing this, the game still has only 5 ratings. I'd really appreciate it if you rated it :heart:\n\n\n![Shot.png](\/\/\/raw\/bdd\/c\/z\/a422.png)\n\n### Summary\n\nPopulous is my first Ludum Dare entry, and also my first ever game. It is a card game where you manage population growth and CO2. Population and CO2 gradually go up, while food goes down. Use your cards to lower CO2 and increase your food supply.\n\n### The Idea\n\nThis theme was my least favourite of all of them. At first, I thought of a game where you carry things, but I didn't feel safe coding a physics game, especially because the engine I used was also pretty unknown to me.\n\nI then thought of a resource managing game, which sounded pretty stupid. Then of a diamond production card game, which didn't really fit the theme. But then: I had it.\n\nCombining the resource managing from my second idea and the cards from my third idea, I came up with \"Populous\"!\n\n### Day 1\n\nSince I live in Europe, the compo started for me at 3 AM in the morning. So I slept (maybe a bit too long), had breakfast, and then started coding.\n\nIt went pretty smooth at first, creating the GUI, planet, people, resources, infobox, etc, but then I had to code the cards.\n\nI have never coded a card game before, let alone getting a game balanced. But I did know how to JSON, so I created a JSON file to store all my cards in, which could be loaded at launch. This required a few overhauls to accomplish (I admit, my order of coding things wasn't prioritised correctly) but then I had cards.\n\nA few overhauls later, they actually did something, and so I went back to sleep.\n\n### Day 2\n\nWith the mechanics pretty much done, I felt confident that I'd finish it. And so... I decided to do some polishing instead of adding more cards. Specifically, making the people jump around the planet.\n\nBut after that distraction, I wrote some cards. But then I realised that the game was pretty easy now. There was a point where you could just click on \"Finish\" indefinitely and your food and population would just rise on its own.\n\nBut I had to celebrate Sinterklaas (Dutch Christmas) with my family, so I was going to continue in the evening.\n\nBack at my desk, I realised: \"Wait... CO2 still does nothing\". So I coded in that CO2 gives a penalty to population growth and food production, and all was well (well, not for the people on lil' Earth).\n\nFinally, I added some sounds, music, and published it a few hours early, because I had to wake up early the next day.","title":"Populous - a post mortem","wayback_source":[]}