{"author_link":"\/users\/schizoid2k","author_name":"schizoid2k","author_uid":"schizoid2k","comments":[],"epoch":1526481025,"event":"LD41","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":97098,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"115494","p_author":"schizoid2k","p_authorkey":"1000288","p_urlkey":"331454","p_title":"Bullet Hell Breakout: A Post-Mortem and My Results","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD41","p_time":"1526481025","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1000288","us_name":"schizoid2k","us_username":"schizoid2k","event_start":"1524182400","event_key":"72","event_name":"LD 41"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD41","removed_author":false},"_superparent":73256,"_trust":8,"author":288,"body":"I normally publish a Post-Mortem of my Ludum Dare game while the review phase is still underway, but this time I purposely decided to post this after judging is over. I didn't want to influence the ratings given to me by people playing my game (in fact, I didn't post a \"play my game\" message either). Since voting is now over, this post will be a combination Post-Mortem and review of my results.\n\n# Post-Mortem\n\nThis LD was probably the most difficult one for me... so much discouragement. I had a very difficult time deciding on an game to develop. Once I decided on my game, the development was such a chore.\n\n## Day Prior to Theme Announcement\n\nI like to review the possible themes and put together a short list of games I would develop if that theme were chosen. I was dreading this theme,\u00a0Combine 2 Incompatible Genres, because I could not think of anything I really wanted to develop.\n\n## Day 1\n\nOf course, this theme is announced and looking at my sheet of ideas, there are none. I usually give myself about an hour to put together something before I start developing, but this time I am into Hour 3 and I haven't put together any ideas that I like.\n\nI hacked together a few ideas and a combination Missile Command \/ Financial Management game is my best bet. I start putting ideas together, and quickly realize that the financial management part would be a bit too difficult, but more importantly, I do not feel excited about this genre. It's not a genre I enjoy.\n\nI'm about 4 hours into LD, and I don't have an idea. I finally decide on a bullet hell game, and a bit later, I decide to mash it with a breakout\/pong clone. I do enjoy both of these genres and decided to finally start coding. It already 1:00am Saturday morning, my time.\n\nI put about 2 hours into designing my game and laying it out in Unity. Around 3:00am (6 hours after the theme was announced), I decide that what I have is utter crap, and I scrap just about everything, and decide to get some sleep and try again in the morning.\n\n## Day 2\n\nI get only about 4 hours of sleep and I am back at it. I put together a breakout style game where the player hits moving space invaders. I add an enemy that puts the player into bullet hell mode when hit.\n\nAround midday, I am ready to gave up. The game just isn't fun. I come back a few hours later and add some features. It's better but I am giving up again. I do this \"code\/quit\" routine most of the afternoon. I hate the theme, I hate my game, I'm not having fun, but I am not going to give up. I decide to finish today, get something completed, and enjoy my Sunday.\n\nI'm coding late into the evening, and after playing a few rounds of my game, I decide that it's not that bad, so I will polish it up tomorrow.\n\n## Day 3\n\nSunday is spent adding audio, graphic improvements, instructions, and some effects. It's not great, but I like it.\u00a0 It's pretty close to submission time and I don't think it is worth trying to cram any more features into the game at this point, so I do my final compile, and submit it.\n\n## What Went Well\n\nSo little went well in this LD, but looking back:\n\n* I do like the work I did on the pixel enemies, and the graphics and layout of the game screen.\n\n* The mash-up between Breakout mode and Bullet Hell mode is interesting.\n\n* Despite a constant feeling of discouragement, anger and sadness, I finished this game!\n\n## What Did Not Go Well\n\n* The switch to Bullet Hell mode needs improvement. I do like the sudden switch, but maybe a visual or audio clue would be helpful.\n\n* The ball\/paddle movement and collisions can be improved. The \"floaty\" control of the paddle is something I don't really notice, but it was a comment made by just about everyone who played.\n\n* Due to the time it took to decide on a game, and the Saturday discouragement, I felt a bit time-constrained.\n\n# Voting Results\n\nThe comments around the float-y controls, the paddle, and the bullet hell mode discouraged me even more than normal, so I was expecting a dismal result. It turns out there are some positives.\n\nOverall, I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack, and pretty close to the results of my LD40 game, ANTagonist, which I actually liked better. I'm not sure what to think about this.\n\nWhat was a pleasant surprise was that the results of the audio and graphics categories were the best out of all 7 Ludum Dares I took part in. These always seem to be weak categories for me, so this is a great news and hopefully a step in the right direction. As I mentioned before, I am very happy with the look of my game.\n\n# Conclusion\n\nDespite an absolutely terrible Day 2, I managed to submit a game, and the rating is somewhat better than I expected. I guess the take-away here is to never give up no matter what you are up against.\n\n![LD41-BHBScreen-300x188.png](\/\/\/raw\/021\/z\/14e93.png)\n\n![schizoid2k-ld41-256x300.png](\/\/\/raw\/021\/z\/14e94.png)\n","comments":0,"created":"2018-05-16T14:23:44Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":97098,"love":2,"love-timestamp":"2018-05-16T16:31:08Z","meta":[],"modified":"2018-05-16T16:31:08Z","name":"Bullet Hell Breakout: A Post-Mortem and My Results","node-timestamp":"2018-05-16T14:30:25Z","parent":74524,"parents":[1,5,9,73256,74524],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/41\/bullet-hell-breakout\/bullet-hell-breakout-a-post-mortem-and-my-results","published":"2018-05-16T14:30:25Z","scope":"public","slug":"bullet-hell-breakout-a-post-mortem-and-my-results","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":287833},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"97098","n_urlkey":"331454","n_parent":"74524","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/41\/bullet-hell-breakout\/bullet-hell-breakout-a-post-mortem-and-my-results","n_slug":"bullet-hell-breakout-a-post-mort","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"288","n_created":"1526480624","n_modified":"1526488268","n_version":"287833","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/41\/bullet-hell-breakout\/bullet-hell-breakout-a-post-mortem-and-my-results","text":"I normally publish a Post-Mortem of my Ludum Dare game while the review phase is still underway, but this time I purposely decided to post this after judging is over. I didn't want to influence the ratings given to me by people playing my game (in fact, I didn't post a \"play my game\" message either). Since voting is now over, this post will be a combination Post-Mortem and review of my results.\n\n# Post-Mortem\n\nThis LD was probably the most difficult one for me... so much discouragement. I had a very difficult time deciding on an game to develop. Once I decided on my game, the development was such a chore.\n\n## Day Prior to Theme Announcement\n\nI like to review the possible themes and put together a short list of games I would develop if that theme were chosen. I was dreading this theme,\u00a0Combine 2 Incompatible Genres, because I could not think of anything I really wanted to develop.\n\n## Day 1\n\nOf course, this theme is announced and looking at my sheet of ideas, there are none. I usually give myself about an hour to put together something before I start developing, but this time I am into Hour 3 and I haven't put together any ideas that I like.\n\nI hacked together a few ideas and a combination Missile Command \/ Financial Management game is my best bet. I start putting ideas together, and quickly realize that the financial management part would be a bit too difficult, but more importantly, I do not feel excited about this genre. It's not a genre I enjoy.\n\nI'm about 4 hours into LD, and I don't have an idea. I finally decide on a bullet hell game, and a bit later, I decide to mash it with a breakout\/pong clone. I do enjoy both of these genres and decided to finally start coding. It already 1:00am Saturday morning, my time.\n\nI put about 2 hours into designing my game and laying it out in Unity. Around 3:00am (6 hours after the theme was announced), I decide that what I have is utter crap, and I scrap just about everything, and decide to get some sleep and try again in the morning.\n\n## Day 2\n\nI get only about 4 hours of sleep and I am back at it. I put together a breakout style game where the player hits moving space invaders. I add an enemy that puts the player into bullet hell mode when hit.\n\nAround midday, I am ready to gave up. The game just isn't fun. I come back a few hours later and add some features. It's better but I am giving up again. I do this \"code\/quit\" routine most of the afternoon. I hate the theme, I hate my game, I'm not having fun, but I am not going to give up. I decide to finish today, get something completed, and enjoy my Sunday.\n\nI'm coding late into the evening, and after playing a few rounds of my game, I decide that it's not that bad, so I will polish it up tomorrow.\n\n## Day 3\n\nSunday is spent adding audio, graphic improvements, instructions, and some effects. It's not great, but I like it.\u00a0 It's pretty close to submission time and I don't think it is worth trying to cram any more features into the game at this point, so I do my final compile, and submit it.\n\n## What Went Well\n\nSo little went well in this LD, but looking back:\n\n* I do like the work I did on the pixel enemies, and the graphics and layout of the game screen.\n\n* The mash-up between Breakout mode and Bullet Hell mode is interesting.\n\n* Despite a constant feeling of discouragement, anger and sadness, I finished this game!\n\n## What Did Not Go Well\n\n* The switch to Bullet Hell mode needs improvement. I do like the sudden switch, but maybe a visual or audio clue would be helpful.\n\n* The ball\/paddle movement and collisions can be improved. The \"floaty\" control of the paddle is something I don't really notice, but it was a comment made by just about everyone who played.\n\n* Due to the time it took to decide on a game, and the Saturday discouragement, I felt a bit time-constrained.\n\n# Voting Results\n\nThe comments around the float-y controls, the paddle, and the bullet hell mode discouraged me even more than normal, so I was expecting a dismal result. It turns out there are some positives.\n\nOverall, I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack, and pretty close to the results of my LD40 game, ANTagonist, which I actually liked better. I'm not sure what to think about this.\n\nWhat was a pleasant surprise was that the results of the audio and graphics categories were the best out of all 7 Ludum Dares I took part in. These always seem to be weak categories for me, so this is a great news and hopefully a step in the right direction. As I mentioned before, I am very happy with the look of my game.\n\n# Conclusion\n\nDespite an absolutely terrible Day 2, I managed to submit a game, and the rating is somewhat better than I expected. I guess the take-away here is to never give up no matter what you are up against.\n\n![LD41-BHBScreen-300x188.png](\/\/\/raw\/021\/z\/14e93.png)\n\n![schizoid2k-ld41-256x300.png](\/\/\/raw\/021\/z\/14e94.png)\n","title":"Bullet Hell Breakout: A Post-Mortem and My Results","wayback_source":[]}