{"author_link": "/users/aaron-nemoyten", "author_name": "Aaron Nemoyten", "author_uid": "aaron-nemoyten", "comments": [], "epoch": 1526534422, "event": "LD41", "format": "md", "ldjam_node_id": 97136, "likes": 3, "metadata": {"p_key": "115517", "p_author": "Aaron Nemoyten", "p_authorkey": "1079619", "p_urlkey": "331477", "p_title": "My LD41 Postmortem Is Too Damn Long!", "p_cat": "LDJam ", "p_event": "LD41", "p_time": "1526534422", "p_likes": "3", "p_comments": "0", "p_status": "WAYBACK", "us_key": "1079619", "us_name": "Aaron Nemoyten", "us_username": "aaron-nemoyten", "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": 1, "author": 79619, "body": "I wrote a postmortem article for my LD41 game, Monster Stew. It's on my web site, and I was going to crosspost it here... but it's 11,000 characters long, which is much longer than anything else I've seen in this blog. I don't want to spam it up, so I'll put my conclusion here and link to the rest of the post at the bottom. IMO, this is the most interesting part of the article anyway.\n\n----\n\n![ThisIsntJazzCropped.png](///raw/307/31/z/14ebd.png)\n\nI think one of the most interesting psychological aspects to creating art is that we always come up with different criticisms of our own work depending on what phase of creation we’re in. Putting it in front of an audience triggers deeper examination and, if it’s still possible, fine-tuning, for instance.\n\nI decided to wait until LD41 ended and scores were made public before writing this postmortem. And, well, I was disappointed with my scores. But that also made me think hard about what my goals were, and to try to remember that the main goals are to just build something and have fun!\n\nSo, by that criteria, it was a complete success.\n\nBut… seeing the scores, seeing which games did well, really made me think about how to treat a game jam as a game design exercise. The winning games are generally very simple from a technology perspective, so all the cleverness is in the game design itself.\n\nOne reason I decided to use a lot of new stuff for LD41 was that I don’t feel proficient enough in Unity’s 2D toolset (which I’ve been using to build my longer-term project Moustachevania) or in any other game engine for it to be too much of a time advantage to use that, so I figured I might as well learn something new anyway. A lot of the people who enter Ludum Dare seem to be seasoned developers who are very comfortable with the technology they use so LD is, for them, almost entirely an exercise in design and execution, with little to no part of it being about struggling with the tools or tech.\n\nI don’t have a prescriptive takeaway from that. My advice is to just know what your goals and limitations are, and to try to build a game that fits within both. It’s just fine to fumble around in something new and build something you barely consider a game, and it’s also fine to pick up a technology you know incredibly well and can be productive with.\n\nI won’t be able to enter the next Ludum Dare because it overlaps with the Outside Lands music festival, which I attend every year with my awesome wife. But LD41 will definitely not be my last game jam. It was a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who builds or wants to build games.\n\n![Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 10.15.43 PM.png](///raw/307/31/z/14ebc.png)\n\nAnd here's the full article:\nhttp://www.aaronnemoyten.com/2018/05/17/ld41-postmortem-part-2-building-and-reflecting/\n\nThanks to everyone who rated and gave feedback, and thanks to everyone who made the awesome games I played and rated, and to all of you who made games that I didn't get to rate but were awesome anyway. It was really inspiring to be a part of this.", "comments": 0, "created": "2018-05-17T05:00:02Z", "files": [], "files-timestamp": 0, "id": 97136, "love": 3, "love-timestamp": "2018-05-17T07:25:09Z", "meta": [], "modified": "2018-05-17T07:25:09Z", "name": "My LD41 Postmortem Is Too Damn Long!", "node-timestamp": "2018-05-17T05:22:02Z", "parent": 86073, "parents": [1, 5, 9, 73256, 86073], "path": "/events/ludum-dare/41/monster-stew/my-ld41-postmortem-is-too-damn-long", "published": "2018-05-17T05:20:22Z", "scope": "public", "slug": "my-ld41-postmortem-is-too-damn-long", "subsubtype": "", "subtype": "", "type": "post", "version": 287952}, "node_metadata": {"n_key": "97136", "n_urlkey": "331477", "n_parent": "86073", "n_path": "/events/ludum-dare/41/monster-stew/my-ld41-postmortem-is-too-damn-long", "n_slug": "my-ld41-postmortem-is-too-damn-l", "n_type": "post", "n_subtype": "", "n_subsubtype": "", "n_author": "79619", "n_created": "1526533202", "n_modified": "1526541909", "n_version": "287952", "n_status": "WAYBACK"}, "source_url": "https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/monster-stew/my-ld41-postmortem-is-too-damn-long", "text": "I wrote a postmortem article for my LD41 game, Monster Stew. It's on my web site, and I was going to crosspost it here... but it's 11,000 characters long, which is much longer than anything else I've seen in this blog. I don't want to spam it up, so I'll put my conclusion here and link to the rest of the post at the bottom. IMO, this is the most interesting part of the article anyway.\n\n----\n\n![ThisIsntJazzCropped.png](///raw/307/31/z/14ebd.png)\n\nI think one of the most interesting psychological aspects to creating art is that we always come up with different criticisms of our own work depending on what phase of creation we’re in. Putting it in front of an audience triggers deeper examination and, if it’s still possible, fine-tuning, for instance.\n\nI decided to wait until LD41 ended and scores were made public before writing this postmortem. And, well, I was disappointed with my scores. But that also made me think hard about what my goals were, and to try to remember that the main goals are to just build something and have fun!\n\nSo, by that criteria, it was a complete success.\n\nBut… seeing the scores, seeing which games did well, really made me think about how to treat a game jam as a game design exercise. The winning games are generally very simple from a technology perspective, so all the cleverness is in the game design itself.\n\nOne reason I decided to use a lot of new stuff for LD41 was that I don’t feel proficient enough in Unity’s 2D toolset (which I’ve been using to build my longer-term project Moustachevania) or in any other game engine for it to be too much of a time advantage to use that, so I figured I might as well learn something new anyway. A lot of the people who enter Ludum Dare seem to be seasoned developers who are very comfortable with the technology they use so LD is, for them, almost entirely an exercise in design and execution, with little to no part of it being about struggling with the tools or tech.\n\nI don’t have a prescriptive takeaway from that. My advice is to just know what your goals and limitations are, and to try to build a game that fits within both. It’s just fine to fumble around in something new and build something you barely consider a game, and it’s also fine to pick up a technology you know incredibly well and can be productive with.\n\nI won’t be able to enter the next Ludum Dare because it overlaps with the Outside Lands music festival, which I attend every year with my awesome wife. But LD41 will definitely not be my last game jam. It was a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who builds or wants to build games.\n\n![Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 10.15.43 PM.png](///raw/307/31/z/14ebc.png)\n\nAnd here's the full article:\nhttp://www.aaronnemoyten.com/2018/05/17/ld41-postmortem-part-2-building-and-reflecting/\n\nThanks to everyone who rated and gave feedback, and thanks to everyone who made the awesome games I played and rated, and to all of you who made games that I didn't get to rate but were awesome anyway. It was really inspiring to be a part of this.", "title": "My LD41 Postmortem Is Too Damn Long!", "wayback_source": []}