{"author_link":"\/users\/tanis","author_name":"tanis","author_uid":"tanis","comments":[],"epoch":1544007554,"event":"LD43","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":135602,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"126076","p_author":"tanis","p_authorkey":"1001581","p_urlkey":"342194","p_title":"Postmortem: Santa frowns to town","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD43","p_time":"1544007554","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1001581","us_name":"tanis","us_username":"tanis","event_start":"1543536000","event_key":"71","event_name":"LD 43"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD43","removed_author":false},"_superparent":120415,"_trust":1,"author":1581,"body":"![ld43-binocle-cover.png](\/\/\/raw\/d26\/z\/1f06c.png)\n\n# Santa frowns to town postmortem\n\nIt's time to write a little postmortem about my LD43 entry.\n\nThis time I decided to skip using an existing engine and focus on using my own hand-made one codenamed *Binocle*.\nAs usual this isn't a very good decision as it isn't a mature engine, but it's definitely a pleasure to work with. I've written it in from scratch in plain old C, using some common libraries like SDL and it gets the job done, but at the time I started coding the game it was still missing a lot of features. \n\nI also wanted to settle for something with a Christmas vibe together with the compo theme, so I ended up with this \"help Santa or the elves will be sacrificed\" kind of play.\n\n## What went good\n\n- coding with my own engine in plain C has been a pleasure. I didn't have to fight an existing engine that does a lot of stuff that I will never use\n- I managed to get some decent graphics even though I'm no artist\n- I liked that I managed to put at least one Christmas-themed song\n- I managed to submit the game to the compo! yeah!\n\n## What went wrong\n\n- using your own engine that hasn't been battle-tested before is going to be a problem as you will spend a lot of time implementing missing features and fixing engine's bugs\n- I didn't have enough time for more music. I put together a quick main theme loop with Figure on the iPhone and that was it. I wish I had more time to compose a few longer background songs\n- game mechanics are way too simple. I had to rush near the end and cut off a lot of ideas and ended up with this Santa moving back and forth and interacting with a few objects and that's it. I should have put at least some enemies to dodge and give a meaning to the jump ability\n- compiling for cross-platform targets takes a lot of time. I had to fight with emscripten to build a runnable web version and resolve some obscure bugs that were happening on Windows but not on macOS (my main development platform)\n\n## Conclusion\n\nIn the end I think I will use my engine again in the future. But this time I want to get ready a new sprite animation system, some spatial has collision code and sprite batching to ease the CPU when spawning particles and the like. And of course some scrolling code.. I still need to finish the camera implementation.\nNext time I hope I will have enough time to focus on the gameplay rather than the engine though :)\n\nPlease try it out and leave a comment\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/santa-frowns-to-town\n","comments":0,"created":"2018-12-04T20:27:19Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":135602,"love":3,"love-timestamp":"2018-12-05T15:40:49Z","meta":[],"modified":"2018-12-05T15:40:49Z","name":"Postmortem: Santa frowns to town","node-timestamp":"2018-12-05T10:59:14Z","parent":122129,"parents":[1,5,9,120415,122129],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/santa-frowns-to-town\/postmortem-santa-frowns-to-town","published":"2018-12-05T10:59:14Z","scope":"public","slug":"postmortem-santa-frowns-to-town","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":407158},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"135602","n_urlkey":"342194","n_parent":"122129","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/santa-frowns-to-town\/postmortem-santa-frowns-to-town","n_slug":"postmortem-santa-frowns-to-town","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"1581","n_created":"1543955239","n_modified":"1544024449","n_version":"407158","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/santa-frowns-to-town\/postmortem-santa-frowns-to-town","text":"![ld43-binocle-cover.png](\/\/\/raw\/d26\/z\/1f06c.png)\n\n# Santa frowns to town postmortem\n\nIt's time to write a little postmortem about my LD43 entry.\n\nThis time I decided to skip using an existing engine and focus on using my own hand-made one codenamed *Binocle*.\nAs usual this isn't a very good decision as it isn't a mature engine, but it's definitely a pleasure to work with. I've written it in from scratch in plain old C, using some common libraries like SDL and it gets the job done, but at the time I started coding the game it was still missing a lot of features. \n\nI also wanted to settle for something with a Christmas vibe together with the compo theme, so I ended up with this \"help Santa or the elves will be sacrificed\" kind of play.\n\n## What went good\n\n- coding with my own engine in plain C has been a pleasure. I didn't have to fight an existing engine that does a lot of stuff that I will never use\n- I managed to get some decent graphics even though I'm no artist\n- I liked that I managed to put at least one Christmas-themed song\n- I managed to submit the game to the compo! yeah!\n\n## What went wrong\n\n- using your own engine that hasn't been battle-tested before is going to be a problem as you will spend a lot of time implementing missing features and fixing engine's bugs\n- I didn't have enough time for more music. I put together a quick main theme loop with Figure on the iPhone and that was it. I wish I had more time to compose a few longer background songs\n- game mechanics are way too simple. I had to rush near the end and cut off a lot of ideas and ended up with this Santa moving back and forth and interacting with a few objects and that's it. I should have put at least some enemies to dodge and give a meaning to the jump ability\n- compiling for cross-platform targets takes a lot of time. I had to fight with emscripten to build a runnable web version and resolve some obscure bugs that were happening on Windows but not on macOS (my main development platform)\n\n## Conclusion\n\nIn the end I think I will use my engine again in the future. But this time I want to get ready a new sprite animation system, some spatial has collision code and sprite batching to ease the CPU when spawning particles and the like. And of course some scrolling code.. I still need to finish the camera implementation.\nNext time I hope I will have enough time to focus on the gameplay rather than the engine though :)\n\nPlease try it out and leave a comment\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/santa-frowns-to-town\n","title":"Postmortem: Santa frowns to town","wayback_source":[]}