I assume everyone shooting fireworks into the sky last night was out celebrating that AS OF YET UNNAMED ended up getting the best results we have gotten so far. :fireworks::champagne_glass:

Following up on the comparison chart trend, I figured compare the scores of our last seven entries since LD37. @DaanVanyperen had already taken part a bunch of times before in LD26 through to LD30 and LD33 (Oh my, that makes this 14 LDs in total. He's a grizzled veteran!), but I figured it makes most sense to only compare our collaborative efforts, and my first Ludum Dare was LD36 which didn't have ratings.

The Results

The Comparison

Direct link here.

As you can see, AS OF YET UNNAMED scored well in all categories. Innovation and Mood scored better in LD38/LD41 and LD39 respectively, but the numbers for this jam are putting a big smile on my face.

Not visible in this chart is how our average score for LD43 is a 4.247. Previously, our best average was a 3.976 for LD37's I CLEAN TOILET, so breaking through the 4-star barrier there definitely feels good.

Learn Anything?

Since we performed well across the board, I figure AS OF YET UNNAMED feels like a strong package overall, which may have elevated individual scores. We took a pretty obvious direction for the theme by having to protect the president, which is probably why Innovation is the lowest score this time, but I expected the rating there to actually be be lower. I think the over-the-top patriotism with red-white-and-blue confetti, balloons and balds eagles affected how our Innovation category was rated.

So I suppose the conclusion there is to make sure you shape all things in your game around the central theme as best as you can. We didn't opt for random arcade game music, but got an American-sounding marching tune. We implemented red-and-white striped transitions between rounds. If you have character customization in a game about sorcery, make sure your hat options are wizard's and witches' hats, you don't need baseball caps.

Next April I will definitely make sure to ask myself if the things I am adding onto our spritesheet reflect the core theme of the game. See you then!