So I think I did a lot better than last Ludum Dare. I avoided some of the mistakes I made last time, and made a better game.

I made a arcadey shooting game in space. I wrote in in Python and Pygame and entered into the jam. I named it the first random and dramatic thing that popped into my head: “The Stars are Watching.” Ooh mysterious, huh? Sort of. I’d like to apologize to anyone who expected a sophisticated story-driven game and was given a mindless shooter with a brainless plot. If anyone wants to play said mindless shooter, they can go: Here

Anyway, here’s what

Went right:

• The gameplay – This Ludum Dare, I think I made a genuinely fun game. Its mechanics are simple, and that’s why I think it’s much better than my last entry. Complex gameplay is hard to implement well in 72 hours.
• The graphics – Just like last time, I used Blender to make the graphics for my game. I modeled in 3D and then rendered top-down. This time however, I think I did a much better job of it. The player looks a little odd though…
• The explosions – They’re a small thing, but in a shooting game, explosions are very important. I made an explosion animation in Blender, and then rendered it. The reason I think the explosions look better than the explosions in some of my other games is that I used additive blending. I think they look a lot better.
• The boss – What arcade game would be complete with a big nasty boss? I think the boss for this game turned out nicely.
• The story – A lot of people complained that the twist at the end was painfully obvious. I don’t care. I am proud that I got any story at all in my game. It’s a first for me.
• The “tutorial” – Last Ludum Dare, my game had an obtuse, obnoxious and obfuscated instructions menu. (There might have been a few more ‘o’ words. I’m not sure.”) This time there is no instructions menu and there are a few short instructions at the start of the game. Of course, it helps that the mechanics for this game are a lot simpler than my last one.
• Being a “mindless shooter” – Last time I tried something I’d never done before–a tower defence. That really cost me. This time I made a shooter, a genre I am very familiar with.

And now,

What went WRONG:

• The lack of friction – You would think, in a space game you wouldn’t want any friction. However, there where a huge number of complaints about the lack of friction. Oh well, live and learn, I guess?
• Not knowing what to do after I finished the base game – I finished the base game in about 48 hours. However, then I goofed around trying to add achievements (That’s going to be another thing that went wrong) and tweaking mechanics. I should have spent the last 24 hours adding new enemies, and polishing.
• Achievements – At about 48 hours in to Ludum Dare, I had finished the base game. It was at that point I thought “Hey, who doesn’t love achievements? Nobody, right? I’m going to add achievements to my game.” It was a great idea–in theory. In practice, I wasted about 8 hours. The way I added achievements was stupid. There was no way to tell what achievements you had unlocked unless you consulted a text file. Not exactly a stellar amount of polish, is it?
• Being a “mindless shooter” – Yeah, I know I put this in the “Went right” category. However, it also goes in the “Went wrong” category because of how dull it is. Sure, it might have been easy to make, but it really cost me in my Innovation scores. That’s one of the few places I did worse than last time.

To sum this up: I am quite happy with my results. I did better than last time. I had a great time making a game. Thank you to everyone who rated my game, and I can’t wait for next Ludum Dare!