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<\/p>\n Alright, it’s about time I wrote a post mortem. It’s my second (successful) ludum dare, and although I had to skip the compo and go for the jam, I’m really happy with the results.<\/p>\n
‘Artifacts Of Monstrosity’ is a top down zelda style action-rpg \/ shoot em up (I guess), with a big world to explore and a stupid boss to defeat after collecting 4 mostly useless items.<\/p>\n
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Code Reuse:<\/strong><\/p>\n I had already been messing around porting my LD28 game from C++ to Javascript, so I just borrowed code from that as needed. It was pretty tightly coupled to the other game, and I ended up needing to rewrite a lot of stuff, but it still saved me a ton of time.<\/p>\n Graphics And Animation:<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m kind of surprised with how well the animation came out for the main character. I guess all those pixel art tutorials I read sunk in somehow. As nice as everything looks though, I’m thinking of adopting a simpler style for future dares, to have more time to spend on gameplay.<\/p>\n Level Design:<\/strong><\/p>\n I used Tiled for my level editing, which has its annoyances but overall was infinitely nicer than what I did for my last LD game, which was png images with colors keyed to tiles and objects.<\/p>\n With the extra time from choosing to go for the jam, I went nuts making whole bunch of interesting areas to explore, helping create a sense of adventure.<\/p>\n Simple Gameplay:<\/strong><\/p>\n My original ideas were over-ambitious: I wanted inventory menus, equippable gear, shops, minibosses, etc. and I had to cut it all. The end game is really simple, but still fun, I think.<\/p>\n Ludum dare helps you realize games don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’ as long as the fundamentals are right<\/p>\n Motivation:<\/strong><\/p>\n I was way more motivated for my first LD, which was good because I did all the engine code from scratch on that one. This time I used an existing codebase, but I ended up losing most of the time gained due to a lazier pace and procrastination. \u00a0On the other hand rushing the whole time sucks, so maybe it’s better to be prepared and avoid the need to work frantically.<\/p>\n Tedious Code Writing:<\/strong><\/p>\n Even drawing from an existing codebase, I still ended up needing to write collision handlers and resources management scripts, etc. I need to put this stuff together into a complete, flexible engine.<\/p>\n Too Much Unfinished Stuff:<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn’t prioritize well enough, so a lot of things were missed — no sound for one, but I also left a lot of signs and npc’s around that don’t do anything when clicked on and that bugs the crap out of me.<\/p>\n Tiled:<\/strong><\/p>\n Tiled is a pretty fantastic editor in a lot of ways, and lets you build maps fast, but it also has some annoying aspects. I had kind of a weird workflow and ended up writing a bunch of ruby scripts to process Tiled’s output.<\/p>\n Javascript:<\/strong><\/p>\n Javascript is really awesome despite it’s quirks, and I love that the programs I write can run anywhere. But I have a bit of a love\/hate relationship with dynamic typing. Every time I spend 20 minutes debugging some stupid typo that would have been caught at compile time in a static language I die a little inside.<\/p>\n I’m planning on making a post jam edition when I get time.<\/p>\n Some things I’m planning (besides fixing stuff): music (I got some from open game art picked out), sound effects, new areas, bigger dungeons, enemy variations, a better final boss, more signs and monsters to talk to, and maybe even shops of some kind. I’ll make a post when I finish it.<\/p>\n ![\"monster\"](\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/monster.png\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n THINGS THAT WENT NOT SO RIGHT<\/h3>\n
THINGS THAT IM NOT SURE ABOUT<\/h3>\n
POST JAM EDITION?<\/h3>\n