{"author_name":"BlackQuiltro","cat":"LD #33","comments":[],"epoch":1441723620,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"13014","p_author":"BlackQuiltro","p_authorkey":"55354","p_urlkey":"48268","p_title":"A-maze-ing Monster Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #33","p_event":"LD33","p_time":"1441723620","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"55354","us_name":"BlackQuiltro","us_username":"blackquiltro","event_start":"1440115200","event_key":"29","event_name":"LD33"},"text":"<p>Hello everyone!<\/p>\n <p>As this was my first jam ever, this is of course, my first post mortem too <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone wp-image-500394\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500\" width=\"348\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500-550x310.jpg 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/55354-shot0-1440601881.png-eq-900-500.jpg 888w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>The good stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I had a really good time participating in the Jam! Great experience, and theme and time constrains really helped me a lot in focusing. Family was also very supportive, drawing, playtesting and composing sound effects!<\/li>\n <li>I think I was able to express the gameplay idea I had in mind in a good way. The final product is a complete game, even if it is unpolished in some ways. I think it is challenging and enjoyable! Of course this is not a neutral opinion <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/li>\n <li>The mood achieved was good. It was a hard decision to make a game that only shows an small portion of the screen but I think it worked. Sound effects worked great and fitted well (even if they are very cheap quality)<\/li>\n <li>The AI worked fine. They are mostly simple algorithms but I think they are challenging enough. Most of it was based on the pathfinding capabilities of the engine used.<\/li>\n <li>Godot Engine was great for this type of game. I had little experience using it but I was able to learn it fast. It is easy to use and performed very well. Also exporting to Windows,\u00a0 Linux and OSX worked great. I develop on Linux and I think Godot has great promise to become THE best open-source engine for game development. And it is open source! You can check it out here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.godotengine.org\">Godot Engine<\/a><\/li>\n <li>Time management was well done. I did not killed myself, was able to sleep well and had a walk outside with my family. I think the jam is a good balance for me. Compo would have been way to stressful.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>The bad stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I think the maze turned out a bit hard to solve. I would love to make random mazes and or different ones with scaling difficulty but did not had time.<\/li>\n <li>Music fits well the game, but the loop I generated was a bit short and some people found it repetitive. I agree.<\/li>\n <li>Graphics! I opt-out of this category because i did not had time to make my own characters. Maze tiles are made by us, but I think we needed a more coherent and polished style. Some graphics also turned out low res and did not looked very good. I had some good designs made by my family but did not had time to put them in the game!<\/li>\n <li>Bugs! A bug passed that prevented the game over dialog to show when you loose. Also the switching between warrior and monster not always was smooth and the fog of war code was a bit buggy too. Nothing to prevent players to play it anyway.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>I think I will perhaps expand this game to something more complete with different types of mazes and ideas I had. Also I would like to tell a story with it.<\/p>\n <p>I would like to thank all people that had voted so far and also commented. Feedback is very valuable to me.\u00a0 If you have not yet, you can play my game <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-33\/?action=preview&amp;uid=55354\">A-maze-ing Monster here.<\/a><\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: right\">BlackQuiltro<\/p>","time":"September 8th, 2015 9:47 am","title":"A-maze-ing Monster Post-Mortem"}