{"author_link":"\/users\/tricky-fat-cat","author_name":"Tricky_Fat_Cat","author_uid":"tricky-fat-cat","comments":[],"epoch":1556814781,"event":"LD44","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":156037,"likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"132006","p_author":"Tricky_Fat_Cat","p_authorkey":"1145628","p_urlkey":"348200","p_title":"Postmortem of my very first LD","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD44","p_time":"1556814781","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1145628","us_name":"Artyom Volkov","us_username":"artyom-volkov","event_start":"1556236800","event_key":"75","event_name":"LD 44"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD44","removed_author":false},"_superparent":139254,"_trust":8,"author":145628,"body":"Finally, I have some free time to write a brief postmortem about my very first Ludum Dare game [**Big Fascinating Mutants**](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/big-facinating-mutants).\n\n![MeAtLD.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a8.jpg)\n\nAlthough I've been working as a game designer for years and have broad experience with crunches, I made a lot of silly mistakes. However, I'm happy with them as it's a valuable experience for my team and me. What kind of mistakes did I make?\n\nFirstly, I suggested a redundantly big idea. We were planning from at the beginning to develop a colossal game for LD, e.g. we wanted to make:\n- 8 weapons;\n- 5 different enemies;\n- 1 boss fight;\n- 4 battle arenas with different level design;\n- 2 different player characters with unique abilities;\n\n![Level Design.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245ab.png)\n\nI was so excited at the start that I couldn't asses the volume of the work. Fortunately, our team managed to scale our ideas, but not very fast.\n\nSecondly, I failed miserably with UI and UX. I have a lot of experience working on UI and UX alone as a game designer. However, this time I forgot to create a proper User Flow of the game which could have helped our programmer; as a result, our UX and UI awful.\n\n![\u041f\u0440\u0435\u0437\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0446\u0438\u044f.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a4.jpg)\n\nThirdly, the programmer had forgotten to make GIT for the project before the jam. Thus we lost a lot of precious time. We could have better spawner and AI, but we have what we have. Anyway, the programmer did his best and did a lot of work.\n\n![Table 1.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a5.png)\n\nOn the other hand, other game designers and I managed to make a lot of GD stuff, e.g. mutations design, level design (which we cut off) and balance table. Speaking about the table, it was beneficial when I had a hand in the game build for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn't help me make the game easier.\n\n![Table 2.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a6.png)\n\nAlthough the problems we faced, I enjoyed the process and atmosphere of the jam. First of all, because the first two days of Ludum Dare 44 we spend at the creative space for indie game developers [**Indikator**](https:\/\/vk.com\/indikator_spb) (RUSSIAN LANGUAGE) in Saint Petersburg. If you are in Saint Petersburg, you should visit this place. Additionally, I love seeing so many good games here on the web site. Hope, next time I'll be better.\n\n![SecondCharacter.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a7.png)","comments":0,"created":"2019-05-02T16:20:10Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":156037,"love":5,"love-timestamp":"2019-05-02T17:59:38Z","meta":[],"modified":"2019-05-02T17:59:38Z","name":"Postmortem of my very first LD","node-timestamp":"2019-05-02T16:33:01Z","parent":142033,"parents":[1,5,9,139254,142033],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/big-facinating-mutants\/postmortem-of-my-very-first-ld","published":"2019-05-02T16:33:01Z","scope":"public","slug":"postmortem-of-my-very-first-ld","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":469554},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"156037","n_urlkey":"348200","n_parent":"142033","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/big-facinating-mutants\/postmortem-of-my-very-first-ld","n_slug":"postmortem-of-my-very-first-ld","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"145628","n_created":"1556814010","n_modified":"1556819978","n_version":"469554","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/big-facinating-mutants\/postmortem-of-my-very-first-ld","text":"Finally, I have some free time to write a brief postmortem about my very first Ludum Dare game [**Big Fascinating Mutants**](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/big-facinating-mutants).\n\n![MeAtLD.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a8.jpg)\n\nAlthough I've been working as a game designer for years and have broad experience with crunches, I made a lot of silly mistakes. However, I'm happy with them as it's a valuable experience for my team and me. What kind of mistakes did I make?\n\nFirstly, I suggested a redundantly big idea. We were planning from at the beginning to develop a colossal game for LD, e.g. we wanted to make:\n- 8 weapons;\n- 5 different enemies;\n- 1 boss fight;\n- 4 battle arenas with different level design;\n- 2 different player characters with unique abilities;\n\n![Level Design.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245ab.png)\n\nI was so excited at the start that I couldn't asses the volume of the work. Fortunately, our team managed to scale our ideas, but not very fast.\n\nSecondly, I failed miserably with UI and UX. I have a lot of experience working on UI and UX alone as a game designer. However, this time I forgot to create a proper User Flow of the game which could have helped our programmer; as a result, our UX and UI awful.\n\n![\u041f\u0440\u0435\u0437\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0446\u0438\u044f.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a4.jpg)\n\nThirdly, the programmer had forgotten to make GIT for the project before the jam. Thus we lost a lot of precious time. We could have better spawner and AI, but we have what we have. Anyway, the programmer did his best and did a lot of work.\n\n![Table 1.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a5.png)\n\nOn the other hand, other game designers and I managed to make a lot of GD stuff, e.g. mutations design, level design (which we cut off) and balance table. Speaking about the table, it was beneficial when I had a hand in the game build for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn't help me make the game easier.\n\n![Table 2.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a6.png)\n\nAlthough the problems we faced, I enjoyed the process and atmosphere of the jam. First of all, because the first two days of Ludum Dare 44 we spend at the creative space for indie game developers [**Indikator**](https:\/\/vk.com\/indikator_spb) (RUSSIAN LANGUAGE) in Saint Petersburg. If you are in Saint Petersburg, you should visit this place. Additionally, I love seeing so many good games here on the web site. Hope, next time I'll be better.\n\n![SecondCharacter.png](\/\/\/raw\/cd8\/32\/z\/245a7.png)","title":"Postmortem of my very first LD","wayback_source":[]}