Well, it’s that time! This has been my first Ludum Dare, and it has been great so far. Thank you for all the support! Right, now onto the important stuff.

Play “Out West” here!

The Concept:

My goal with this first Ludum Dare was to make something small that could be developed, finished, and played without any major bugs. I had been experimenting with text adventures and pixel art, so I chose Twine as my tool, since it’s very easy to use, can be expanded upon, can incorporate art, and is contained completely in one HTML file that can be hosted anywhere and played by anyone.

Once this choice was made, I decided my secondary goal was to try and create a very tense and atmospheric mood with only text, art, and time, disproving the common notion that text adventures are perceived as boring slogs which appeal to a certain niche audience (myself among them). Granted, I cheated a little by including art, but as a picture is worth a thousand words, I felt it would enhance the gameplay immeasurably.

The Bad:

• The game is very short. I needed to keep myself in check; my games are prone to feature creep (which is one reason I participated in this jam) and tend to balloon into iii development nightmares which can’t realistically be handled by one person. Even so, I nearly didn’t make the deadline. There are three possible choices early on, and then another three later: These immediately necessitate nine different endings, plus different factors which dictate other variables that require separate endings, plus these all tie into the main ending, which must take into account everything that’s happened in the journey. Due to the exponential complexity being created, I had to cut off many ideas I wanted to incorporate and focus on making satisfying endings for what I had. That isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but it forced the game to become minuscule, which is a bit more of a problem with text adventures, there being a finite amount of content with a definite end, as opposed to Pacman.
• There was no time to add in any complex game mechanics. I know: Game mechanics, in a text adventure? Surely you jest! In all seriousness though, I wanted to add in even more interactivity through JavaScript enhancements. Unfortunately, there was no time to properly code anything myself or learn someone’s mod. I worked with what I had, and from the feedback it appears that effort’s been appreciated; But I would have liked to do something like roaming AI characters in the town, with random conversations as possibilities.
• Almost no animation in the art. Again, this was time related. I didn’t want huge cutscenes, just little touches of animation that would enhance the world, like having the landscape bob up and down as if you were galloping on a horse, or animating flames, weapons, movement, villagers, that sort of thing. Repeating gifs, mostly.
• The game is very linear. This is partially due to writing and the nature of Twine; the story requires a certain progression, and the creation of atmosphere and mood also require a certain amount of control. That being said, there perhaps could be a free-roam period before the start of this particular sequence which allows you to explore the world a little, or some other stuff which could expand the illusion of choice and open world gameplay.
• The art. Some have commented how they enjoyed the pixel art, and I’m very happy they do – I’m almost a complete novice at it. In general, I’m quite happy with what I was able to achieve with a fire under my butt and limited art skills. I would like to get a bit better at pixel art and go back and polish up some of the imagery to facilitate better immersion in the world.

The Good:

• The art. Again, I’m a pixel art beginner, and I’m frankly amazed that I was able to finish up all of it in time, and that it’s all decent. Nothing looks horribly out of place, and I’m actually a little proud of the final image that’s revealed at the very end. Gives me hope of improvement in the future.
• The writing. This wasn’t my opinion all the way through; as I was writing the adventure I was horribly aware that, since it’s a text adventure, everything relies on the writing, and if I messed it up or it simply wasn’t good, the whole thing would collapse with almost nothing to salvage. That said, the feedback that I’ve received about the writing has been positive, with several mentions of it being very well written. I breath a sign of relief. Moving on.
• I finished it. As with many game development beginners, I fall into the trap of being overly ambitious, even with text adventures. I am glad I put down my foot and had a very strict goal in mind. Though I had to work until the deadline because the art took more time that I anticipated, I still managed to incorporate all the stuff I had planned for this tiny little thing.
• People seem to enjoy it! I’ll be honest, this was a nerve-wracking experience for me (especially ticking the little “Anonymous Feedback” box). I have never done a game jam before, and had no idea what would be said about something I made. I wasn’t expecting anything, but just the fact that someone enjoyed the experience the way I attempted to craft it is a wonderful feeling. Thank you all again for your feedback. It’s appreciated. And thanks to everyone who’s games I’ve played: They’re all wonderful, fascinating and strange! Well done!

Conclusion:

I think I’ll work on this some more, give it a bit more of an edge. I’ll have to be careful: I don’t want to bloat the experience or dilute the atmosphere. We’ll see where it goes. Five minutes of story is vastly different from a three act structure. Either way, this has been an eye opening experience. If you play Out West, I hope you enjoy it. Good luck to everyone!

Tags: compo, final, LD33, Ludum Dare, pixelart, post-mortem, postmortem, Twine