This was my first LD and I enjoyed it immensely. Here’s what the final web-based game (LD page here) looks on a phone.

What went wrong?

• Way, way too ambitious design (strategy game, fuzzy logic, trying a zillion new things).
• Time management. Getting lost in playtesting. Procrastination.
• Several stupid bugs that stopped my progress for tens of minutes at a time.
  • Next time I’ll try out the technologies beforehand. And I might (might!) use a little bit of Test Driven Development. During Ludum Dare, it feels like wasting time, but I think it’d save me more time later, with the bugs.
• Result:
  • No endgame.
  • Half the features are missing (most of them have code prepared for them, too, I just didn’t have the time to complete). In case I get to implement those, these are SPOILERS:
    • The game was supposed to feature other monster factions (the Mothmen, the Bigfoots).
    • The People faction was also supposed to have monsters (like Chuck Norris, Silvester Stallone, etc.)
    • Options to eat people (to regain HP) and build a lair didn’t make it.
    • Once in a while, a hatchling was supposed to grow up and act independently as a “captain” in your realm. You could have (incestious) sex with it to get more fertile.
    • People’s reaction to your wrongdoings were supposed to escalate (from SWAT teams to jet fighters).
  • Map added at last resort and only visible once at the beginning. In a strategy game! (Although, it’s more complicated. See my comment at the game’s page.)

What went well?

• Way, way too ambitious design.
  • Yes, I think it’s both good and bad. If I made a more straightforward game, I think it would bother me in retrospect that I didn’t try something I always wanted to.
• Skipping visuals and audio altogether.
  • I really, really suck at graphics. The result would be horrible anyway, and I’d spend at least half a day on it.
• Going procedural.
  • Much more replayability and fun (more agency for the player).
• Using the fuzzy logic AI for player’s choices.
  • Allowed the game to keep the gamebook/CYOA feel while still being a sandbox.
  • If you want to know how I did it, I wrote an article about it.
• Doing it in a web technology (Dart + HTML in my case).
  • I would never get as many votes without it.

Thanks for reading this far. Go play it.