I'd like to use this post to not only promote my - cough entry MUSHIE cough - but also discuss some of the things I enjoyed, learned, and took away from this Ludum Dare. First, check out this timelapse I put together - it's about 24 or so hours of footage condensed into 12 minutes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spPf3jrpiU4

Preface

I wil start by saying that this was the most confident I've felt with a Ludum Dare (or any game jam, for that matter) ever. I can attribute this to a couple things:

• New job has really sharpended my all around programming skills
• Moving into a new condo with a dedicated workspace has made me more comfortable
• Spending the last few weeks in isolation working on game projects has helped shake off some rust

All that being said, it was not a perfect performance and like for most of us, time management was the bane of my existence. If you peep the timelapse you can clearly see where most of my time was spent - and that was coding.

I enjoy coding and can get lost in it, especially when digging into new concepts and experimenting. With this Ludum Dare I wanted to try something I had a little experience with but never fully executed on - and I did just that. This entry was my first serious attempt at a 2D game in Unity and my first ever platforming game.

I really, really enjoy developing platformers. There is so much opportunity to tweak and balance the game feel and level design - and that is something I have always loved above all when it comes to game development. Having refined a 2D platforming controller over the last several months and implementing the new Unity Input System with it made getting a moving character and setting up control mappings a breeze. That left me with most of my time to hone the gameplay and get in some cool art and sound.

Sadly, I didn't get the look and sound I was really going for and had to settle on some rushed polish at the end to tie it together. So, given all this - what went right and what went wrong?

What Went Right?

1. Having my platforming script to work from made getting started effortless
2. Sleeping on my idea made for a more concrete concept to start from, which vastly limited my scope
3. Having a limited scope meant compartmentalizing tasks and getting through them went pretty smooth
4. Keeping focused when faced with bugs and uncertainty

The first three are pretty self-explanatory, but I want to highlight Number 4. One of the toughest things I deal with in Ludum Dare besides coming up with a good idea and having time for polish - is keeping it together. As the weekend draws to an end, my stress levels climb in suit and my work suffers. This time around, I just kept pushing and pushing and did not allow myself to get discouraged or even think of tossing in the towel.

I can't really attribute this to anything other than just having been there, done that*. This marks my 7th year participating and my seventh submitted entry. Everytime I jump into this challenge the stress goes down.

What Went Wrong?

1. Being newish to 2D in Unity came with some pitfalls I'll outline below
2. Neglected art and polish affected the game's feel
3. Rushed music may have negatively impacted the game's feel, too
4. Not enough time was spent on levels, so the pacing suffered a bit

Number 1 is really the heavy hitter. For the majority of my game development in Unity I have focused on 3D. It was the only thing Unity really excelled at when it first came out and it was what stuck with me. Since the introduction of the suite of 2D tools in Unity, I have not really spent ample time picking them up and instead have continued to lean on Construct 2/3 to build 2D games.

This presented a number of challenges to me - such as forgetting that collison and trigger methods have "2D" in them or mixing up some of the vector maths from a 3D perspective. I really wanted to leverage more of the 2D tools in my level design, but because I was unsure of how to use them and didn't have the time to focus on level design that all flew by the wayside. What I was left with was some pretty rudimentary levels with no style or variance.

The Takeaways

1. Having a pre-built belt of tools to start with
2. Sharpening the tools you have
3. Picking up on some new ones before Decemeber rolls around

All in all, I feel successful coming out of this Ludum Dare. I feel like I can take my mistakes and focus in on those aforementioned takeaways and improve upon them. I want to build a loose "game jam framework" that contains some good starter code and UX stuff out of the box. This will cut back on some unnecessary dev time that can be then relegated to art and level design. I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but I have plenty of time to figure it out! Lastly, I need to learn more about Unity's 2D tools before the next jam, so I can put them to use!

I had a great time and came up with a solid little game at the end of it. Really been enjoying playing everyone's games and seeing all the different takes on the theme. You all killed it! It's so awesome to have this community where we can all get together and make cool shit!

Play and rate away!~