{"author_link":"\/users\/zesix","author_name":"Zesix","author_uid":"zesix","comments":[],"epoch":1587762574,"event":"LD46","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":207908,"likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"144879","p_author":"Zesix","p_authorkey":"1009905","p_urlkey":"361292","p_title":"\u201cTell a Fairy Tale\u201d Postmortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD46","p_time":"1587762574","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1009905","us_name":"Zesix","us_username":"zesix","event_start":"1587081600","event_key":"77","event_name":"Ludum Dare 46"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD46","removed_author":false},"_superparent":176557,"_trust":1,"author":9905,"body":"## Concepting\n\nAt the event\u2019s start, the theme was announced: **\u201cKeep It Alive.\u201d** This reminded me of a quote I once heard:\n\n> When do fairy tales cease to be real? When people stop believing in them. \n\nI presented this to my team and we decided to run with it, believing it would lead us to create a unique entry. And it did \u2013 there isn\u2019t another submission like ours despite the event having [over 10,000 participants](https:\/\/twitter.com\/ludumdare\/status\/1252432909492838400).\n\nWe settled on a design where you play as Tinker Bell in an orphanage. You fly in front of children to inspire them while avoiding the staff \u2013 if they capture you, the game is over. This was to fit within the time constraints. The idea I originally had was a stealth dialogue (yes, you read that right) entry where you play as an elder employee secretly trying to tell fairy tales to the children while not getting caught by the other workers. The stealth dialogue idea still intrigues me as I haven\u2019t played such a game before. Maybe I will create it someday \u2013 just need to find (or become) an experienced dialogue writer.\n\n## Production\n\nI\u2019ve never worked with the cel shaded aesthetic before, but our fairy tale idea seemed like the perfect setting to try it. If you don\u2019t know the difference between standard and cel shading (often called toon), see this:\n\n![standard_vs_toon.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316b.jpg)\n\nCel shading, as the name implies, comes from shaders, not the modeling of the objects themselves. Right now my 3D artistry consists of hard surface (no organics), so I had to get the characters from asset packs online.\n\n![Wall_with_modifiable_middle_color.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316e.png)\n\n![Door_frame.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316f.png)\n\nI spent most of my time on the level design. I haven\u2019t done an indoor environment before, so this was a major learning experience in architectural design and where to be structurally unrealistic in order to make indoor flying feel less cramped.\n\nFirst iteration of indoor level design using cel shading. It\u2019s obvious my lighting needs adjustment:\n\n![First_cel_shading_test.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33170.png)\n\nAfter brightening the main light, adding a soft ambient counter-light, and setting up postprocessing with LUT:\n\n![Cel_shading_plus_lighting_plus_LUT.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33171.png)\n\nWe used IK to create Tinker Bell\u2019s animations. Our main character has 1 forward flight and 2 idle motions. Unfortunately, LD's blog system doesn't let me upload videos (and I don't want to put them on YouTube). See them in [my blog version of this post](http:\/\/www.zesix.com\/?p=7654).\n\n## Retrospective\n\nMy time allocation looked approximately like this:\n\n * Concepting: 2 hours\n * Asset Production \/ Iteration: 36 hours\n * Programming: 5 hours\n * Ice Skating \/ Stretching: 4 hours\n * Random Breaks: 6 hours\n * Sleep: 16 hours (I didn\u2019t sleep from Sunday to Monday)\n * Testing \/ Tweaking \/ Building: 3 hours\n\nI don\u2019t know how many jams I\u2019ve done, but I\u2019m seeing a pattern with all of them: They barely get done within the timeframe and I don\u2019t allocate enough hours to testing the gameplay. I believe it\u2019s a scoping fault where I estimate (with good accuracy nowadays) what I can build within the timeframe, not what I can build and extensively test in that period. For my next Ludum Dare, I intend to mentally subtract 12 hours from the jam duration when planning. Hopefully this causes me to reduce my scope so I can iterate more.\n\nAs for our entry, here is some notable feedback we received:\n\n![feedback1.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33178.png)\n\n![feedback2.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33179.png)\n\n## Moving Forward\n\nI won\u2019t be adding this game to my portfolio, though it is still searchable online. I learned a lot about cel shading and lighting this weekend, and I intend to implement this aesthetic again in a future entry with greater confidence. In the meantime, play the game if you haven\u2019t, and share with us your harshest criticisms:\n\n[https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale)\n\nNext month, I\u2019m hosting the [GameDev.tv community jam](https:\/\/itch.io\/jam\/gamedevtv-community-jam). We have over 500 signed up so far, and I\u2019m looking forward to the creative ideas participants come up with. If you\u2019re a beginner gamedev, join us! We have many people in the [forum](https:\/\/itch.io\/jam\/gamedevtv-community-jam\/community) looking for teammates :)","comments":0,"created":"2020-04-24T20:46:55Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":207908,"love":5,"love-timestamp":"2020-04-26T10:16:57Z","meta":[],"modified":"2020-04-26T10:16:57Z","name":"\u201cTell a Fairy Tale\u201d Postmortem","node-timestamp":"2020-04-24T21:09:34Z","parent":201586,"parents":[1,5,9,176557,201586],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale\/tell-a-fairy-tale-postmortem","published":"2020-04-24T21:09:34Z","scope":"public","slug":"tell-a-fairy-tale-postmortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":630225},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"207908","n_urlkey":"361292","n_parent":"201586","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale\/tell-a-fairy-tale-postmortem","n_slug":"tell-a-fairy-tale-postmortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"9905","n_created":"1587761215","n_modified":"1587896217","n_version":"630225","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale\/tell-a-fairy-tale-postmortem","text":"## Concepting\n\nAt the event\u2019s start, the theme was announced: **\u201cKeep It Alive.\u201d** This reminded me of a quote I once heard:\n\n> When do fairy tales cease to be real? When people stop believing in them. \n\nI presented this to my team and we decided to run with it, believing it would lead us to create a unique entry. And it did \u2013 there isn\u2019t another submission like ours despite the event having [over 10,000 participants](https:\/\/twitter.com\/ludumdare\/status\/1252432909492838400).\n\nWe settled on a design where you play as Tinker Bell in an orphanage. You fly in front of children to inspire them while avoiding the staff \u2013 if they capture you, the game is over. This was to fit within the time constraints. The idea I originally had was a stealth dialogue (yes, you read that right) entry where you play as an elder employee secretly trying to tell fairy tales to the children while not getting caught by the other workers. The stealth dialogue idea still intrigues me as I haven\u2019t played such a game before. Maybe I will create it someday \u2013 just need to find (or become) an experienced dialogue writer.\n\n## Production\n\nI\u2019ve never worked with the cel shaded aesthetic before, but our fairy tale idea seemed like the perfect setting to try it. If you don\u2019t know the difference between standard and cel shading (often called toon), see this:\n\n![standard_vs_toon.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316b.jpg)\n\nCel shading, as the name implies, comes from shaders, not the modeling of the objects themselves. Right now my 3D artistry consists of hard surface (no organics), so I had to get the characters from asset packs online.\n\n![Wall_with_modifiable_middle_color.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316e.png)\n\n![Door_frame.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/3316f.png)\n\nI spent most of my time on the level design. I haven\u2019t done an indoor environment before, so this was a major learning experience in architectural design and where to be structurally unrealistic in order to make indoor flying feel less cramped.\n\nFirst iteration of indoor level design using cel shading. It\u2019s obvious my lighting needs adjustment:\n\n![First_cel_shading_test.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33170.png)\n\nAfter brightening the main light, adding a soft ambient counter-light, and setting up postprocessing with LUT:\n\n![Cel_shading_plus_lighting_plus_LUT.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33171.png)\n\nWe used IK to create Tinker Bell\u2019s animations. Our main character has 1 forward flight and 2 idle motions. Unfortunately, LD's blog system doesn't let me upload videos (and I don't want to put them on YouTube). See them in [my blog version of this post](http:\/\/www.zesix.com\/?p=7654).\n\n## Retrospective\n\nMy time allocation looked approximately like this:\n\n * Concepting: 2 hours\n * Asset Production \/ Iteration: 36 hours\n * Programming: 5 hours\n * Ice Skating \/ Stretching: 4 hours\n * Random Breaks: 6 hours\n * Sleep: 16 hours (I didn\u2019t sleep from Sunday to Monday)\n * Testing \/ Tweaking \/ Building: 3 hours\n\nI don\u2019t know how many jams I\u2019ve done, but I\u2019m seeing a pattern with all of them: They barely get done within the timeframe and I don\u2019t allocate enough hours to testing the gameplay. I believe it\u2019s a scoping fault where I estimate (with good accuracy nowadays) what I can build within the timeframe, not what I can build and extensively test in that period. For my next Ludum Dare, I intend to mentally subtract 12 hours from the jam duration when planning. Hopefully this causes me to reduce my scope so I can iterate more.\n\nAs for our entry, here is some notable feedback we received:\n\n![feedback1.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33178.png)\n\n![feedback2.png](\/\/\/raw\/1b6\/2\/z\/33179.png)\n\n## Moving Forward\n\nI won\u2019t be adding this game to my portfolio, though it is still searchable online. I learned a lot about cel shading and lighting this weekend, and I intend to implement this aesthetic again in a future entry with greater confidence. In the meantime, play the game if you haven\u2019t, and share with us your harshest criticisms:\n\n[https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/tell-a-fairy-tale)\n\nNext month, I\u2019m hosting the [GameDev.tv community jam](https:\/\/itch.io\/jam\/gamedevtv-community-jam). We have over 500 signed up so far, and I\u2019m looking forward to the creative ideas participants come up with. If you\u2019re a beginner gamedev, join us! We have many people in the [forum](https:\/\/itch.io\/jam\/gamedevtv-community-jam\/community) looking for teammates :)","title":"\u201cTell a Fairy Tale\u201d Postmortem","wayback_source":[]}