First, hats off to all of you who participated this weekend and a big congrats to those who got it done!

I want to make a quick post about what went wrong and what went well this weekend with my entry COLORSPACE. Give it a go and let me know what you think and I'll return the favor!

What went well?

I had some goals with this Ludum Dare to focus on atmosphere and visual game design. In past contests I spent a lot of my time trying to code relatively mechanically heavy games, so this time around I wanted to try and build a game where mechanics were derived largely from visuals and physical space.

Implementing this went well. The overwhelming majority of the mechanics were dervied from Unity's Layer and LayerMask systems. It was effortless to control what the game rendered and allowed the player to collide with, which allowed me to put some more focus on the atmosphere, which is done largely through the toggling of post-process volumes.

The simplicity of these systems made most of the "bugs" I encountered along the way me forgetting to set a layer properly on an object. This success is largely up to knowledge and toolset. I could have just as easily made some huge list of red objects and green objects, etc. and looped over them everytime the player switched colors. In all honesty, that approach would likely have been performant enough for a game this small, but the workflow was something I wanted to avoid.

Leveraging high-level systems in Unity (and the flashy ones) easily cut out hours of work that I'd usually spend. Ultimately, I would need as many of those hours as possible, as I'll detail a little more in the Wrong section.

On top of that, I think there were a few other positive take aways:

• Keeping my scope simple made getting started easier
• Getting the visual appeal nailed down early helped solidify the gameplay direction and allowed me to rest easy the first night knowing I could wake up to a game that looked and played as I intended
• I did not dip my toes into anything I wasn't already familiar with or have implemented in the past

All three of these are important to discuss as a whole, because they relate heavily to my time management experience this weekend. Despite having alleviated the coding time I usually spend, I ended up needing even more time to build levels for this game than I could afford. While I implemented the mechanics of the game fast, my ability to design challenges and puzzles using the mechanic was more challenging.

So that leaves us with...

What went wrong?

By running with a mechanic before nailing down a solid hook or design pattern I run myself into a rut when trying to build levels. That, in turn, cost me time to implement some of the visual and story elements I wanted to reinforce the theme with.

So, with what I gained in style and fluidity I sort of lost in messaging, which is a large component of a game like this. From a thematic standpoint, I don't think I quite hit the mark.

However, I can look past that - I made a freaking game this weekend! :sweat_smile:

Given that, it is still important to reflect on how certain decisions have an impact on the direction the game took. I couldn't get any story in the game in time and I rushed to get music and sound done at the last minute. Time and time again Ludum Dare proves itself to be a challenge in time management. It's tough to divvy up time effectively (not necessarily equally) when you're flying solo.

While I acheived what I set out to do and got the sucker done - I've learned that no matter how I may try to shift my approach at Ludum Dare, the guding principle remains: it's a balancing act on the flying trapese.

So, these things that went wrong weren't terrible things - but a symptom of the challenge that is Ludum Dare. With every attempt I think we all get better at managing our expectations and actions to get things done.

Moving Forward

I'd like to keep exploring this concept further. Once I've successfully launched my current project cough IGEO DX cough, I think I will sink back into this little game and see how far I can take this mechanic. :sunglasses:

Thanks to anyone who checks out COLORSPACE. Please leave a comment and I will 100% play, rate, and comment on your entry!