I still have some rating to do, which I'll try and get done over the next few days. For now, though, it's time for my traditional post-mortem, examining what went well with my game, what didn't, and what I can improve upon for next Ludum Dare. Speaking of my game, if you haven't played it yet, please do!

What Went Well

• Of all my Ludum Dare entries, this is easily the least complex, and one of the smallest in scope as well. By scoping down like this, I was able to really take my time with it and make sure everything looked and felt okay, rather than rushing it. This led to a much more relaxed Ludum Dare experience than normal - which was helpful, considering it kicked off on my birthday.
• As a result of this smaller scope, this is also my first bug-free game in a very long time. I haven't had to put out a single patch or big fix for the entire rating period, which hasn't happened since my collab with @alanxoc3 for LD46, and hasn't happened in the Compo since LD43. Turns out there's not much room for bugs when your game has less than 9 KB of code - who knew?
• The inclusion of Color-Blind Mode has been highlighted in several reviews. I'm proud of myself for realising that accessibility would be a problem with the game, and it's something I'll continue to think about in the future.

What Went Badly

• This is the second Ludum Dare in a row where I've played it safe, without really attempting to push my boundaries or try new genres or game mechanics. Again, this was a birthday jam and I wanted to take it easy, but I still don't want this to become a pattern in future jams. I'm not going to learn and improve that way.
• I feel like I did a poor job with the level scaling. It scales smoothly up to Level 20, and keeps scaling indefinitely after that, but by all accounts it becomes impossible at Level 10. I think it should have scaled more slowly.
• This is one of the few LD games where I've been able to add a background, but the result feels rather rushed and simplistic. I could (and maybe should) have tried to put a bit more detail into it.

What Comes Next

This is also the second Ludum Dare in a row where I've abandoned my usual story-heavy, narrative-driven approach in favour of a simpler arcade-style game, and it seems to have worked out well on both occasions. I'll be taking this into account for future jams, and continuing to mix it up rather than always trying to do story-heavy games.

I'm not sure how much scope there is to improve or expand Fruit Fall, so that'll probably be it. I've already shifted my focus back to developing Prism Warriors, as work on it has slowed to a crawl recently for various reasons. However, one thing I'll be carrying forward into future games is a slightly revised splash screen, with the Altrix logo written in a custom font. It's a minor detail that makes the splash screen look a bit nicer.

Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed and rated Fruit Fall, and good luck when the ratings come out!