{"author_link":"\/users\/matank","author_name":"Matank","author_uid":"matank","comments":[],"epoch":1674424760,"event":"LD52","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":322984,"likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"171806","p_author":"Matank","p_authorkey":"1101302","p_urlkey":"401110","p_title":"The Night Harvest - what worked and what didn't?","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD52","p_time":"1674424760","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1101302","us_name":"Matank","us_username":"matank","event_start":"1672963200","event_key":"116","event_name":"Ludum Dare 52"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD52","removed_author":false},"_superparent":313060,"_trust":3,"author":101302,"body":"![tending_farm.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56ba4.gif)\n\nWanted to write a quick \"post mortem\" of my game, mainly to keep track of the conclusions I have so I'll remember them for next time. The post is going to include some spoilers for my game! If you have some free time, you can try playing my game without spoiling it at https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/the-night-harvest\n\n## What worked?\n* Surprising the players by the fact you do not play the farmer. I wanted the game to do a sort of \"bait and switch\" - all the screenshots in the main page show only the farmer, and the description doesn't reveal that you actually play as the creature who comes out at night. From streamers and comments, I think this was a nice surprise and worked well.\n\n* Fake language - was very well received by all players :)\n\n![waa_pan_tapuku.png](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56baf.png)\n\n* Story progression and game ending - was very well received by everyone I saw who actually got to the end (but see \"what didn't work\" for why so few people actually got to the end)\n\n* Music adds so much to the game! I almost gave up on finding music for the game this time, since it was already an hour before the deadline and I didn't have anything. I'm eventually really happy I added the music track (with music for opengameart) because it adds so much to the mood of the game!\n\n* Building up stress during night sections - I wanted the game to feel a bit stressed out in the night sections - about running out of energy, and about getting discovered by the farmer, and I think that works well.\n\n![hiding.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56baa.gif)\n\n* Strategy vs action difficulty - from the beginning, I wanted the game to have a trade-off between how hard it is to play versus how much you strategize, so you could either strategize a lot and get a very easy game, or strategize very little and still win the game but have to endure a bit more difficult sequences. Only very little of this was eventually left in the game, but the (very few) people who did find out about the way you can win the game without handling the trap at all were very happy with discovering these strategies. \n\n* Pixel art - this was my first time drawing the game with pixel art style graphics. It definitely took much longer than the art for previous games, but I think even though it is still obviously programmer art, it's my least ugly looking game so far :laughing: \n\n![creature_walk_anim.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bac.gif)\n\n![creature_dig_anim.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bad.gif)\n\n## What didn't work?\n\n* Game is *too hard*!! I repeated my mistake from the game [Pyramidion in Ludum Dare 42](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/pyramidion) where I made the game feel pretty easy for me, but didn't take into account that people playing the game will have spent much less time debugging these mechanics than me :smile:\nAlso, in retrospect, when playing jam games you are often not in a headspace to be stuck on something difficult, at least not right away (maybe it might work if you're already invested and have been playing first through a few easier levels).\nThis time especially I wanted the game to be a narrative experience, and I meant for it to be only mildly difficult, so it was a bit too bad when I learned the game is actually too difficult for most players to complete.\n\n![trap.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bab.gif)\n\n* I need to implement a way to restart the game from the current night! At first I didn't want to add this, because the game was supposed to focus much more on the \"strategy\" element where you need to build up your strategy in the first night to be able to solve the later nights, but in the final game this is much less crucial and I could have easily added this feature and made the game much easier to finish.\n\n* There are many improvements I should have implemented for the input system - e.g. maybe you don't need to long press X to harvest (or at least it should be better communicated). Also maybe hiding should be automatic (or use the same button as harvesting).\n\nAnyway, had a lot of fun making the game and playing other people games this jam. Still not sure if I'll join the next one, but I'll definitely join at least one more Ludum Dare this year! :smile:\n","comments":0,"created":"2023-01-22T21:24:44Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":322984,"love":5,"love-timestamp":"2023-01-23T02:42:22Z","meta":[],"modified":"2023-01-23T02:42:22Z","name":"The Night Harvest - what worked and what didn't?","node-timestamp":"2023-01-22T21:59:20Z","parent":313321,"parents":[1,5,9,313060,313321],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/the-night-harvest\/the-night-harvest-what-worked-and-what-didnt","published":"2023-01-22T21:59:20Z","scope":"public","slug":"the-night-harvest-what-worked-and-what-didnt","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1008381},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"322984","n_urlkey":"401110","n_parent":"313321","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/the-night-harvest\/the-night-harvest-what-worked-and-what-didnt","n_slug":"the-night-harvest-what-worked-an","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"101302","n_created":"1674422684","n_modified":"1674441742","n_version":"1008381","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/the-night-harvest\/the-night-harvest-what-worked-and-what-didnt","text":"![tending_farm.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56ba4.gif)\n\nWanted to write a quick \"post mortem\" of my game, mainly to keep track of the conclusions I have so I'll remember them for next time. The post is going to include some spoilers for my game! If you have some free time, you can try playing my game without spoiling it at https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/the-night-harvest\n\n## What worked?\n* Surprising the players by the fact you do not play the farmer. I wanted the game to do a sort of \"bait and switch\" - all the screenshots in the main page show only the farmer, and the description doesn't reveal that you actually play as the creature who comes out at night. From streamers and comments, I think this was a nice surprise and worked well.\n\n* Fake language - was very well received by all players :)\n\n![waa_pan_tapuku.png](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56baf.png)\n\n* Story progression and game ending - was very well received by everyone I saw who actually got to the end (but see \"what didn't work\" for why so few people actually got to the end)\n\n* Music adds so much to the game! I almost gave up on finding music for the game this time, since it was already an hour before the deadline and I didn't have anything. I'm eventually really happy I added the music track (with music for opengameart) because it adds so much to the mood of the game!\n\n* Building up stress during night sections - I wanted the game to feel a bit stressed out in the night sections - about running out of energy, and about getting discovered by the farmer, and I think that works well.\n\n![hiding.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56baa.gif)\n\n* Strategy vs action difficulty - from the beginning, I wanted the game to have a trade-off between how hard it is to play versus how much you strategize, so you could either strategize a lot and get a very easy game, or strategize very little and still win the game but have to endure a bit more difficult sequences. Only very little of this was eventually left in the game, but the (very few) people who did find out about the way you can win the game without handling the trap at all were very happy with discovering these strategies. \n\n* Pixel art - this was my first time drawing the game with pixel art style graphics. It definitely took much longer than the art for previous games, but I think even though it is still obviously programmer art, it's my least ugly looking game so far :laughing: \n\n![creature_walk_anim.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bac.gif)\n\n![creature_dig_anim.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bad.gif)\n\n## What didn't work?\n\n* Game is *too hard*!! I repeated my mistake from the game [Pyramidion in Ludum Dare 42](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/pyramidion) where I made the game feel pretty easy for me, but didn't take into account that people playing the game will have spent much less time debugging these mechanics than me :smile:\nAlso, in retrospect, when playing jam games you are often not in a headspace to be stuck on something difficult, at least not right away (maybe it might work if you're already invested and have been playing first through a few easier levels).\nThis time especially I wanted the game to be a narrative experience, and I meant for it to be only mildly difficult, so it was a bit too bad when I learned the game is actually too difficult for most players to complete.\n\n![trap.gif](\/\/\/raw\/6bb\/81\/z\/56bab.gif)\n\n* I need to implement a way to restart the game from the current night! At first I didn't want to add this, because the game was supposed to focus much more on the \"strategy\" element where you need to build up your strategy in the first night to be able to solve the later nights, but in the final game this is much less crucial and I could have easily added this feature and made the game much easier to finish.\n\n* There are many improvements I should have implemented for the input system - e.g. maybe you don't need to long press X to harvest (or at least it should be better communicated). Also maybe hiding should be automatic (or use the same button as harvesting).\n\nAnyway, had a lot of fun making the game and playing other people games this jam. Still not sure if I'll join the next one, but I'll definitely join at least one more Ludum Dare this year! :smile:\n","title":"The Night Harvest - what worked and what didn't?","wayback_source":[]}