{"author_name":"jcsirron","cat":"LD #32","comments":[],"epoch":1430097480,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"17609","p_author":"jcsirron","p_authorkey":"29257","p_urlkey":"52914","p_title":"Break A Leg Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #32","p_event":"LD32","p_time":"1430097480","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"29257","us_name":"jcsirron","us_username":"\/author\/jcsirron\/","event_start":"1429228800","event_key":"27","event_name":"LD32"},"text":"

Well, It’s been a week since we submitted our game, Break A Leg<\/a>, and it’s given us time to think about what we have done.\u00a0 It was a blast to make and I personally am proud of what we had made.\u00a0 That being said, I feel like a proper post-mortem is in order.\u00a0 Let’s do this!<\/p>\n

\"TitleScreen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Good<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Playtest the game mechanics the first night.\u00a0 Most of the Ludum Dares I get lost in the details of making the game that I don’t stop to think of whether my game will actually be *fun* or not.\u00a0 So, playtesting the game mechanics night one made me much more confident about the direction of the game.<\/p>\n

I had backup for programming! This one was personally huge for me, since it gave me more time to think about the structure of the code and, consequently, make better code.\u00a0 A larger group also let us have some backup on each area of work.\u00a0 The extra help on art and code made a much better project.<\/p>\n

The Bad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time.\u00a0 I know this is a common item on the bad list, but having some extra time would have been immense. Everyone had work on Monday, so the last day of the jam really wasn’t an option.\u00a0 We worked as late as possible and got a lot done in the final few hours, but we didn’t have time to get the audio that we recorded into the game.<\/p>\n

Split work areas.\u00a0 Since we had a larger group than expected join us at the TinkerMill, we had to move into the main area for the Dare.\u00a0 We had the people doing art and sound working in one area and the programming group working in another.\u00a0 That led to a few issues with user interfaces and misunderstandings about what the vision of the game would be.\u00a0 Although we mitigated confusion by planning thoroughly the first night, some details fell through the cracks.<\/p>\n

The Ugly:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having to move into the central area.\u00a0 The main area was quite a bit louder than the conference room we were initially going to use, so it affected how focused we were on the game.\u00a0 It wasn’t a huge deal, it just made it take longer to get done.<\/p>\n

Not participating in the warmup weekend.\u00a0 I was a bit rusty on the coding side, so it took me longer to get moving on the code than it should have been.<\/p>\n

Next Time:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reserve the classroom.\u00a0 I think that this would solve the split work area issues, along with the noisier work area.\u00a0 This is easy enough to solve, though.<\/p>\n

Practice!\u00a0 Working on games is not a short term endeavor, so not practicing the art really takes it’s toll between the Dares.<\/p>\n

As always, it was a blast to make this game and we look forward to jamming again next time.<\/p>","time":"April 26th, 2015 8:18 pm","title":"Break A Leg Post-Mortem"}