{"author_name":"ldds","cat":"LD #32","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"April 20, 2015 9:23 pm","epoch":1429582980,"text":"It gets easier overtime \":)\"","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1429582500,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"18021","p_author":"ldds","p_authorkey":"52368","p_urlkey":"53332","p_title":"reflections on my first Jam","p_cat":"LD #32","p_event":"LD32","p_time":"1429582500","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"52368","us_name":"ldds","us_username":"ldds","event_start":"1429228800","event_key":"27","event_name":"LD32"},"text":"

I just spent 3 days trying to get a working game out there and I wanted to talk about my first impressions as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

pros:
\n – Not doing Graphics
\n – Using an engine that I know well (melonJS, javascript engine)
\n – Trying to keep it simple<\/p>\n

cons:
\n – redoing things
\n – wasting time in configuration files
\n – not looking at other dev’s impressions and suggestions + not being physically surrounded by other people<\/p>\n

More detailed impression:
\n I am not really able to quickly make decent-looking characters in 72 hours, so I ended up reusing the graphics that I bought a long time ago. I love working with these assets because I have all the information that I need, and I know the limitations of what I have. I guess this will become complicated once I attempt to add animations in later Jams, but for this one I am glad I did not have to think about graphics.<\/p>\n

In the same light, I am so glad that I used melonJS. Things went butter smooth with the engine. PhaserJS would have been a nice choice too. I guess relatively simple javascript games don’t demand too many modifications of the source engine.<\/p>\n

Finally, I am glad that I was able to keep it simple towards the end (at the beginning I had too many bonus features that I wanted to add).<\/p>\n

As for negative things, I guess the biggest one was redoing things during the second day. More specifically, I was thinking about throwing things (apples) and I decided to modify melonJS’ particle emitter to do it. Bad idea.
\n I ended up wasting a couple of hours redoing things, but it wasn’t that bad. I am glad that I got to talk to people that advice me to stop wasting time making particles collide, etc and just use other sane defaults, which brings me to the next point: community.
\n For this jam, I was alone in my room, and I didn’t really get the sense of being at a Jam. I hope I can attend an event in the future, if I ever try to make a game again.<\/p>\n

ps: tweaking configuration files feels really weird. I spent so much time thinking about, for example, what wolves eat, which wasn’t really that important in the end<\/p>\n

bottom-line: MAKING games is HARD.<\/p>\n \n

Tags: 2D<\/a>, javascript<\/a>, ld32<\/a>, melon<\/a>, postmortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"April 20th, 2015 9:15 pm","title":"reflections on my first Jam"}