{"author_link":"\/users\/100th-coin","author_name":"100th_Coin","author_uid":"100th-coin","comments":[],"epoch":1714864037,"event":"LD55","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":394801,"likes":12,"metadata":{"p_key":"206702","p_author":"100th_Coin","p_authorkey":"1008715","p_urlkey":"443237","p_title":"My 24th Ludum Dare's Postmortem: \"Demon Well\"","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD55","p_time":"1714864037","p_likes":"12","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1008715","us_name":"blobo","us_username":"blobo","event_start":"1712966400","event_key":"120","event_name":"Ludum Dare 55"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD55","removed_author":false},"_superparent":383062,"_trust":15,"author":8715,"body":"As someone trying to become a more skilled writer, nowhere do I feel more inept than writing the first sentence in a postmortem. With every Ludum Dare postmortem I write, I take as many notes as possible so I have thoughts to reflect on for my next game. Thoughts such as: \"Focus on a single unique game mechanic instead of story elements\". So anyway, here's how made a game that is primarily cutscenes, completely disregarding my own advice.\n\nMy Ludum Dare 53 game, \"Inbox Fool\" had a lot of success through the comically foolish villain. I've been wanting to make another game with a good dynamic between two characters, though of course it's hard to do that without focusing on the story.\n\nWhile brainstorming for ideas during the theme voting, I had Idea that I've been wanting to try, which is an escort mission from the perspective of someone trying to die. I haven't played many games with escort missions in a long long time, but I'll never forget the Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage escort mission where you guide an alchemist through the worst possible route to free some guy whose feet are trapped in stone. For those who haven't played the game, the route looks something like this:\n\n![Spyro2Example.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dd3.png)\n\nSurely the alchemist is doing this on purpose.\n\nThat, in combination with the comical cutscene of his death, the camera fade out\/in, and the movement of the camera before the failure dialogue... I was really itching to parody it. The funny thing about the failure cutscenes in Spyro 2 and 3, is just how long some of them can be. This sparked the idea of the hero shouting and complaining the whole time you bumble around with your buffoonery leading to what really feels like an intentional death, and a tragically long cutscene where a hero *could* intervene, while he just idles in the background witnessing it, because \"cutscene\".\n\n### Trouble with the trolley, eh?\n\nThe icing on the cake. The coup de gr\u00e2ce. Saying the stupidest possible line to begin the failure dialogue with the hero. For my game, I opted for a short and sweet, \"Ooops! I exploded!\". I think the \"oops!\" really sells it, as it implies it was an accident.\n\nWith that, the core idea for the game is all set. You are a demon who was summoned to fulfill some task, but in a twist on classic escort missions, you are the one trying to fail, while a hero tries to save you. After failure, you get to say the silly line, and the hero gets increasingly upset.\n\n# The Art\n\nIt's not the order of operations most Compo devs would choose, but I always begin Ludum Dare by drawing the characters, any necessary animations, and some basic ground textures\/decorations. I have a habit of polishing as early as possible, which I think leads to better overall presentation of the final game. Why even make placeholder graphics (or test things with untextured characters\/environments)?\n\nThe 4 main characters I needed to draw was The Hero, The Demon, An Enemy, and The Boss.\n\nRecently, I've had an idea for a card game, so I've been staying up late drawing funny characters. As my art style devolves, I've had a lot of fun drawing exceptionally short characters, many of which have giant beards:\n\n![CardGameCharacters.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc0.png)\n\nI decided this art style would be a good fit for the demon you play as:\n\n![TheDemon.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc2.png)\n\n### The boss\n\nI've recently done my first game jam in a team, with my friend ChillLemon. They're just getting into game development, so for Minijam 152, they did all the programming while I did the art and music. Our amazing game, [Dwarf Game with Combat vs. a Necromancer and also there's a Gun and the Camera can move and the Dwarf is a Hero](https:\/\/chilllemon.itch.io\/dwarf-with-combat-vs-a-necromancer-and-also-theres-a-gun-and-the-camera-can-move) featured a powerful necromancer, and I really liked the design of him, so I gave him an upgrade for an epic reprise.\n\n![Necrupgrade.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc3.png)\n\nI was joking with a friend as I designed this guy, that all his belongings have horns because they were demonic summons. How funny would it be for a boss fight against this guy, and he's like \"Nooo! My demonic hat! I summoned that one years ago!\" \"Nooo, my demonic 401(K)!\"\n\n### The Hero\n\nKeep in mind, my character art is usually within a 64 by 64 pixel grid, or even smaller, making animations on the scale of 512 by 512 pixel character is... so much more work!\n\n![HeroRun.gif](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc5.gif)\n\nI'm happy with how it turned out, though I don't foresee myself making characters of this scale in future game jams.\n\n### The level\n\nWhile we're on the topic of the graphics, I also made a giant tree for decoration surrounding the stage. I wanted this to be a pine tree, though I unfortunately have spent the past 5 and a half years drawing specifically non-pine trees. In fact, the most recent pine tree I drew was for Ludum Dare 41:\n\n![TreesOverTheLDs.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc6.png)\n\nIt's pretty much the same style as the LD41 tree, but with my current art skills. I wanted to put a lot of emphasis on the shape of the tree, and making the lighting look good. I added a lot of solid black sections, which isn't something I usually do with my lighting. I like how it turned out!\n\nI also decorated the level with a bunch of grass, which is mostly 1000 randomly placed large strips of \"grass texture\":\n\n![grassTexture.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc7.png)\n\nAnyway, with all that said, I mostly wanted to share the new stuff I was trying with my art. Let's actually talk about the goals I had for this game, and what went right\/wrong.\n\n# Goals\n\n* I have been struggling to make my games intuitive. This is something I thought I overcame around LD 43.\n* I wanted to focus on humor and audio again. My previous LD game was a bit lacking there.\n* I wanted the option to rebind controls.\n\n# Making the game intuitive\n\nSince my previous two games were \"puzzle platformers\" (generously using the word \"puzzle\" there) I was hesitant to over-explain things, as part of the fun is the \"Ah-HA! moment\" of solving the puzzle. This time around, the game was very much not a puzzle game, so with every level, I established the goals in a popup menu.\n\n![MessageBox.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc8.png)\n\nAnd even still, I dropped the ball by miscommunicating. In level 3, you need to collect 6 sticks of dynamite, then get smacked by the enemies. During the dialogue, your demon says \"I'll need to craft an explosive!\" which lead to me writing \"Craft an explosive\" as one of the goals for the level. There is no crafting mechanic, you just need to collect 6 sticks of dynamite.\n\n![MessageBox2.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc9.png)\n\nFurthermore, while watching everyone play my game I was shocked to see how few people tried getting smacked before collecting 6 sticks! After all, this game is about failing missions! Wouldn't the first step be to at least see what happens? I made it so getting hit before collecting all the dynamite would result in a much-needed speed boost.\n\nThis is feedback that I would have absolutely seen if I had the chance to get people to play it before the deadline, but alas.\n\nThankfully, that seems to be the only point of confusion in the entire game.\n\n# Focus on humor and audio\n\nMy sense of humor is... dumb. I enjoy absurdism more than any other kind of humor, and I think it shows. If you were to ask me how to define humor, I would say it's all about setting an expectation and then subverting it.\n\n![Baritone.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dca.png)\n\nAllow me to break this one down for you. The necromancer has summoned a choir to sing his boss fight music, and their vocal warmup involves (in descending order: Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Baritone, Bass) the group saying \"laaaa\" in their respective range. Except the baritone instead says \"I'm a baritone!\" in a very straightforward non-melodic way. (all the while, the remaining vocalists are still holding their extended laaa's) That was my favorite joke of the game.\n\nI also think it's relatable for people stuck on an escort mission to eventually want to just shoot the escortee yourself out of rage, so I made a level specifically with the hero killing you as the punchline.\n\n![Fireball.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dd7.png)\n\nIn my \"foolish villain\" style of comedy, The Necromancer leaves his power source just lying around, with a big sign saying \"The source of my power. Do NOT steal! \u2665~ Necromancer\" with follow-up signs reading \"If you steal that gemstone, you would gain all my powers, leaving me with none!\" and \"That would be bad!\". I think it's funny for a guy to tell you how to defeat him. Like- imagine fighting a guy, and then he charges an attack saying \"During *this* animation, I'm VULNERABLE!\". It's both good game design and absolutely hilarious.\n\n![ThatWouldBeBad.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f72.png)\n\nThen of course, the game ends with you scamming the hero out of his share of the experience points when you defeat The Necromancer. The hero rants as you fly away. Good stuff.\n\n## Acapella music\n\nThis was my fifth LD in a row where I added an acepella track. Though the music track isn't super funny, I think it's a great subversion from what people expect out of a Ludum Dare game. \"Who the heck has time for an acapella track in a Compo submission, and why is that a recurring priority?\" I have a lot of fun making the acapella music in my games, and this time I ended up making it in the final 2 hours. For the acapella music in my LD53 game I re-used the synth version for the title music. This time around, I already made title music for this game that I really liked, so this time around it was a new track made just for the acepella!\n\n![Music.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dcc.png)\n\nLooking at the music right now, I realize I forgot to do some cool stereo effect, with one set of vocals specifically in one ear, and another in another. Oh well- Next time! The actual goal with my acapella music this time around was the focus on chords, which I think I did a good job with.\n\nOn the topic of audio, I voice acted every cutscene in the game, which was by a wide margin the most voice lines I had recorded for a game jam! The bulk of this game's development was writing a cutscene engine, but I think it paid off. I know, during my LD46 game I also spent most of the time making a cutscene engine, which resulted in a buggy, unfinished mess. I'm very happy to say that this game not only has fully voice acted cutscenes, but a finished game as well!\n\n# Rebindable controls\n\nYou know, up until last ludum dare, I never considered how important this is. Sure, I'd watch twitch streams, and they would always comment on the WASD not fitting their keyboard, but they always found some way to work around that. It wasn't until my left handed friend played Ribbon 2, where the WASD + spacebar combo made it much harder for them.\n\nI wanted to make sure people could rebind their controls, so the game opens up with a control rebinding menu.\n\n![Rebinder_DemonWell.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f62.png)\n\nSomehow I forgot the most important key rebinding feature: changing mouse sensitivity! I had 3 volume sliders; making another slider would have been so easy if I had only considered!\n\n![Pause.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f63.png)\n\nOn the topic of minor shortcomings, why do I keep making games where letting go of spacebar results in a short hop? The amount of people who short-hopped the final jump of the game, thus falling short at the end of a platforming course (thus needing to scale it again) was well into the double digits. This same short-hop feature resulted in people not getting the final collectible in Ribbon 2 as well. I know making every jump the exact same height (regardless of how long you press the jump button) feels wrong, but why is that exactly what I need?\n\nThough to be completely honest, this was a really sloppy character movement script for platforming purposes, and I probably should have polished that a bit more.\n\n# Reflection\n\nWhen I created my LD53 game, Inbox Fool, I hadn't noticed at the time just how brilliantly I implemented the banter from the villain. In that game, stepping on a giant button in each level would play a cutscene on a TV in the background, where the villain taunts you, or drops some lore \/ bad jokes. The story was literally happening *in the background* while gameplay was never interrupted. Now take a look at Demon Well's cutscenes, which come in 2 flavors: Dialogue, and Unskippable.\n\nIn my opinion, the greatest shortcoming of the unskippable cutscenes isn't the lack of skip functionality, rather the lack of subtitles. That being said, there is a nearly minute long opening cutscene that cannot be skipped, which is really unfortunate (especially for people wanting to speedrun this game). Then again, one of the jokes with this game was a comically long unskippable cutscene of the demon dying, so perhaps the only cutscene that needs skipping is the opening.\n\nAnd if we honestly talk about the quality of the gameplay outside of the cutscenes, it's not really anything to write home about. It's a route-optimizing walking simulator with some rough platforming in the final stage. If I were to expand on this concept, I would need to make the gameplay a lot more interesting.\n\nI think I might have taken care of my itch to make a story driven game? I still have some really cool ideas for a few, that (if the theme comes close enough) I might consider making, though this was my third LD in a row where the theme was a stretch, so I might focus on theme next time.\n\nNow, reflection isn't exclusively about being negative all the time. I want to talk about what I think worked well.\n\nThis is by far the funniest Ludum Dare game I have made. I set out to make a funny game, and I can gladly say that goal was met.\n\nThis is by far the most voice acting I have recorded for a Ludum Dare. I'm far from a professional, but I'm having a good time!\n\nThis is by far the most story I've had in a Ludum Dare. A lot of my games have you thrown in the middle of some plot (if one exists) though this game establishes the story, builds to a climax, and then resolves.\n\nThis is by far the prettiest level\/environment I've made in a Ludum Dare. The tufts of grass, the pine trees, the well, and the skybox (Oh *the SKYBOX!*). I made a really cozy level!\n\n![Beautiful.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f69.png)\n\n# Reflection part 2: Thoughts for next time\n\nOkay, so *what did I learn*?\n\nAllow me to compile a list of things I told myself to consider for future Ludum Dare's that I disregarded this time around.\n\n![reminder.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6b.png)\n\n\"Focus on a single mechanic, and let the story come second\".\n\nYou know, amazingly, despite my postmortem for both LD53 and LD54 commenting on how *that advice made for a better game*, I completely tossed that piece of advice aside here. I said it earlier, but the actual gameplay is lackluster. Seriously, focus on a single mechanic next time.\n\n![reminder2.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6c.png)\n\n\"Get feedback before the deadline\"\n\nNow, in my defense, my roommates were out all weekend (until briefly after submission hour), so I didn't really have anyone available to test it out quickly IRL. I probably could have hit up some friends on discord though.\n\nSo let's recap where my game had shortcomings, which this type of feedback would highlight. \n* Level 3's objective said to \"craft an explosive\", which isn't even a feature. (remove that line)\n* People dodged the speed boosts in level 3. (Replace that removed line with information about the speed boosts)\n* The camera didn't have a sensitivity slider. (Copy \/ paste existing volume slider code)\n* Short hops resulted in people failing to make the final jump of the game. (Remove short hops)\n\nEvery single one of these could have been easily fixed if I had known about it. Every single one.\n\n![reminder3.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6d.png)\n\n\"Make sure the camera isn't jank\"\n\nAhhhhh! I cannot believe I forgot to add a sensitivity slider. Especially after the camera was jank in my previous LD game. I can say \"In my defense, I have never made a game with a mouse-controlled camera before\" but I've played a bunch, and I always change my sensitivity, so no- I dropped the ball. I spent a lot of time preventing the camera from clipping into objects though, so in some ways this camera wasn't as jank as it could have been!\n\n![reminder4.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6f.png)\n\nSo what advice do I offer to my future self, despite the high probability of it being ignored anyway?\n\nThe majority of this Ludum Dare was spent writing a cutscene engine. That was pretty far from the most fun I've had with a game jam. Honestly, designing bite-sized levels during LD53 was a lot of fun. I want to make another game with an interesting mechanic, broken into a series of small levels. 3D games can be a bit overwhelming to make in a weekend, and I think my game design skills are a bit more fine-tuned to 2D games anyway.\n\nAnd with that, I brace myself for the results.\n\n# Results\n\n21st overall. This is honestly the worst I have done in a long time, which- I understand. I've been commenting on how rough the non-cutscene parts were this entire postmortem.\n\n3rd in audio.\n\n2nd in humor.\n\n# Reflection part 3, and a big ol' conclusion\n\nWell, I got trophies in the categories I was aiming for, so that's nice!\n\nI think I'll be making more 2D stuff, unless it absolutely must be 3D (like Ribbon). I'm way more familiar with working in a 2D environment, and I think that would let me work at a faster pace, which lets me make larger\/better\/more-polished\/more-innovative games. Plus, working with shaders in 2D land is way easier, and I could absolutely boost my graphics ratings with some neat shaders.\n\nIt's nice to see that my sense of humor is still doing well. In my postmortem for LD53, I mentioned how I wanted to do more foolish villains, and this time around the dynamic I had between the characters has absolutely inspired me to make more games with them. I want more cutscenes that don't take control away from the player. Whether it's a villain, or some wacky 4th wall break, those kind of cutscenes seem to be the place to inject my bad jokes, so I'd like to experiment more with cutscenes. That idea is definitely in conflict with the notes I took though, seeing how the process of making a cutscene engine isn't a lot of fun? I'll try and get creative with it.\n\nI think that's all I have to say for this Ludum Dare. Until next time!\n\n# \u2603","comments":3,"comments-timestamp":"2024-05-05T11:09:28Z","created":"2024-04-28T15:33:26Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":394801,"love":12,"love-timestamp":"2024-05-05T18:20:53Z","meta":[],"modified":"2024-05-05T18:20:53Z","name":"My 24th Ludum Dare's Postmortem: \"Demon Well\"","node-timestamp":"2024-05-04T23:19:28Z","parent":391413,"parents":[1,5,9,383062,391413],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/55\/demon-well\/my-24th-ludum-dares-postmortem-demon-well","published":"2024-05-04T23:07:17Z","scope":"public","slug":"my-24th-ludum-dares-postmortem-demon-well","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1238586},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"394801","n_urlkey":"443237","n_parent":"391413","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/55\/demon-well\/my-24th-ludum-dares-postmortem-demon-well","n_slug":"my-24th-ludum-dares-postmortem-d","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"8715","n_created":"1714318406","n_modified":"1714933253","n_version":"1238586","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/55\/demon-well\/my-24th-ludum-dares-postmortem-demon-well","text":"As someone trying to become a more skilled writer, nowhere do I feel more inept than writing the first sentence in a postmortem. With every Ludum Dare postmortem I write, I take as many notes as possible so I have thoughts to reflect on for my next game. Thoughts such as: \"Focus on a single unique game mechanic instead of story elements\". So anyway, here's how made a game that is primarily cutscenes, completely disregarding my own advice.\n\nMy Ludum Dare 53 game, \"Inbox Fool\" had a lot of success through the comically foolish villain. I've been wanting to make another game with a good dynamic between two characters, though of course it's hard to do that without focusing on the story.\n\nWhile brainstorming for ideas during the theme voting, I had Idea that I've been wanting to try, which is an escort mission from the perspective of someone trying to die. I haven't played many games with escort missions in a long long time, but I'll never forget the Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage escort mission where you guide an alchemist through the worst possible route to free some guy whose feet are trapped in stone. For those who haven't played the game, the route looks something like this:\n\n![Spyro2Example.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dd3.png)\n\nSurely the alchemist is doing this on purpose.\n\nThat, in combination with the comical cutscene of his death, the camera fade out\/in, and the movement of the camera before the failure dialogue... I was really itching to parody it. The funny thing about the failure cutscenes in Spyro 2 and 3, is just how long some of them can be. This sparked the idea of the hero shouting and complaining the whole time you bumble around with your buffoonery leading to what really feels like an intentional death, and a tragically long cutscene where a hero *could* intervene, while he just idles in the background witnessing it, because \"cutscene\".\n\n### Trouble with the trolley, eh?\n\nThe icing on the cake. The coup de gr\u00e2ce. Saying the stupidest possible line to begin the failure dialogue with the hero. For my game, I opted for a short and sweet, \"Ooops! I exploded!\". I think the \"oops!\" really sells it, as it implies it was an accident.\n\nWith that, the core idea for the game is all set. You are a demon who was summoned to fulfill some task, but in a twist on classic escort missions, you are the one trying to fail, while a hero tries to save you. After failure, you get to say the silly line, and the hero gets increasingly upset.\n\n# The Art\n\nIt's not the order of operations most Compo devs would choose, but I always begin Ludum Dare by drawing the characters, any necessary animations, and some basic ground textures\/decorations. I have a habit of polishing as early as possible, which I think leads to better overall presentation of the final game. Why even make placeholder graphics (or test things with untextured characters\/environments)?\n\nThe 4 main characters I needed to draw was The Hero, The Demon, An Enemy, and The Boss.\n\nRecently, I've had an idea for a card game, so I've been staying up late drawing funny characters. As my art style devolves, I've had a lot of fun drawing exceptionally short characters, many of which have giant beards:\n\n![CardGameCharacters.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc0.png)\n\nI decided this art style would be a good fit for the demon you play as:\n\n![TheDemon.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc2.png)\n\n### The boss\n\nI've recently done my first game jam in a team, with my friend ChillLemon. They're just getting into game development, so for Minijam 152, they did all the programming while I did the art and music. Our amazing game, [Dwarf Game with Combat vs. a Necromancer and also there's a Gun and the Camera can move and the Dwarf is a Hero](https:\/\/chilllemon.itch.io\/dwarf-with-combat-vs-a-necromancer-and-also-theres-a-gun-and-the-camera-can-move) featured a powerful necromancer, and I really liked the design of him, so I gave him an upgrade for an epic reprise.\n\n![Necrupgrade.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc3.png)\n\nI was joking with a friend as I designed this guy, that all his belongings have horns because they were demonic summons. How funny would it be for a boss fight against this guy, and he's like \"Nooo! My demonic hat! I summoned that one years ago!\" \"Nooo, my demonic 401(K)!\"\n\n### The Hero\n\nKeep in mind, my character art is usually within a 64 by 64 pixel grid, or even smaller, making animations on the scale of 512 by 512 pixel character is... so much more work!\n\n![HeroRun.gif](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc5.gif)\n\nI'm happy with how it turned out, though I don't foresee myself making characters of this scale in future game jams.\n\n### The level\n\nWhile we're on the topic of the graphics, I also made a giant tree for decoration surrounding the stage. I wanted this to be a pine tree, though I unfortunately have spent the past 5 and a half years drawing specifically non-pine trees. In fact, the most recent pine tree I drew was for Ludum Dare 41:\n\n![TreesOverTheLDs.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc6.png)\n\nIt's pretty much the same style as the LD41 tree, but with my current art skills. I wanted to put a lot of emphasis on the shape of the tree, and making the lighting look good. I added a lot of solid black sections, which isn't something I usually do with my lighting. I like how it turned out!\n\nI also decorated the level with a bunch of grass, which is mostly 1000 randomly placed large strips of \"grass texture\":\n\n![grassTexture.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc7.png)\n\nAnyway, with all that said, I mostly wanted to share the new stuff I was trying with my art. Let's actually talk about the goals I had for this game, and what went right\/wrong.\n\n# Goals\n\n* I have been struggling to make my games intuitive. This is something I thought I overcame around LD 43.\n* I wanted to focus on humor and audio again. My previous LD game was a bit lacking there.\n* I wanted the option to rebind controls.\n\n# Making the game intuitive\n\nSince my previous two games were \"puzzle platformers\" (generously using the word \"puzzle\" there) I was hesitant to over-explain things, as part of the fun is the \"Ah-HA! moment\" of solving the puzzle. This time around, the game was very much not a puzzle game, so with every level, I established the goals in a popup menu.\n\n![MessageBox.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc8.png)\n\nAnd even still, I dropped the ball by miscommunicating. In level 3, you need to collect 6 sticks of dynamite, then get smacked by the enemies. During the dialogue, your demon says \"I'll need to craft an explosive!\" which lead to me writing \"Craft an explosive\" as one of the goals for the level. There is no crafting mechanic, you just need to collect 6 sticks of dynamite.\n\n![MessageBox2.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dc9.png)\n\nFurthermore, while watching everyone play my game I was shocked to see how few people tried getting smacked before collecting 6 sticks! After all, this game is about failing missions! Wouldn't the first step be to at least see what happens? I made it so getting hit before collecting all the dynamite would result in a much-needed speed boost.\n\nThis is feedback that I would have absolutely seen if I had the chance to get people to play it before the deadline, but alas.\n\nThankfully, that seems to be the only point of confusion in the entire game.\n\n# Focus on humor and audio\n\nMy sense of humor is... dumb. I enjoy absurdism more than any other kind of humor, and I think it shows. If you were to ask me how to define humor, I would say it's all about setting an expectation and then subverting it.\n\n![Baritone.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dca.png)\n\nAllow me to break this one down for you. The necromancer has summoned a choir to sing his boss fight music, and their vocal warmup involves (in descending order: Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Baritone, Bass) the group saying \"laaaa\" in their respective range. Except the baritone instead says \"I'm a baritone!\" in a very straightforward non-melodic way. (all the while, the remaining vocalists are still holding their extended laaa's) That was my favorite joke of the game.\n\nI also think it's relatable for people stuck on an escort mission to eventually want to just shoot the escortee yourself out of rage, so I made a level specifically with the hero killing you as the punchline.\n\n![Fireball.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dd7.png)\n\nIn my \"foolish villain\" style of comedy, The Necromancer leaves his power source just lying around, with a big sign saying \"The source of my power. Do NOT steal! \u2665~ Necromancer\" with follow-up signs reading \"If you steal that gemstone, you would gain all my powers, leaving me with none!\" and \"That would be bad!\". I think it's funny for a guy to tell you how to defeat him. Like- imagine fighting a guy, and then he charges an attack saying \"During *this* animation, I'm VULNERABLE!\". It's both good game design and absolutely hilarious.\n\n![ThatWouldBeBad.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f72.png)\n\nThen of course, the game ends with you scamming the hero out of his share of the experience points when you defeat The Necromancer. The hero rants as you fly away. Good stuff.\n\n## Acapella music\n\nThis was my fifth LD in a row where I added an acepella track. Though the music track isn't super funny, I think it's a great subversion from what people expect out of a Ludum Dare game. \"Who the heck has time for an acapella track in a Compo submission, and why is that a recurring priority?\" I have a lot of fun making the acapella music in my games, and this time I ended up making it in the final 2 hours. For the acapella music in my LD53 game I re-used the synth version for the title music. This time around, I already made title music for this game that I really liked, so this time around it was a new track made just for the acepella!\n\n![Music.png](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64dcc.png)\n\nLooking at the music right now, I realize I forgot to do some cool stereo effect, with one set of vocals specifically in one ear, and another in another. Oh well- Next time! The actual goal with my acapella music this time around was the focus on chords, which I think I did a good job with.\n\nOn the topic of audio, I voice acted every cutscene in the game, which was by a wide margin the most voice lines I had recorded for a game jam! The bulk of this game's development was writing a cutscene engine, but I think it paid off. I know, during my LD46 game I also spent most of the time making a cutscene engine, which resulted in a buggy, unfinished mess. I'm very happy to say that this game not only has fully voice acted cutscenes, but a finished game as well!\n\n# Rebindable controls\n\nYou know, up until last ludum dare, I never considered how important this is. Sure, I'd watch twitch streams, and they would always comment on the WASD not fitting their keyboard, but they always found some way to work around that. It wasn't until my left handed friend played Ribbon 2, where the WASD + spacebar combo made it much harder for them.\n\nI wanted to make sure people could rebind their controls, so the game opens up with a control rebinding menu.\n\n![Rebinder_DemonWell.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f62.png)\n\nSomehow I forgot the most important key rebinding feature: changing mouse sensitivity! I had 3 volume sliders; making another slider would have been so easy if I had only considered!\n\n![Pause.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f63.png)\n\nOn the topic of minor shortcomings, why do I keep making games where letting go of spacebar results in a short hop? The amount of people who short-hopped the final jump of the game, thus falling short at the end of a platforming course (thus needing to scale it again) was well into the double digits. This same short-hop feature resulted in people not getting the final collectible in Ribbon 2 as well. I know making every jump the exact same height (regardless of how long you press the jump button) feels wrong, but why is that exactly what I need?\n\nThough to be completely honest, this was a really sloppy character movement script for platforming purposes, and I probably should have polished that a bit more.\n\n# Reflection\n\nWhen I created my LD53 game, Inbox Fool, I hadn't noticed at the time just how brilliantly I implemented the banter from the villain. In that game, stepping on a giant button in each level would play a cutscene on a TV in the background, where the villain taunts you, or drops some lore \/ bad jokes. The story was literally happening *in the background* while gameplay was never interrupted. Now take a look at Demon Well's cutscenes, which come in 2 flavors: Dialogue, and Unskippable.\n\nIn my opinion, the greatest shortcoming of the unskippable cutscenes isn't the lack of skip functionality, rather the lack of subtitles. That being said, there is a nearly minute long opening cutscene that cannot be skipped, which is really unfortunate (especially for people wanting to speedrun this game). Then again, one of the jokes with this game was a comically long unskippable cutscene of the demon dying, so perhaps the only cutscene that needs skipping is the opening.\n\nAnd if we honestly talk about the quality of the gameplay outside of the cutscenes, it's not really anything to write home about. It's a route-optimizing walking simulator with some rough platforming in the final stage. If I were to expand on this concept, I would need to make the gameplay a lot more interesting.\n\nI think I might have taken care of my itch to make a story driven game? I still have some really cool ideas for a few, that (if the theme comes close enough) I might consider making, though this was my third LD in a row where the theme was a stretch, so I might focus on theme next time.\n\nNow, reflection isn't exclusively about being negative all the time. I want to talk about what I think worked well.\n\nThis is by far the funniest Ludum Dare game I have made. I set out to make a funny game, and I can gladly say that goal was met.\n\nThis is by far the most voice acting I have recorded for a Ludum Dare. I'm far from a professional, but I'm having a good time!\n\nThis is by far the most story I've had in a Ludum Dare. A lot of my games have you thrown in the middle of some plot (if one exists) though this game establishes the story, builds to a climax, and then resolves.\n\nThis is by far the prettiest level\/environment I've made in a Ludum Dare. The tufts of grass, the pine trees, the well, and the skybox (Oh *the SKYBOX!*). I made a really cozy level!\n\n![Beautiful.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f69.png)\n\n# Reflection part 2: Thoughts for next time\n\nOkay, so *what did I learn*?\n\nAllow me to compile a list of things I told myself to consider for future Ludum Dare's that I disregarded this time around.\n\n![reminder.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6b.png)\n\n\"Focus on a single mechanic, and let the story come second\".\n\nYou know, amazingly, despite my postmortem for both LD53 and LD54 commenting on how *that advice made for a better game*, I completely tossed that piece of advice aside here. I said it earlier, but the actual gameplay is lackluster. Seriously, focus on a single mechanic next time.\n\n![reminder2.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6c.png)\n\n\"Get feedback before the deadline\"\n\nNow, in my defense, my roommates were out all weekend (until briefly after submission hour), so I didn't really have anyone available to test it out quickly IRL. I probably could have hit up some friends on discord though.\n\nSo let's recap where my game had shortcomings, which this type of feedback would highlight. \n* Level 3's objective said to \"craft an explosive\", which isn't even a feature. (remove that line)\n* People dodged the speed boosts in level 3. (Replace that removed line with information about the speed boosts)\n* The camera didn't have a sensitivity slider. (Copy \/ paste existing volume slider code)\n* Short hops resulted in people failing to make the final jump of the game. (Remove short hops)\n\nEvery single one of these could have been easily fixed if I had known about it. Every single one.\n\n![reminder3.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6d.png)\n\n\"Make sure the camera isn't jank\"\n\nAhhhhh! I cannot believe I forgot to add a sensitivity slider. Especially after the camera was jank in my previous LD game. I can say \"In my defense, I have never made a game with a mouse-controlled camera before\" but I've played a bunch, and I always change my sensitivity, so no- I dropped the ball. I spent a lot of time preventing the camera from clipping into objects though, so in some ways this camera wasn't as jank as it could have been!\n\n![reminder4.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/b02\/2\/z\/64f6f.png)\n\nSo what advice do I offer to my future self, despite the high probability of it being ignored anyway?\n\nThe majority of this Ludum Dare was spent writing a cutscene engine. That was pretty far from the most fun I've had with a game jam. Honestly, designing bite-sized levels during LD53 was a lot of fun. I want to make another game with an interesting mechanic, broken into a series of small levels. 3D games can be a bit overwhelming to make in a weekend, and I think my game design skills are a bit more fine-tuned to 2D games anyway.\n\nAnd with that, I brace myself for the results.\n\n# Results\n\n21st overall. This is honestly the worst I have done in a long time, which- I understand. I've been commenting on how rough the non-cutscene parts were this entire postmortem.\n\n3rd in audio.\n\n2nd in humor.\n\n# Reflection part 3, and a big ol' conclusion\n\nWell, I got trophies in the categories I was aiming for, so that's nice!\n\nI think I'll be making more 2D stuff, unless it absolutely must be 3D (like Ribbon). I'm way more familiar with working in a 2D environment, and I think that would let me work at a faster pace, which lets me make larger\/better\/more-polished\/more-innovative games. Plus, working with shaders in 2D land is way easier, and I could absolutely boost my graphics ratings with some neat shaders.\n\nIt's nice to see that my sense of humor is still doing well. In my postmortem for LD53, I mentioned how I wanted to do more foolish villains, and this time around the dynamic I had between the characters has absolutely inspired me to make more games with them. I want more cutscenes that don't take control away from the player. Whether it's a villain, or some wacky 4th wall break, those kind of cutscenes seem to be the place to inject my bad jokes, so I'd like to experiment more with cutscenes. That idea is definitely in conflict with the notes I took though, seeing how the process of making a cutscene engine isn't a lot of fun? I'll try and get creative with it.\n\nI think that's all I have to say for this Ludum Dare. Until next time!\n\n# \u2603","title":"My 24th Ludum Dare's Postmortem: \"Demon Well\"","wayback_source":[]}