Coinslot: The postmortem
For our Ludum Dare 31 entry, Duran and I made Coinslot, a socially constructed Rube-Goldberg invention toy. The idea is that the resulting machine is what really happens to coins when you put them into a vending machine, or arcade game, or whatever. Hey, it was a good idea, at least.
How it worked
You create a pipe machine using our tools:
Then once you’ve built the machine, test it to watch the coins go through:
Then, submit it to our online database where it will be linked in with other contraptions to make a giant rube goldberg machine!
It’s a lot smoother than in the GIF.
What went right
- We completed the client and server in time, only partially thanks to the tools we used.
- The game actually did WORK, if you consider immense load times and buggy javascript working.
- Ultimately it was really cool to see all 23 of the machines in action. (Of the 53 that played, only 23 submitted. Sorta leads me to believe that most people didn’t even play the game. ¬_¬)
What went wrong
- The server required almost constant maintenance on the first 5 days or so because it kept breaking down. My javascript was to blame.
- It takes ages to load, thanks to our excellent “store giant PNGs on the server” technique of data storage. (like, multitudes of minutes.)
- The database itself is just a laptop sitting next to my router.
- Clickteam Fusion wasn’t the best game making tool for this job, really. We wrestled with the collision detection for a good while before getting it finally working.
- There weren’t enough parts! With the work on the server and the problems with Fusion, we only had enough time to make a few good parts. The rest is just bland default pipes.
- Only 23 people uploaded their machine. That means the other people didn’t even give the game a fair go. Since it only takes a few minutes to actually make a machine, that means some people must’ve just quit and given it a hasty rating in the first few minutes, which sucks. I can’t really blame them though, since upon loading the page it tends to freeze thanks to my horrid Javascript.
- When I say the game takes ages to load, it takes AGES to load. Also, it might freeze your computer whilst doing so because my code sucks.
Even with all of the stuff that went wrong, I’m pleased with the game and with a little more work it could’ve been a gem. Alas, we’ve got other games to make, and it looks like Coinslot will be on the shelf for now. Thanks for making the competition a good one, everybody!