{"author_name":"SuperDisk","cat":"LD #31","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"December 28, 2014 3:52 am","epoch":1419756720,"text":"Terrific idea, I appreciate all the work, but it takes ages to load indeed. Hope you&#8217;ll continue to work on it. I&#8217;m sure that&#8217;s an idea nobody ever had before.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"December 28, 2014 9:48 am","epoch":1419778080,"text":"I can confirm: it takes ages to load \ud83d\ude00 Writing this comment (and playing other games) in the meantime.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1419712920,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"21761","p_author":"SuperDisk","p_authorkey":"11035","p_urlkey":"57120","p_title":"Coinslot: The postmortem","p_cat":"LD #31","p_event":"LD31","p_time":"1419712920","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"2","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"11035","us_name":"SuperDisk","us_username":"superdisk","event_start":"1417737600","event_key":"26","event_name":"LD31"},"text":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/2014\/12\/27\/coinslot-the-postmortem\/coinslot-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-430097\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-430097\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/coinslot1.png\" alt=\"coinslot\" width=\"638\" height=\"192\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/coinslot1-300x90.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/coinslot1-550x165.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/coinslot1.png 638w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>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 <em>really<\/em>\u00a0happens to coins when you put them into a vending machine, or arcade game, or whatever. Hey, it was a good idea, at least.<\/p>\n <p><em><strong>How it worked<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <p>You create a pipe machine using our tools:<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/2014\/12\/27\/coinslot-the-postmortem\/window-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-430102\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-430102\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/window.png\" alt=\"window\" width=\"656\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/window-300x237.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/window-550x435.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/window.png 656w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>Then once you&#8217;ve built the machine, test it to watch the coins go through:<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/2014\/12\/27\/coinslot-the-postmortem\/anim-7\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-430104\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-430104\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/anim.gif\" alt=\"anim\" width=\"358\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>Then, submit it to our online database where it will be linked in with other contraptions to make a giant rube goldberg machine!<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/2014\/12\/27\/coinslot-the-postmortem\/anim2-5\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-430107\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-430107\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/anim2.gif\" alt=\"anim2\" width=\"916\" height=\"670\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>It&#8217;s a lot smoother than in the GIF.<\/p>\n <p><em><strong>What went right<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>We completed the client and server in time, only partially thanks to the tools we used.<\/li>\n <li>The game actually did WORK, if you consider immense load times and buggy javascript working.<\/li>\n <li>Ultimately it was really cool to see all 23\u00a0of the machines in action.\u00a0 (Of the 53 that played, only 23 submitted. Sorta leads me to believe that most people didn&#8217;t even play the game. \u00ac_\u00ac)<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><em><strong>What went wrong<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/2014\/12\/27\/coinslot-the-postmortem\/51zc7y82vvl-_sx258_bo1204203200_\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-430110\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-430110\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/51ZC7Y82VVL._SX258_BO1204203200_.jpg\" alt=\"51ZC7Y82VVL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_\" width=\"260\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/51ZC7Y82VVL._SX258_BO1204203200_-234x300.jpg 234w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/51ZC7Y82VVL._SX258_BO1204203200_.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The server required almost constant maintenance on the first 5 days or so because it kept breaking down. My javascript was to blame.<\/li>\n <li>It takes<strong> ages<\/strong> to load, thanks to our excellent &#8220;store giant PNGs on the server&#8221; technique of data storage. (like, multitudes of minutes.)<\/li>\n <li>The database itself is just a laptop sitting next to my router.<\/li>\n <li>Clickteam Fusion wasn&#8217;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.<\/li>\n <li>There weren&#8217;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.<\/li>\n <li>Only 23 people uploaded their machine. That means the other people didn&#8217;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&#8217;ve just quit and given it a hasty rating in the first few minutes, which sucks. I can&#8217;t really blame them though, since upon loading the page it tends to freeze thanks to my horrid Javascript.<\/li>\n <li>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.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Even with all of the stuff that went wrong, I&#8217;m pleased with the game and with a little more work it could&#8217;ve been a gem. Alas, we&#8217;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!<\/p>\n <h1><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000\" href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-31\/?action=preview&amp;uid=11035\">Play the game here<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h1>","time":"December 27th, 2014 3:42 pm","title":"Coinslot: The postmortem"}