To set the stage, check out my LD31 entry “Slope Challenge³” here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=42145

I’ve done game development for a long time, as a hobby, although not much in the last 5 years or so. I usually just worked on engines and graphics and that’s what I loved. I think the only ever polished, finished game I made was a PacMan clone way back in high school. It had modding tools and texture editors and all that stuff (DOS-based but in graphics mode, using Turbo Pascal).

So, game design is definitely new to me. And I’m still getting used to Unity and some other tools. I knew going into the dare that I was going to have to take the experts’ advice here: keep it small and manageable, work within your limitations. When I watched other jams play out, I always wondered what people were thinking working with levels and having to generate that much content. Of course, that’s exactly what I ended up doing here.

So what went well?

Mostly everything, given the time constraints and this being my first time entry. I stayed away from generating much art (well, besides designing buttons I didn’t create any), and the music is very minimal – just a quick loop. I think for this type of game both are acceptable anyway. But, I did go to sleep around midnight both nights, and started again around 7/7.30 am. So not bad.
And, I did end up using Blender for the coins, for whatever reason Unity kept screwing up the cylinder rotations and after spending too much time trying to figure it out, I just made a model in Blender for the coin. Yay, I used Blender (minor personal victory dance).
Kudos to myself for creating the whole structure in such a way that adding an extra level was really no effort at all (prefabs for the win!).
The fact that I had never done audio in Unity before scared me a bit, so I kept putting it off. It ended up being easier than I thought. I had also never created sound effects etc, but a hollow wood coffee table worked wonders: rolled a can of beans for the game ball’s sound, tapped some tools on it for the collision sound effect. Used keys in my hand for the coin collection sound.

What lessons to learn?

Work on my art tool skills. If I can work blender properly and texture, I could do more interesting things. Or, I could go for 2D of course. Also, I’m still of the opinion that working with levels is not such a great idea, because you have to create them all. I think I did ok creating an easy and a difficult level, to show the potential of the game.
Had some computer trouble with music. I wanted to use my new PC for music, but I just didn’t get to learn Ableton Live Lite at all prior to the compo. So I switched to GarageBand on the Mac – which then had issues with the keyboard. I could have done more with the music, I had time left, but I was scared of putting it in the game. I hadn’t done any audio in Unity ever, and I had to put in a mute button for the music (especially since it’s short loop).

Conclusion

It was really fun and I did a whole lot better than I had imagined. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do this (or at the very least switch to the jam to get more time and use pre-existing assets), but I did and got into each category (except humor) – although art leaves something to be desired but it’s not very relevant to this game anyway. And of course, learned a whole lot. Proud of my first ever compo entry, it’s a decent game. And definitely proud I actually pulled off something pretty ok in the time allotted.

Slope Challenge

I think it’s worth exploring the game further. Some good comments and watching some people play has resulted in some good ideas to work on. Shortcuts to switch blocks and visually seeing a “ghost” block while you’re trying to place it are the number two things that need to be done. If I create more challenges there will be more opportunity for other types of obstacles and blocks.