{"author_name":"alpha_rats","cat":"LD #31","comments":[],"epoch":1418214120,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"22220","p_author":"alpha_rats","p_authorkey":"504589","p_urlkey":"57587","p_title":"Plankton : Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #31","p_event":"LD31","p_time":"1418214120","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"504589","us_name":"alpha_rats","us_username":"alpha_rats","event_start":"1417737600","event_key":"26","event_name":"LD31"},"text":"<p><strong><br \/>\n Time for <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-31\/?action=preview&amp;uid=39704\">Plankton<\/a>&#8216;s post-mortem !<br \/>\n <\/strong>I&#8217;m thinking about making a post-LD version of this game, so <strong>any feedback is very welcome<\/strong>!<br \/>\n I&#8217;ll try to do not make the same mistake than the last time, when I dived directly into further development of my jam game without <strong>getting the time to think about it properly<\/strong> and <strong>getting enough feedback<\/strong>.<br \/>\n This made me give up the project as I ended up polishing a broken game before reworking the basics first.<strong><br \/>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <p>This is my <strong>second participation to the LD<\/strong>, and as the last time, I have been using :<\/p>\n <blockquote><p>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scirra.com\/construct2\">Construct2<\/a> for development : <strong>easy to use<\/strong>, and <strong>allows to export to html5<\/strong> (which is more practical for players than an executable), but with <a href=\"http:\/\/c2rexplugins.weebly.com\/\">plugins from Rex<\/a> this time<br \/>\n &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/distractionware.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/bosca-ceoil\/\">Bosca Ceoil<\/a> for music : really <strong>easy to use<\/strong> and a lot of fun sounds<br \/>\n &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bfxr.net\/\">Bfxr<\/a> for sound effects, <a href=\"http:\/\/audacity.sourceforge.net\/?lang=fr\">Audacity<\/a> for sound editing<br \/>\n &#8211; Photoshop for graphics, but any image editing software can do the trick<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/evolution-stages.png\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-424667 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/evolution-stages-550x157.png\" alt=\"evolution stages\" width=\"550\" height=\"157\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/evolution-stages-550x157.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/evolution-stages.png 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p><strong>Workflow \/ Development process<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><em>What worked out<br \/>\n <\/em>&#8211; I have been way more <strong>efficent and organised<\/strong> in my process than last time<br \/>\n &#8211; In learned about <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Finite-state_machine\">finite-state machines<\/a> and wrote some for the first time<br \/>\n &#8211; I did a few <strong>prototypes<\/strong>, which I didn&#8217;t do the last time, and spent more time thinking about my project on paper and preparing it<\/li>\n <li><em>What didn&#8217;t worked<br \/>\n <\/em>&#8211; I should have prepared better, next time I&#8217;ll <strong>do the warmup jam<\/strong> the week before<br \/>\n &#8211; As the last time, I prepared some animations and sprites for mechanics I didn&#8217;t implemented<br \/>\n &#8211; I had to create some music at the very last moment (half an hour before submission), because I realised I could&#8217;t use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freesound.org\/people\/laurent\/sounds\/164070\/\">the creative commons field recording I found<\/a> because it doesn&#8217;t fitted the rules. I lost a lot of time because of it<br \/>\n &#8211; I think I overused booleans in my code, where I could have found more interesting or differents methods<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>Bugs<br \/>\n <em>Suceptible to get edited as people report more of them<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <blockquote><p>&#8211; The planktons evolve into frogs but then do nothing (missing feature)<strong><br \/>\n <\/strong>&#8211; Evolution2 planktons returning to &#8220;dividing&#8221; state when clicked on<br \/>\n &#8211; Planktons tend to get stuck and not being able to move<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><strong>Feedback<br \/>\n <em>This is some feedback I got so far, it is suceptible to get edited as I get some more<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <blockquote><p>+ nice graphics<br \/>\n + people enjoy seeing the planktons evolve<\/p>\n <p>&#8211; lack of interesting gameplay<br \/>\n &#8211; the feeding process is not very interesting<br \/>\n &#8211; lack of a clear objective<br \/>\n &#8211; maybe need a more complex gestion of population<br \/>\n &#8211; the green frog is too bright and distracts from the planktons<br \/>\n &#8211; Planktons need to me more active for getting the food<\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<strong>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-31\/?action=preview&amp;uid=39704\">Play and rate the game here ! <\/a>&lt;&lt;<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-424713 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg-300x300.png\" alt=\"groggg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg-150x150.png 150w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg-300x300.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg-550x550.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/groggg.png 701w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 10th, 2014 7:22 am","title":"Plankton : Post-Mortem"}