Nature Trial on Joystiq!
That was a suprise! Nature Trial got a mention on Joystiq!
We were already pleased with how the game turned out, but it’s quite exciting and affirming to receive attention from the gaming press!
Ludum Dare 30 was our first time participating in the main dare, although we did take part in mini LD #53 as a warm up for our first proper dare. Despite taking part in the Jam we opted to limit ourselves to 48 hours anyway out of preference (and to allow ourselves the bank holiday Monday to relax).
So how did it go?
Post Mortem
Things went much more smoothly this time (compared to the mini LD back in July) for two reasons:
- We limited our scope to ensure we didn’t spend two full days implementing mechanics and animations, meaning we actually had space for level design and polish.
- We were more familiar with Unity so we avoided a lot of pot holes which may have slowed our progress previously.
As a result, we’ve ended up with a game which feels quite complete. We had the time to implement all our mechanics, multiple levels, splash, ending and game over screens, and aside from an issue with the controls, we managed to achieve a good level of polish.
Where did we succeed?
- Planning ahead – Having participated in the most recent mini LD helped open our eyes to how much was realistically possible in 48 hours, so we were able to come up with an idea for the theme which minimised the core game implementation side and maximized our time spent making fun levels.
- Focus – Things inevitably go wrong in any project and we hit a few snags early on; our source control solution from last time didn’t allow for multiple repositories on the free plan and the workflow for creating isometric art was proving difficult. Sub-folders and the manual approach respectively allowed us to move forward and focus on more important tasks.
- Deadlines – We imposed a limit on ourselves to be mostly mechanically complete at the end of the first day. While there was polishing, bug fixing and small features implemented on the Sunday, just having a deadline proved useful in maintaining momentum, even if we did miss it.
- Prioritisation – Some things did fall by the way side, we elected not to spend our time on additional art and short cuts were made when implementing the path finding and various other systems to ensure we had a complete, if imperfect experience.
What got chopped?
- Character animations were never formally dismissed, but we knew from past experiences that trying to squeeze in lots of pixel art is risky, so they were merely postponed until they fell off the deadline cliff.
- A* path finding was something I had planned, but instead hammered in something simpler to save time, as a result you will sometimes see the cubs doing a jig instead of taking an optimal route.
- Sound design is something I care about a lot but am not experienced enough to do quickly yet, as a result the ambient SFX we do have are a bit rough and thin on the ground with no SFX tied to the character’s actions.
- More levels! Creating the data for our levels wasn’t a total chore, but without the luxury of a visual map editor it did make the process more time consuming.
Post, Post Mortem
We’re very pleased at what we managed to produce in 48 hours and with the feedback we’ve received so far, so we plan to expand the game further, the first items on the schedule will be the chopped content listed above, then we attempt some of the following:
- Additional art / tiles / objects.
- More levels, grouped by theme and with a smoother difficulty curve.
- Map screen.
- Saving / Loading of progress.
- Additional mechanics.
Final Thoughts on Ludum Dare 30
This has been a really positive experience for us, the community is very supportive and we’ve received a bunch of helpful critique and plenty of kind words already. If you haven’t played Nature Trial yet, please do and give us some feedback!
Overall I’d say that the process of failing at mini LD #53 and examining how others managed to succeed taught us a lot and really helped us to improve.
Ludum Dare is the perfect environment to fail in, as there’s so much support to help you grow stronger. Thanks girls and boys!
