This was the first time I used my new html5 toolkit I developed in the previous months.  I was a little nervous about that, as I finished some important parts just hours before the start of LD.

After trying several ideas on paper, I stuck with a “connected cannons” concept, which is something I like to explore further. After about 8 hours of experimenting with different variations I had a finished looking game, and submitted it.  I was pleasantly surprised to get multiple comments almost immediately, and the positive comments encouraged me to go on.

By the end of the day I had the game features pretty much down, but had this niggly feeling that I hadn’t tapped the full creative potential of my LD weekend.  I kept thinking about other games that I wanted to make.  Since my game was chaotic and trippy anyway, I thought about adding subgames at random points in the gameplay, with a contrasting style: neon (modern) in the main game, coarse pixels (retro) in the subgames.  The subgames were going to be about my personal fixation with shooters.  The idea is that the player can go into a subgame to save his/her ass when shields are low.

I quickly created some “programmer drawn” concept pixel art, which looked more satisfying than usual because I had decided to use only 6×6 pixels (8×8 with outline).

2/3 into the weekend, my game was about finished, with different types of cannon mirroring, 4 enemy types with variations, and 30 difficulty levels, and I had the feeling that putting more work in it would hit the “law of diminishing returns”.  Time for subgames!  I created a Frogger clone and the code for warping back and forth.  I still had two hours left, so I created a Pacman clone as well.

The good!

• I can develop as quickly with my new html5 game toolkit as with my old (Java) one
• Submitting very early (as in 12 hours into the event) is an easy way to get comments
• It’s easier for me to create functional pixel concept art when I use fewer pixels

The bad!

• I want to spend more time on the drawing board and/or prototype more totally different concepts.  I think I should experiment more with the creative process here.
• I want to find a proper way to submit 2-3 games in such a way that it’s meaningful to raters.  Here I experimented with subgames, but am not sure if that works. My first impression is that people only focus on the main game.  Maybe I should create a second account and submit as two separate games?  What do you think?

>>> Play the game here! <<<

The game looks something like this:

And… the subgames go something like this: