{"author_name":"rantt","cat":"LD #30","comments":[],"epoch":1409188800,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"26433","p_author":"rantt","p_authorkey":"41103","p_urlkey":"61863","p_title":"PRISM \u2013 post mortem","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1409188800","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"41103","us_name":"rantt","us_username":"rantt","event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"text":"<p>So I survived my first Ludum Dare. \u00a0I got my game finished in 48 hours and dropped unconscious immediately after&#8230;lol. \u00a0Actually this was a fantastic experience but I&#8217;ll get back to that. \u00a0In the end I developed a dimension hopping platformer called <a title=\"PRISM\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=41103\">PRISM<\/a>.<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/title9.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-388815\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/title9-300x214.png\" alt=\"title\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/title9-300x214.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/title9.png 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <h4 id=\"tools\" style=\"color: #242628\">Tools<\/h4>\n <ul style=\"color: #242628\">\n <li>Development\n <ul>\n <li>vim\/tmux &#8211; for coding<\/li>\n <li>chrome\/developer tools &#8211; debugging\/testing<\/li>\n <li>tiled &#8211; for tilemaps<\/li>\n <li>phaser.js &#8211; awesome framework<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/li>\n <li>Graphics\n <ul>\n <li>SpriteSomething &#8211; sprites<\/li>\n <li>Pixen &#8211; sprites<\/li>\n <li>Pixelmator &#8211; title image<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/li>\n <li>Sound\n <ul>\n <li>bfxr &#8211; sound fx<\/li>\n <li>PixiTracker &#8211; music<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <h4 id=\"whatwentright\" style=\"color: #242628\">What Went Right<\/h4>\n <h5 id=\"scope\" style=\"color: #242628\">Scope<\/h5>\n <p style=\"color: #242628\">I feel like I did a pretty decent job predicting the scope of the work I needed to do. I was watching the #LD48 tweets before the jam and there was one that really stuck with me from @beeglebug:<\/p>\n <blockquote>\n <p style=\"color: #242628\">1. \u00a0Think of an idea<br \/>\n 2. \u00a0Think of a smaller one<br \/>\n 3. \u00a0Reduce the scope<br \/>\n 4. \u00a0Reduce it some more<br \/>\n 5. \u00a0Finish it!<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n <p>Anyway, totally did the trick for me. I shotgunned a bunch of ideas and picked one. Then I came up with as many concepts for that idea as I could. I picked from those lists the things I thought we possible for me to do in that time frame and ran with it.<\/p>\n <h5 id=\"spritesomething\">SpriteSomething<\/h5>\n <p>I hadn&#8217;t even planned on using this, I intended to do most of my sprite work in Pixen. As it turned out, I spent a lot more time than I wanted to out of the house and I ended up doing the majority of my sprites from my iphone\/ipad.<\/p>\n <h5 id=\"themusic\">The music<\/h5>\n <p>It worked out better than I thought it would. I wrote it rather quickly and was worried it would be more of an annoying distraction than add to the game. In the end I was pleased with how it turned out so I left it in.<\/p>\n <h4 id=\"whatwentwrong\">What Went Wrong<\/h4>\n <p>Bugs, like the player rendering before the tilemap, made him appear behind the scenery rather than infront in certain places, and my collision detection and controls could have been tighter. Definitely needed more play testing.<\/p>\n <p>The yellow level was too easy. I originally wanted to make the teleport work as long as you were unobstructed, and fire off like a beam. If the beam hit something you&#8217;d materialize early. In the end I didn&#8217;t have time so I made it so you could teleport directly to the mouse pointer.<\/p>\n <p>The green level, was suppose to have zombies which you&#8217;d be able to shoot with a new ability in that world. Again, low on time I opted to put spikes as the moving element for that level. I left the zombie sprite in the assets directory anyway&#8230;didn&#8217;t have the heart to take him out&#8230;<em>sniff<\/em>.<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/LD48zombie.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-388821\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/LD48zombie.png\" alt=\"LD48zombie\" width=\"160\" height=\"64\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #242628\">Also, I wish I did a timelapse, seeing everyone elses looks so cool. I kinda wish I had done one too, it&#8217;s neat watching a game take shape out of nothing.<\/p>\n <h3 id=\"inconclusion\" style=\"color: #242628\">In Conclusion<\/h3>\n <p style=\"color: #242628\">I absolutely loved this experience. It was exciting and tense, and I had a great sense of accomplishment by the end of it. Hearing the feedback and playing other peoples games has been really great. I learned a lot from developing my game, but I think I probably learned even more playing games by the other developers. Picked up a bunch to new tools and techniques and can&#8217;t wait to try them out. It&#8217;s a great community and was fun to be a part of it, hopefully this will be the first of many ludum dares.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #242628\">","time":"August 27th, 2014 8:20 pm","title":"PRISM \u2013 post mortem"}