{"author_name":"drentsoft","cat":"LD #30","comments":[],"epoch":1408968720,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"26789","p_author":"drentsoft","p_authorkey":"28854","p_urlkey":"62224","p_title":"Given Up But Not Done","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1408968720","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"28854","us_name":"drentsoft","us_username":"drentsoft","event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"text":"<p><strong>A Confession From a Non-Pro<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>I&#8217;m sad to say but I think I&#8217;ll have to give up. I thought I&#8217;d take the time and try to keep going for the jam but I&#8217;ve hit a bit of a wall and I&#8217;m not sure the game will be playable in the ~11 hours I have left.<\/p>\n <p>That said unlike the last Ludum Dare where I couldn&#8217;t quite settle on an idea which then, quite obviously, affected my ability to make the game, in this one I managed to come up with a game that I think could be quite viable and interesting. I see this as a positive as it gives me something to work towards in my spare time.<\/p>\n <p><strong>What Went Wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Scope Creep &#8211; Originally the game I had in mind felt quite simple and viable for a short 48 hour competition but the more I worked on it and the more I struggled to think how to implement the few features I had the more I realised that it would probably be a bit dull. With that in mind I started to think up ways to make it more engaging and more features slowly appeared. Sadly this also made the game feel less theme appropriate and I ended up trying to shoehorn features into the original concept I came up with for the theme.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <ul>\n <li>Spending Too Much Time on UI &#8211; This is actually a double problem.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <ol>\n <li>I always focus too much on the entry point experience, this isn&#8217;t so bad when you&#8217;re working to a less than tight deadline but in a 48 hour competition it&#8217;s killer. This stems someways because I always start 100% from scratch<\/li>\n <li>Using the wrong UI technology. For the type of game I&#8217;m trying to create I decided to just use Swing UI elements rather than rolling my own &#8220;gamey&#8221; UI. I thought it would save time in the long run but turned out that even for such a simple game style it caused its own problems. This may be the first thing that changes should I decide to continue this project outside of the jam.<\/li>\n <\/ol>\n <ul>\n <li>Lack of Focus When Coding &#8211; I kept jumping from class to class, half-implementing features and never quite finishing any of them. This is another thing I do a lot and it&#8217;s something I&#8217;m trying to improve on. In some ways it&#8217;s a good thing, it means you&#8217;re in theory never not coding but it is also a bit of an enabler for scope creep and unintentional coupling as you jump between classes that work together then another that will help and another and another.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What Went Right<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>To be honest not a whole lot went right but that&#8217;s OK. As&#8230; some people say if things never went wrong you&#8217;d never learn anything.<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>A variation of ideas based on the theme with time to think on them and choose one<\/li>\n <li>An hopefully interesting idea for a game<\/li>\n <li>A game model that should teach me some things that I haven&#8217;t encountered so far in other games I&#8217;ve tried<\/li>\n <li>The above model will help me develop<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Anyways I&#8217;m a bit bummed about my 2nd &#8220;failed&#8221; Ludum Dare but I&#8217;m optimistic that something useful will come of it. I hope this post was an interesting insight into a project gone wrong. If you&#8217;d like to see if and\/or how I develop this further, follow me on my Twitter @drentsoftmedia.<\/p>","time":"August 25th, 2014 7:12 am","title":"Given Up But Not Done"}