{"author_name":"ZeppelinCaptain","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1400148600,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"29848","p_author":"ZeppelinCaptain","p_authorkey":"27032","p_urlkey":"65314","p_title":"Her Touch \u2013 Her Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1400148600","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"27032","us_name":"ZeppelinCaptain","us_username":"zeppelincaptain","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"<p>A little late to the reflections party this time, even though\u00a0it is my favorite kind of party. My game:<a title=\"Her Touch\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=27032\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=27032<\/a><\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_362641\" style=\"width: 376px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/27032-shot0.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-362641\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/27032-shot0.jpg\" alt=\"Exclusive in-game footage!\" width=\"366\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exclusive in-game footage!<\/p><\/div>\n <p>A bunch of things went very well this time, and I made a both subjectively and objectively better game this time than last LD in August. People seem to generally like it, although commenters on this site are notoriously horrible at voicing critique. I&#8217;d wish more people actually told people what&#8217;s wrong with their games, but that&#8217;s for another post.<\/p>\n <p>Right now, here&#8217;s one of them lists the kids dig.<\/p>\n <p><strong>Where I Rocked<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Was stubborn at trying to find a good idea. I instantly discarded all ideas that included going under a surface of water or ground, since those were the most obvious ideas, and I was going for something unique. So I used at least an hour thinking about different ways to use the theme in a way that combines mechanics and story, and ended up with an idea that I was confident would work.<\/li>\n <li>Time management! The only things I was not able to implement because of Not Enough Time were an end boss (which a lot of people wouldn&#8217;t have seen anyway) and another lover. The game did not suffer very much from lacking any of those two, and I managed to put in lots of other stuff: passable story, good sound, decent graphics, unique game-play.<\/li>\n <li>Had all tools set up, and I knew the main tool (Game Maker: Studio) very well. This is a big one, since I wasted almost no time with trying to make them work.<\/li>\n <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abundant-music.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Abundant-music.com<\/a>! Seriously! USE THIS! I got a lot of compliments for having music in my game, and it only took me like one or two hours to get a fitting soundtrack. Just make sure to also look at how SynthFont works before the jam (it&#8217;s a bit complicated), because otherwise you&#8217;ll end up with boring midi files.<\/li>\n <li>Tried my hand at things I had never tried before, like designing color palettes and making sound effects, which was a lot of fun and a great experience. It also went well, and I ended up getting a lot of compliments for sound and graphics, which are things that I&#8217;ve formerly jumped over lightly or completely ignored.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>Where I Sucked<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Although I had a good idea from the start, the story wasn&#8217;t fully worked out from the beginning, which just resulted in a very vague and not extremely tight story. The majority of my writing happened at 10 pm &#8211; 3 am (deadline) between Sunday and Monday, and it suffered accordingly.<\/li>\n <li>Difficulty: I don&#8217;t actually think that the game is too hard, but it was definitely too hard for a LD game, because people play the games in a very cursory way, and if the game is too hard, people don&#8217;t see much of the game.<\/li>\n <li>Communicating a crucial part of the mechanic (the fact that when your lover shoots enemies, they are stunned) was not good enough. This is something I always struggle with, because I often try to create new experimental mechanics.<\/li>\n <li>I did not solve the problem of telling the story in a satisfying way. This is obviously a huge design problem to be solved in games, and I think I did it better than in many games, but it was definitely too hard to read, because it was told during action.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>All in all, I am very satisfied with the game, even though some things could have been better. I cannot wait to see the results.<\/p>\n <p>See you all next Ludum Dare!<\/p>\n <p>-ZC<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"May 15th, 2014 5:10 am","title":"Her Touch \u2013 Her Post-Mortem"}