{"author_name":"ehtd","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1398950700,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"30079","p_author":"ehtd","p_authorkey":"11246","p_urlkey":"65546","p_title":"Switcher \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1398950700","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"11246","us_name":"ehtd","us_username":"ehtd","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"<p style=\"color: #444444\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/switcher.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-358835 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/switcher-300x190.png\" alt=\"switcher\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/switcher-300x190.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/switcher.png 315w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">Switcher is an endless running game with a twist.\u00a0You are the enemy, it is not because you are the bad protagonist, it is because\u00a0the protagonist is different. The world fears different. Your choices are to run\/fight or die.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">The bad<\/strong><\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">The 48 hours compo is extremely exhausting, at least for me. I can not sacrifice sleep hours since at the end of the compo I still have to go to my 8-5 day job. Instead of using the 48 hours I ended up using maybe just about 20.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">I tried also a new engine Phaser to deliver a web game. It went smooth most of the time, except by the one time I hit a bug and waste 2 hours. If I had practiced more, those two lost hours could be used in polishing the game.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">The last show stopper was when I was about to deploy the final version. Compressed my zip and upload to itch.io just to have it fail with an error of zip containing more than 500 files! I had only about 20 files and didn&#8217;t understood what happened. In the end it was a dummy error. I was using git as version control and I was zipping all the git files as well. About another wasted hour.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">The good<\/strong><\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">Phaser was definitely a good choice. It allowed me to deploy fast and deliver to most of web viewers the game. Accessibility is king. For voting since I have a Mac, I can not vote on Windows games and also have some trouble with Java games. I however had no trouble running flash\/hmtl\/unity web games.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">Designing on\u00a0pixel art\u00a0was also good, I have been doing pixel art for almost 2 years now and I am happy I have reached the point to finally release acceptable pixel art, at least pixel art that players can enjoy.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">Version control was definitely a great asset. Other games I have delivered for LD were on game maker, which greatly difficult the versioning. This time I was working on pure code and versioning is a bliss.<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Improvement Areas<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Music is\u00a0missing from the game. For the next game I will try to make time for this.<\/li>\n <li>Polishing was also a missing point. I did some polishing but not as much as I wanted. I think the game should be ready, not just feature complete, by the first 24 hours. At least the code and art. Then try to get some feedback with friends, family, or someone and adjust and polish the game the next 24 hours. A really cool game can be killed if it is not polished enough.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Language\/Engine:<\/strong>\u00a0JavaScript\/Phaser<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Version control:<\/strong>\u00a0Git<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Text Editor:<\/strong>\u00a0Sublime 2<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Pixeling:<\/strong>\u00a0Pixen<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\"><strong style=\"color: #000000\">Debugging web browser:<\/strong>\u00a0Firefox<\/p>\n <p style=\"color: #444444\">You can check my\u00a0<a style=\"color: #743399\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=11246\">Ludum Dare compo page for Switcher<\/a>, vote my entry, read comments and even download the source code to see what is inside.<\/p>","time":"May 1st, 2014 8:25 am","title":"Switcher \u2013 Post Mortem"}