{"author_name":"hyouko","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1398911940,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"30101","p_author":"hyouko","p_authorkey":"31859","p_urlkey":"65569","p_title":"\u2018One Cold Night\u2019 post-mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1398911940","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"31859","us_name":"hyouko","us_username":"hyouko","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"<p>In the immortal words of Strong Bad, &#8216;it&#8217;s over!&#8217;<\/p>\n <p><a title=\"They're cold, go save them!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/?p=358537&amp;preview=true\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-358550\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_03-300x225.png\" alt=\"20140427_ocn_03\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_03-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_03-550x412.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_03.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>Depending on how you count things, this was either my second or third Ludum Dare attempt (I made a game for LD24 but never submitted it). I took a relatively laid-back approach this time, opting to go the jam route rather than the compo and utilize some existing voxel code \u00a0that I had on hand. \u00a0Overall, I&#8217;m happy with how things turned out! \u00a0That&#8217;s not to say that everything went 100% smoothly, though&#8230;<\/p>\n <p><span id=\"more-358537\"><\/span><\/p>\n <p>Some things that worked well for me:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Writing a game brief (<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1uRsGJ9s6FntHskaL0-iw6XUOAD_bRb97yPPycxJdrDM\/edit?usp=sharing\">check it out<\/a>). \u00a0Before starting, I wrote up a one-page brief. \u00a0The intro (which I wrote to figure out the tone of the game) wound up getting pasted pretty much verbatim into the actual game. \u00a0I enumerated a couple of gameplay concepts that I worked into the final game, as well as some that didn&#8217;t ultimately make the cut (but might be good for future updates). \u00a0Referring back to the brief kept me mostly on track over the weekend.<\/li>\n <li>Using a familiar engine \/ framework (<a href=\"http:\/\/love2d.org\">Love2D<\/a>,\u00a0in my case). \u00a0I didn&#8217;t spend much time fighting the engine or digging through documentation.<\/li>\n <li>Making configurable parameters for *everything*. \u00a0Good programming practice generally, but this helped me test and tweak different variations quickly. \u00a0It was also something of a downside, though (see below).<\/li>\n <li>Using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freesound.org\/\">freesound.org<\/a> for sound effects. \u00a0These ultimately precluded me from including the game in the 48-hour competition, but I would have gone over the time limit trying to make the right sound effects in-house (and probably come up with worse results &#8211; I am no sound engineer, my apartment is no studio.)<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Some things that didn&#8217;t go so well:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>\u00a0Increasing the difficulty right before launch. \u00a0While testing, I mostly played with a 1000&#215;2000 voxel space (for sake of time). \u00a0I bumped that up to 1500&#215;3000 for the initial release. \u00a0Though I only boosted the dimensions by 50%, that increased the\u00a0<em>area<\/em> of the game by a whopping 225% &#8211; a huge difficulty spike given that mechanically the game is all about searching a big space efficiently. \u00a0In the subsequent Mac release, I reduced the play area to 1200&#215;2400 &#8211; still a challenge, but somewhat more in line with what I intended it to be.<\/li>\n <li>Unclear mechanics. \u00a0Some of the feedback I&#8217;m seeing suggests that I didn&#8217;t provide immediate enough examples of how to use sniffing and barking in practice.<\/li>\n <li>Focusing on cosmetics rather than gameplay. \u00a0You can see in this screenshot from Sunday morning that I hadn&#8217;t even implemented survivors to rescue yet, leaving me with a lot less time to test and refine the gameplay before release:<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_01.png\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-358540 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_01-550x412.png\" alt=\"20140427_ocn_01\" width=\"550\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_01-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_01-550x412.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_ocn_01.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>Though I&#8217;m calling this a post-mortem, I think I&#8217;ll continue development on this game. \u00a0I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll really be satisfied until the hibernating bears are in, and I&#8217;d really like to give the character of the &#8216;master&#8217; a proper game presence. \u00a0I also feel like it could work well on other platforms&#8230; going to take a stab at at Android port with the <a href=\"https:\/\/love2d.org\/forums\/viewtopic.php?f=11&amp;t=76979&amp;sid=d6d4daa68e130ffdf12e1ba29f4da99e\">love-android-sdl2<\/a> project.<\/p>\n <p>I&#8217;ll leave you with a quick video of the game, for those who haven&#8217;t played it yet &#8211; this should give a feel for how it looks and sounds, if not plays:<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sBEMnocaGJQ\">One Cold Night &#8211; Digging demo<\/a><\/p>","time":"April 30th, 2014 9:39 pm","title":"\u2018One Cold Night\u2019 post-mortem"}