{"author_name":"vexille","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1398813180,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"30172","p_author":"vexille","p_authorkey":"35792","p_urlkey":"65642","p_title":"Darkvision \u2013 Post-mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1398813180","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"35792","us_name":"vexille","us_username":"vexille","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"

\"Banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This\u00a0was my first LD entry, and it was a really awesome experience! Even with all the bugs lack of polish that went in the\u00a0submitted version, I really liked how it turned out and I do intend on keep working on it and see where that goes (so I guess this would be only an LD post-mortem.)<\/p>\n

Darkvision is a horror platformer, inspired by classic cinematic platformers such as Oddworld and Heart of Darkness. Peer into an evil parallel dimension to reveal\u00a0the way as well as hidden perils!<\/p>\n

I’d say the biggest issue I faced was one of scope, which I’d assume is something fairly common in game jams, specially for the unexperienced (this was second time participating in a game jam.) Doing a cinematic platformer in itself was already a not-so-prudent decision, since the mechanics are fairly complex for a jam entry. And sure enough, it took me the whole saturday just to get it all working, even if lacking a lot of polish. Still, I had been meaning to do a cinematic platformer for a long time, so there’s that.<\/p>\n

\"LedgeGrabbingAnim\"<\/a>

Halfway through saturday and the character could grab ledges… but not climb them.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the platforming mechanics were fairly stable, I went on to making a couple of traps (falling boulders and a deadly blood geiser) which opened up some possibilities for the level design. I was a bit worried about the visuals though, since I’m a programmer and I only draw a bit, but I definetly can’t paint (as in colors, depth, shadows, all that.) But I did find that working with textures had a very interesting result, specially after drawing a bit on top of them to simulate depth to the objects. Also using Unity’s lighting system, the game was even more prettified.<\/p>\n

\"EvilDoors\"<\/a>

By the end of day 2 the scenery was looking very spiffy. But the eye thing did look like a Dorito.<\/p><\/div>\n

On monday I had to work during the day, so I only had about three hours to work on the game before submission. In those three hours I change the eye’s color, textured the character, fixed a bunch of little problems (like the fact that each body part of the character was too far apart from each other in the z axis, which screwed up with the lighting) and did 5 out of the 8 levels in the game. It was intense<\/em>!<\/p>\n

A quick rundown of everything that went on:<\/p>\n

The good:<\/strong><\/p>\n