Summary or TLDR

What Worked:

I had hardly any trouble with my chosen tools: Android Studio / Intellij IDEA, libGDX, Ashley, Box2D, Gimp, Blender, EnergyXT.

I am confident that my theme ideas and gameplay plans were okay.
The player would recruit people to push a brick, until they got mad at you and rebelled.

What Didnt:

I got stuck for a few too many hours with the characters force movements. I got in a muddle toward the 2nd half with the AI. I didnt give enough time to graphics or music or sound designing. No text or gui or title or menus.

I didnt get the game near to completion within the compo OR jam deadline.

Here are progress screens in an imgur album.

PostMortem

The ancient technology was to be Heirarchy. The player would attract a following with loyalty, and maintain it for as long as possible. (+100xp)

The interactions would work this: The player would enlist the warrior, creating loyalty. The warrior would enforce the worker it sees, out of loyalty, and turn on individuals that rebel. The worker does the labor out of loyalty, or to avoid warriors wrath. (+200xp)

To get a measurable score, i’d measure the workers progress with the task. (+50xp)

My idea was to have the workers move a huge stone, like one from a pyramid. I’d measure the distance of the stone, before the workers and warriors rebelled. (+150xp)

Tools:
Android Studio / Intellij IDEA
Most pleasant experience ive had with a graphical IDE, did not seem too heavy, but lots of formating ease and assistance along the way. (+250xp)

libGDX
Before the LD i was thinking maybe ill target android, and i saw someone mention libGDX.. i had a little look and dove in, i had some cram sessions the day before the LD. It seems very capable for making games. (+500xp)

Ashley
I saw libGDX has a component system called Ashley. It may be a bit complicated for a newcomer, It made a lot of sense to me and i enjoyed using it. The components i made and used: [AI, Model, physics, position] and systems: [AI, Model, Physics]. (+200xp)

Box2D
Im familiar with Box2d, no surprises here. I disabled gravity in box2d so the physics would be like a snooker/pool game. (+50xp)

Blender
I was happy with how the scenery (plant, rocks, cracks in floor) looked. i followed the guide to export models as fbx and run libGDX’s convert tool, the magic worked and they loaded in the game. (+50xp)

My first hiccup was the motion i wanted out of my characters. i knew that initially there would be no friction so they would roll or float like in space, i had the characters bouncing around like balls. I got stuck tweaking the code for this and i hadnt solved it after a couple of hours of attempts. (-2 lives)
The solution I chose was to give the people a stop-start interval, as though they were taking individual steps. It brought character to their motion. (+200xp)

My attempts to make some vector art also did not pan out. besides the environment, the models didnt make it beyond their initial placeholders. (-1 life) That i didnt find the time to develop this side of the game is disappointing. I had hoped to get some animations going as well, it seemed straight forward within libGDX, but i didnt have the models or the actions designed to try it out. (-2 lives)

What i take away from this ludum dare:
Writing java and targetting android has been a valuable experience. (+2000xp) Seeing the game run on my tablet was fun. (+10xp) Teaming with 1-2 others would make finishing more achieveable, three heads are better than one. (+250xp)

Total XP: 4010xp