If you didn’t played, please, here is the link http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=11311 /o/

Don’t forget to play comp and the updated version!

Because it got so big, I decided to divide the postmortem, so, let’s get started:

How it was made:

Before the jam

The thing is, work alone is all about time management, how much time you will spend at which task will set how good will be, but in other hand, get more time to certain task makes the other tasks have less time, so, get the equilibrium is the real challenge here.

Roughly how I planned to spend my time at the jam. It is in portuguese, but I think you guys got the idea.

Before the jam started, I made a graphic to more or less know how to use my time and a list with when I should do what. The goal wasn’t to roughly follow these things, but to just make feel save to switch tasks, because I would know that if I took more one hour at some task, I would have less with some other and not just mindless (which WORKS with some people, just making it clear) do everything I can, until the deadline for example.

Again, how I planned to spend my time, this time, more detailed, day 1 I set for myself spend x hours planning the game and y hours programming for example.
There wasn’t specific tasks first because it wasn’t the objective and second because was made before the theme was release, so if I did specify, the risk of completly ignore this would be much higher.

Having the planning, I could feel save and wait for the theme came out.

The idea

As soon the theme came out, I started thinking in what I could do, so I made a mind map of theme using mindmup.

Again, in portuguese, sorry guys :(

Mindmaps, working relating everything you can think with the theme, this is very useful to not get stuck with the first idea and speaking of which, I almost did about a guy that would fight for a coin to a cola machine, crazy isn’t?

I abandoned the idea because for the idea work, I would necessary do some cutscenes to the player understand that he’s fighting for the last coin to the cola machine, because the coin itself would not make part at all of the gameplay, so, if I couldn’t make the cutscenes in time, I would be with a confusing game, that I would have to explain with some other way of what is going on, which is not ideal…

In other hand, the idea that I took worked very well, you would have a weapon and would have to throw it AND take it back, because you only have that ONE weapon. It would make it clear why I choose this idea because it would be clear just by playing it, even if I did less things, less art, one enemy, no sound, the core of what I was thinking would be reachable much faster. I think, the ideal thing that you will try to do when making a game, is to reach that “core” as soon as possible. Your game will work without that fancy menu that you thinking, but will not if the player don’t get it what you tried to do.

The idea being set, I started to do…

The programming

So, was still the first day, I decided to program a little before go to bed, that because if I had a trouble with it, I could think in a solution before and after the sleep. It is good to do this because you will have a fresh mind about the problems that you had before, also, I didn’t want to sleep very much at the end of that day.

The idea of being a 2D arena was because I wanted to study the new features of the unity. Every jam that I work alone I have a goal of what I want to learn, usually on the fly.

I had some troubles to do the controller and with the 2D layer system of the unity, but, the 2D animation system is wonderful, one of the best I had seen I think.

However, I could not do the program isolated, mostly because of the mecanim system that unity uses, so I started to do the…

The Art

Do a pixelart game was because had been a long time that I wasn’t doing and be a demon at some kind of ritual was just because…well, I wanted to do demons. lol

More than the half of the first day the main character for example looked like this:

Yeah… I started to get nervous that I wouldn’t be able to make the art of the game…

When I started to make I took references like Frogatto and manly, Savant.

What I wanted to my game to look, maybe I was a LITTLE too ambitious? .__.

However, it didn’t worked as I planned. For some reason, I think small pixel art character in a big scenario looks wrong and because I didn’t want to lose time making a camera control, I wasn’t even sure if it would work with the gameplay, I didn’t zoomed.

Also,  hard to animate. I liked what I achieved but maybe it would be better a simple art but better animated? I don’t know for sure…

Having the art and the programming I hoped to make the…

Music and Sound Effects

This really made me happy. Music and SFXs were always, along with animation, my weak spot. I saved a good amount of time to do this, but really, I didn’t expect to be able to do something.

At day two, last day of comp, first I tried to put a bunch of samples together, but didn’t work. Then I tried again to compose the music, looking tutorials but mostly trying things out and for my big surprise, this time it worked!

Being the first ludum that I was able to compose the music and sfx by myself.

first “success” with music, yay!

The SFXs were made by using free generators. I’m not completely happy with them, but at least, they are there.

Having everything was time to submit! Yay! 😀

Finally

Wow! Are you still here? I will try to do a part 2 as soon as possible, telling what went right and what didn’t.

Thank you so much for reading and for playing!

If you still in 2013 when reading this, good holidays!

Tags: 2d unity, postmortem, unity3d