{"author_name":"scoopsy","cat":"LD #23","comments":[{"author_name":"laaph","time":"December 30, 2013 10:34 pm","epoch":1388460840,"text":"Blender has been GPL for a very long time, so if you have a license for Blender it&#8217;s a very old license indeed.  Just go download the latest version whether or not you have a license.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1388441100,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"34060","p_author":"scoopsy","p_authorkey":"10538","p_urlkey":"69605","p_title":"LD23 Post-Mortem: Our Man, Dragon","p_cat":"LD #23","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1388441100","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"10538","us_name":"scoopsy","us_username":"scoopsy","event_start":"1386892800","event_key":"20","event_name":"LD28"},"text":"<p>(cross-posted from <a href=\"http:\/\/citizenparker.com\/post\/71687000423\/ld23-post-mortem-our-man-dragon\">my blog here<\/a>)<\/p>\n <p><img class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/415370bbedfb6e3a2a8a00261e8df9c9\/tumblr_inline_myn937uN5e1qa8rig.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"236\" \/><\/p>\n <p>(you can <a href=\"http:\/\/dl.dropboxusercontent.com\/u\/159702451\/our-man-dragon-latest\/our-man-dragon-latest.html\">play it right here<\/a>)<\/p>\n <p>When I <a href=\"http:\/\/scoopsy.com\/post\/21629161748\/ld23-its-over-a-postmortem\">last submitted an Ludum Dare game<\/a>, I gave myself an MS Paint trophy. I submitted another game, one I daresay is a bit better than the last, so here&#8217;s my reward.<\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: center\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/7c453132345afdc220d9d7f56f1e44b4\/tumblr_inline_myn92x1WKp1qa8rig.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"455\" \/><em>that&#8217;s some CGI right there in case you can&#8217;t tell.<\/em><\/p>\n <p>This LD was a blast. I spent the weekend hacking with four colleagues from Braintree and we had ourselves a hootenanny.<\/p>\n <p><img class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/d5b56544d63cab416cbe292279f87930\/tumblr_inline_myn94eJ5zs1qa8rig.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" \/><\/p>\n <p>The game is more or less as I had imagined, albeit with a few missing bells and whistles. The last big gameplay feature where villagers build huts is still in-progress, and it could really use a GUI to tell you what&#8217;s going on. Still, remarkably complete, especially when compared to how very far short I fell last time.<\/p>\n <p><strong>What Worked Well<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>\u00a0Knowing Unity<\/strong> &#8211; this time around, I knew the tools somewhat before going in. I have yet to finish a game in Unity, but I have banged out a couple of rough prototypes prior to this. In particular, the <a href=\"http:\/\/catlikecoding.com\/unity\/tutorials\/\">Catlike Coding tutorials<\/a>\u00a0were very helpful.<\/li>\n <li><strong>Comradery<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; While I remain a fan of the solo format, leaving home to gather with like-minded hackers was extremely helpful. Just as in my daily work, my colleagues inspire me to be better than I am.<\/li>\n <li>\u00a0<strong>One Fun Thing<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; I took <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btYWNND2vo0\">Tom Francis&#8217; advice<\/a>\u00a0and made a game around one fun mechanic and prototyped that mechanic immediately. I spent a lot of time making sure the fire-breathing looked and felt just so, but I think that was time extremely well spent. It&#8217;s still fun to fly around and set things on fire, even if you don&#8217;t understand what the game is really about.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What Didn&#8217;t Go Well<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>3D Modeling<\/strong> &#8211; I realized I needed better tooling to make the ork fortresses, which is where I started to spin my wheels. Google Sketchup is a straightforward enough tool, but I really found it hard to navigate. I have a license to Blender somewhere &#8211; I need to dig it up and rediscover that tool.<\/li>\n <li><strong>Visuals<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; These aren&#8217;t my strong suit. I cheated by going for a very basic look (one kind commenter compared it to Darwinia), but even then I spent more time on them than I ought to have. I don&#8217;t know what the solution is here though.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>Other Miscellaneous Thoughts<\/strong><br \/>\n I really had fun with this. One of my 2014 New Year&#8217;s Resolutions is to try and make a game every quarter. I have a few things I&#8217;d like to experiment with &#8211; in particular, I want to see how hard it is to make an online multiplayer game. I am going to finish up Our Man Dragon first though.<\/p>\n <p>As always, thanks to the organizers for making this happen. LD is a very special event for me.<\/p>\n <p>SP<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/dragon\/\" rel=\"tag\">dragon<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/ld23\/\" rel=\"tag\">ld23<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/unity3d\/\" rel=\"tag\">unity3d<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 30th, 2013 5:05 pm","title":"LD23 Post-Mortem: Our Man, Dragon"}