{"author_name":"mystakin","cat":"LD #28","comments":[],"epoch":1388349420,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"34065","p_author":"mystakin","p_authorkey":"28484","p_urlkey":"69610","p_title":"You Are The One \u2013 Postmortem","p_cat":"LD #28","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1388349420","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"28484","us_name":"mystakin","us_username":"mystakin","event_start":"1386892800","event_key":"20","event_name":"LD28"},"text":"<p><strong><\/strong>With a little over a week left in the voting process, I figured I would put together a postmortem on my first ever Ludum Dare entry, <a title=\"You Are The One\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-28\/?action=preview&amp;uid=28484\" target=\"_blank\">You Are The One<\/a>.<\/p>\n <p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>What went right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Design:\u00a0<\/strong>I have only taken part in one game jam previous to this Ludum Dare. In that project, I dreamed far too big and tried far too much. When designing You Are The One, I knew I had to keep it simple. The game would be 2D, use basic physics and cameras that I was already experienced with, and require as few assets as possible. It would also avoid complicated mechanics until it could be played start to finish. I didn&#8217;t mind cutting features from my initial design, but I was determined to at least implement the 5-level progression and celebration screen.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/DesignDoc.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-326922\" alt=\"DesignDoc\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/DesignDoc-224x300.png\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Audio:\u00a0<\/strong>Audio was a big concern of mine initially. I had no plan for music, and I wasn&#8217;t sure how well the sound effect generator I was using, <a title=\"sfxr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drpetter.se\/project_sfxr.html\" target=\"_blank\">sfxr<\/a>, would fit into my project. Luckily, the sound effects were perfect and matched my retro\/basic art style. While wondering about music, I came across a program called <a title=\"GXSCC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.co.jp\/SiliconValley-SanJose\/8700\/P\/GsorigE.htm\" target=\"_blank\">GXSCC <\/a>that could translate a .midi file into a chiptune sounding .wav. I&#8217;ve played guitar for many years and use <a title=\"TabIt\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tabit.net\/download.htm\" target=\"_blank\">TabIt <\/a>to store all my tabs which, turns out, supports exporting to .midi. With this knowledge, I put together 2 small loops for the game and they came out perfect.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Completeness:\u00a0<\/strong>I think there&#8217;s something psychologically satisfying about finishing a game. My entry needed to be finish-able, and more than that, it needed to push the player to do more. That&#8217;s where the idea for level-specific collectibles came from. If you collect all the items, the ending congratulates you on your hard work. If you don&#8217;t, it still congratulates you but hints that there&#8217;s more to do. I wanted my entry to feel like a real, full game that just happens to be really short. I think I accomplished that to some degree.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Completeness.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-326924\" alt=\"Completeness\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Completeness.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Completeness-300x168.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Completeness.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>What went wrong?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Adherence to Theme:\u00a0<\/strong>While there is an extensive use of &#8220;one&#8221; as a theme throughout the entry, adherence to &#8220;you only get one&#8221; is a bit flimsy. Each level has one color shade, one item to collect, and the player character is literally a &#8220;1&#8221; with feet and eyes. While clever, it would be a stretch to say these attach to the theme well. The real use of the &#8220;only getting one&#8221; comes from the player only getting one direction they may progress in. This is a bit different than just getting one direction of movement, because the player can move both left and right on some levels. While matching the theme, it&#8217;s a bit convoluted as an implementation. I wish I had spent more time riffing on &#8220;one&#8221; as a limitation instead of &#8220;one&#8221; as a concept in and of itself.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Adherence.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-326925\" alt=\"Adherence\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Adherence.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Adherence-300x168.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Adherence.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Enemies:\u00a0<\/strong>My initial design called for one enemy per level, and a progression of difficulty stemming from that. Level 1 enemies would be stationary obstacles, level 2 enemies would shoot at the player, level 3 enemies would move around, and level 4 enemies would both move and shoot. Finally, level 5 would combine all the previous enemies the same way it combines the previous level&#8217;s movement styles. Unfortunately, I did not find enough time to design or implement enemies and opted for pits and spikes as the primary hazards. To give you an idea of how little time I would have had for enemies, I only implemented the spikes in the last 2 hours of the competition.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>I like to speedrun Mario platformers, specifically Super Mario World, as a hobby. As you may imagine, this colors my design philosophy when it comes to platformers. I tend to design levels to be rushed through at full speed, and completed through a series of expertly timed jumps. This can be problematic for people with different play-styles or less patience. My game is definitely too hard in its current form, but I hope the &#8220;skip level&#8221; button will enable all players to see the full game.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Difficulty.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-326926\" alt=\"Difficulty\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Difficulty.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>What did I learn?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Unity&#8217;s 2D tools are&#8230; okay:\u00a0<\/strong>While starting the new project, I noticed Unity now asks if you want to use 2D or 3D defaults. Since I was new to working 2D, I got excited and went with 2D. While many of the defaults assisted my creation process big time, most of the 2D tools went unused. Without a 2D Character Controller, I would have to use a rigidbody2D in its stead&#8230; and I wasn&#8217;t really prepared for that. Additionally, I had some trouble with the standard Character Controller colliding with 2D colliders. I eventually settled on a mix of the two systems, using the standard 3D components while taking advantage of the 2D scene view and sprite importer.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Plan.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-326928\" alt=\"Plan\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Plan.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Plan-300x223.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Plan.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>A great game begins with a great plan:\u00a0<\/strong>I accomplished almost everything I wanted with this project, and I chalk that up to a smart, flexible design. The project began basic, and added complexity, such as the items and spikes, only once the groundwork was in place.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Ludum Dare is tons of fun:\u00a0<\/strong>Not much more to say than that. I had a total blast taking part in the competition, from brainstorming to wrap-up.\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">I look forward to joining future Ludum Dares! Just need to figure out how to do those awesome time-lapse videos between now and then.<\/span><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/ld28\/\" rel=\"tag\">LD28<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/you-are-the-one\/\" rel=\"tag\">You Are The One<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 29th, 2013 3:37 pm","title":"You Are The One \u2013 Postmortem"}