{"author_name":"Keith Evans","cat":"LD #28","comments":[],"epoch":1387576980,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"34169","p_author":"Keith Evans","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"69714","p_title":"Spectrum PostMortem","p_cat":"LD #28","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1387576980","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1386892800","event_key":"20","event_name":"LD28"},"text":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Game Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/308734\/25189-shot3.png\" width=\"440\" height=\"264\" \/><\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">A colorful puzzle platformer.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">You are a small white orb trapped inside a mysterious test chamber. A floating colored portal can be seen in the distance but when you touch it, nothing appears to happen. Your goal is to find a way out of 5 increasingly difficult test chambers.<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Absorb the color of lights in the environment.<\/li>\n <li>Mix colors together to match the color of portals, switches, and force fields.<\/li>\n <li>You ONLY GET ONE COLOR at a time.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Team Makeup<\/strong><\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">Art, Code, and Design by Keith Evans and Matt Krystek<br \/>\n Music by Michael Krystek<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">We were lucky that either of us could tackle any of the design, code or art related tasks on the project. \u00a0After our initial brainstorm on Friday we split the game mechanics up into separate tasks and signed up for what we wanted to work on. \u00a0This allowed us to co-develop the game at the same time as neither of us were sitting around idle waiting for content from the other person. \u00a0When we started to build levels we both worked from a shared package of prefabs that contained all of the different level components. \u00a0Not only did this save time, it also helped us maintain a consistent visual style. \u00a0We also didn&#8217;t waste a lot of time when it came to cutting features, if one of us wanted to simplify a mechanic or cut something we made the decision immediately.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Working Remotely<\/strong><\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">Before the Jam we made an attempt to setup proper source control. \u00a0Attempt is the keyword here as we ended up failing good and hard. \u00a0We both thought that the lack of source control would be our achilles heel. \u00a0Luckily it turned out to just be a minor annoyance. \u00a0We were able to work entirely through dropbox, googledoc, and an open steam chat.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">Let\u2019s hear it for the cloud!!!<\/p>\n <p>On Friday our goal was to meetup in person but it just didn\u2019t pan out. \u00a0Instead of getting discouraged \u00a0we took our brainstorm session into a Google doc that we live edited together. \u00a0It functioned like a pseudo chat-room\/evolving design document. \u00a0We would quickly drop in reference images, create bullet lists and cooperatively participated in creative exercises ( i.e word associations). \u00a0Looking back at it now it reads like scramblings of a mad man, but in the moment it worked incredibly well.<\/p>\n <p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/uaAfUCyu9Oq_solgbr6KKfjrDGmy1f7hEH-7C5FWQIxkvWgS5HwZ43c8j3IBIpNTtMsggg-_X-tHYYyXoyQ0OzlMNUb1dhgXxxA1oKFAExofhVg8jRN8CGd0pA\" width=\"624px;\" height=\"103px;\" \/><\/p>\n <p>Mad Libs Brainstorming-A quickly assembled list of words\/ideas that we assembled from the theme.<\/p>\n <p>We had chewed through a ton of ideas and felt like we were back at square one. \u00a0At around the three hour mark of brainstorming this simple concept mockup locked our theme.<\/p>\n <p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/6GhOxcr-2x0dCLHIIqyGVV4d1HTyEsBerUpycrTbUK5wJuwBtAkoKF4DaU7C0oUTJEtAIOQirCWg8B7Nwc-s8N3W19m4Sii-YDdwBqpgei4VmIMhUf8P2dq9rQ\" width=\"624px;\" height=\"220px;\" \/><\/p>\n <p>The color based puzzle platformer idea felt like the best choice for a number of reasons. \u00a0Chief among them, was we could instantly picture the gameplay and start thinking up a long list of puzzle possibilities. \u00a0This following puzzle was mocked up during the brainstorming session and ended up making it almost verbatim into the final build.<\/p>\n <p><img style=\"line-height: 1.5em\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/HMOx3wU8ysG2FXToVfmZVfkct7uQrV2rnuZNGHnOgHQDn5ZAEGyxsyjtAc6DzC6AivuOz2WslKb7zbTFF-nNHOW26g0VUZs6PQFr_3QRwQybPjAGMgQC2gterg\" width=\"279px;\" height=\"396px;\" \/><\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">On Saturday and Sunday we would text back and forth (usually one of us was away with family obligations) informing each other of the latest changes and would upload incremental drops of the game. \u00a0We would then perform our merges at night when both of us were online and sort out any issues immediately, using Steam to instant message.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">Not the most elegant solution, but it was working and that is all that really mattered.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\">At the 11th hour we were settling on having terrible music made by us or no music at all. \u00a0Miraculously we were able to add a last minute team member, Matt\u2019s brother Michael was available to come on and whip us up a nice track that really fit with the look of our game. \u00a0It was a great addition and really helped bring the project together.<\/p>\n <p><strong>The One Phone Call<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>Everything was going smooth&#8230;until \u00a0Monday morning. \u00a0When we finally got to the point of building levels Keith had setup a template for both organizing the level and setting up the progression. \u00a0I was incredibly tired Monday and as I set out to spend the next several hours building content I wanted to be 100% certain that I was doing it correctly. \u00a0So Keith called me\u2026 and the first thing he said was \u201cYou broke the streak!\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I had him walk me through the setup process and then we ended the call. \u00a0For the rest of that we went back to IM and were able to merge all of our content together without any major issues. \u00a0I dont know if this process would work for every team, but it worked well for us. \u00a0Google docs ability to allow editing in real time was invaluable and allowed us to iterate incredibly fast. \u00a0Steam IM kept a history of our chat which allowed us to have conversations even when one of us wasn&#8217;t around.<\/p>\n <p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Future<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>When we completed Spectrum on Monday both of us felt a huge sense of creative accomplishment. \u00a0To start this process on Friday without really knowing what we would be able to complete to being able to walk away will a solid polished prototype is amazing. \u00a0Unity worked really well for our development and I see us continuing to use the platform. \u00a0We are going to (and already have) made some small tweaks to the prototype based on feedback, but we both feel that the controls would need to be overhauled if we were to move forward with this. \u00a0The only thing for certain in the immediate future is that both us are probably going to be doing another Game Jam.<\/p>\n <p>We would love to get as much feedback as possible before this process is over. \u00a0If your interested in checking out our game and leaving a rating you can check us out here.<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-28\/?action=preview&amp;uid=25189\">http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-28\/?action=preview&amp;uid=25189<\/a><\/p>\n <p>Thanks, now back to playing and rating as many games as possible!<\/p>","time":"December 20th, 2013 5:03 pm","title":"Spectrum PostMortem"}