{"author_name":"QualityCatGames","cat":"LD #36","comments":[],"epoch":1472523120,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"3440","p_author":"QualityCatGames","p_authorkey":"91339","p_urlkey":"38903","p_title":"So, remember that game I promised?","p_cat":"LD #36","p_event":"LD36","p_time":"1472523120","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"91339","us_name":"QualityCatGames","us_username":"\/author\/qualitycatgames\/","event_start":"1472169600","event_key":"35","event_name":"LD36"},"text":"<p>It will be finished some day.<\/p>\n <p>So, have a post-mortem:<\/p>\n <p>preparation:<\/p>\n <p>what went right:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>got a few needed updates made to my game library<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>what went wrong:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>didn&#8217;t get nearly all updates i waned\/needed done to my library<\/li>\n <li>actually put a couple bugs in my library, slowed game down at the beginning<\/li>\n <li>didn&#8217;t spend as much time preparing as I should have&#8230; part of this was beyond my control, there was a few weeks before the jam when i checked to see the schedule for ld36. Still, soe of this was my tendency to start new projects at the flip of a dime.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>game:<\/p>\n <p>what went right:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>more completed game engine than LD35. Although my final submission has basically no real content, all the basic set-up to create something pretty awesome is there. It&#8217;s taking priority over my LD35 submission to be updated.<\/li>\n <li>There was overall, better time management, since I focused more on coding features than making them look nice. I also didn&#8217;t spend a massive amount of time doing pixel art, and rather used some built-in filters\/effects to create textures and such. The only real pixel art was the wall bevel overlay and the Egyptian Eye of Horus on the beam emitters.<\/li>\n <li>Fixing bugs. I actually got major bugs fixed this time, including multiple problems with collision-related stuff.<\/li>\n <li>Scope. While the game is nowhere near complete, had I managed to get just a few more extra hours of work in, this game would have seen completion. The bar was not set unrealistically high, as opposed to the previous jam, which had FAR too much stuff to implement, and I was managing time quite poorly this time.<\/li>\n <li>Coding practices. I stuck through with my plan to create a more &#8216;proper&#8217; class\/object hierarchy, this streamlined development and reduced bugs significantly. My LD35 submission is full of copy-paste, and basically all its bugs were caused by copy-paste errors.<\/li>\n <li>NO tilemapping of any kind. Levels are easier to edit, as there&#8217;s just the static background, and various entities to load. This is extremely easy to edit, as opposed to that disaster from my previous\/first LD.<\/li>\n <li>I did manage to spend some of the that time running errands would&#8217;ve just wasted. I was coming up with plans, or manually debugging code.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>what went wrong:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>still started late&#8230;<\/li>\n <li>Didn&#8217;t come close to finishing game<\/li>\n <li>Final level was indeed rushed to implement<\/li>\n <li>content&#8230; much had to be stripped<\/li>\n <li>Even WORSE IRL stuff to take away from time.<\/li>\n <li>Due to the events of the last couple weeks, my sleep schedule has been off. I napped-away a pretty significant amount of my time.<\/li>\n <li>Honestly, did stick to hard-coding a bit too much, and it was hard to remove all of that.<\/li>\n <li>Some very incomplete parts of my library are extremely painful to use, and all parts are undocumented. This slowed me down when looking at my own APIs to see what was being done wrong, and even, just how to use them&#8230;<\/li>\n <li>The level loader, win game, and scoring system were added last minute, and are very buggy. The player kill system was never completed.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Things I hope to improve in the future:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Have better time management<\/li>\n <li>Is it even POSSIBLE to get IRL to LEAVE ME ALONE?<\/li>\n <li>Better preparation<\/li>\n <li>Improve art style<\/li>\n <li>Further improve coding and debugging strategies<\/li>\n <li>FINISH THE GAME<\/li>\n <li>Have documentation for my library and perhaps the JavaScript language, ready<\/li>\n <li>Hopefully port the library to Haxe, JS prototype chains suck to maintain, and it takes some seriously ugly and indecipherable code to &#8216;properly&#8217; implement OOP in JS. I&#8217;d rather a tool do this bit for me.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>Overall, I&#8217;d say this went better than LD35, just wish I had more content to show for it. I feel more confident about this game project, so it will take priority over my LD35 game to be polished\/completed.<\/p>","time":"August 29th, 2016 9:12 pm","title":"So, remember that game I promised?"}