{"author_name":"Keith Evans","cat":"LD #27","comments":[],"epoch":1378693860,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"37929","p_author":"Keith Evans","p_authorkey":"506296","p_urlkey":"73545","p_title":"Fight the Urge Postmortem","p_cat":"LD #27","p_event":"LD27","p_time":"1378693860","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"506296","us_name":"Keith Evans","us_username":"Keith Evans","event_start":"1377216000","event_key":"18","event_name":"LD27"},"text":"

\"2013-08-28<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Entry:\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-27\/?action=preview&uid=25189<\/a><\/p>\n

What went Right:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theme\/Humor: \u00a0<\/strong>I felt pretty good about how I used the theme. \u00a0I was happy I was able to make a game that fit the theme without any violence at all. \u00a0Its the first game I had ever made that didn\u2019t hinge on hurting other people and it was a personal goal to do just that for this compo. \u00a0Also so far I think the humor and tone have been connecting with people. \u00a0This is especially satisfying since there isn\u2019t any audio of any kind and I was pretty sure the humor would fall really flat without that extra polish.<\/p>\n

Practice:<\/strong>\u00a0I completed a few practice games in the weeks leading up to LD. \u00a0All the games were fairly basic and throwaway quality but they were very effective at getting familiar with the basics of Impact. \u00a0The impact framework is pretty easy to use but if I had gone in blind I\u2019m sure I would have ended with half my current game.<\/p>\n

Brainstorming:\u00a0<\/strong>I was driving home when the 10 second theme was announced. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t going to be able to get to my computer for at least the next 3 hours. \u00a0At first this felt like valuable time wasted but in retrospect it allowed me the time to thoroughly brainstorm. \u00a0Instead of hoping on my first idea I was able to throw away a number of weaker designs before I ended up settling on the find the bathroom concept.<\/p>\n

Abandoning Perfection: <\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0Doing the 1 man compo I knew that I would have to work fast and sloppier than I am usually comfortable with. \u00a0That alone is part of what makes these events so great, being forced to push through all your inevitable problems. \u00a0I had done a few jams before but this was my first LD and my first solo competition. \u00a0I made a conscience effort to not get too hung up on making everything perfect. \u00a0There is a really obvious bug in the game where the waiters will get twitchy while pathing. \u00a0I could have fixed this by implementing A* pathfinding but it would have taken a good chunk of time since I hadn\u2019t done any pathfinding logic from scratch in years. \u00a0I decided to live with the bug and focus on other parts of the game. \u00a0It kind of sucked to leave something broken but it was the right decision in the end.<\/p>\n

\"GameOverScreen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What went Wrong:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time Management:\u00a0<\/strong>Usually I jam when my family goes out of town. \u00a0My wife will take my son to visit his grandparents and I\u2019ll take advantage of 48 hours of single living to learn a new programming language and bust something out. \u00a0This was the first time I had tried to Jam while maintaining a semblance of normal family life. \u00a0What this meant is that I tried to do all my normal daytime family activities and jam late into the night. \u00a0Overall it worked but on Sunday I had to escape to the bedroom and work for a solid 6 hours while my son was awake. \u00a0Not a huge problem and it was very understood but it is something I\u2019ll remember next time when scheduling my time.<\/p>\n

Asset Creation: \u00a0<\/strong>I am not an artist\u2026but I tried to do a bunch of art. \u00a0I spent many hours one night pixeling out the restaurant and all the different characters. \u00a0Overall I\u2019m pretty happy with how it looks but I know that a more experienced artist could have done something far better with a fraction of the time. \u00a0One of my main goals before the December LD is to re-pixel this game and try to take my art skills to the next level.<\/p>\n

I also had a plan to make my own music and sfx. \u00a0I even recorded a bunch of ambient conversation that I had begun splicing together for background noise. \u00a0Unfortunately none of that was able to make it into the final game.<\/p>\n

Only 2 levels:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The initial plan was for 20 levels that would randomly be presented to the player. \u00a0Since all of these levels were to use the same art assets that seemed totally doable. \u00a0It turns out just building a level in Weltmeister (impacts level editor) and adding all the necessary level markup took about 30 minutes per level. \u00a0I added the second level about an hour before the submission deadline.<\/p>\n

What I Learned<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man, so much. \u00a0It was a really great experience. \u00a0I have made a lot of games but I\u2019ve never made a game entirely on my own in such a short amount of time. \u00a0I found the dev process incredibly freeing since the idea of creating something perfect was impossible. \u00a0I was able to just try out ideas and not worry too much about the consequences.<\/p>\n

So far the feedback on the game has been positive, with people pointing out a lot of the faults I see in the game. \u00a0That has been very reassuring and gives me the encouragement to take this game a little further and polish it up for a more full featured free release<\/p>","time":"September 8th, 2013 9:31 pm","title":"Fight the Urge Postmortem"}