The process:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n So when the theme was announced I wasn’t really surprised and I was actually kind of rooting for 10 Seconds. \u00a0But once I realized it was official, I had absolutely no ideas in my head. \u00a0Luckily I was stuck at work (undercover loss prevention agent) so I had plenty of time to walk around and get my imagination going. \u00a0Finally I had an idea.<\/p>\n The idea spawned from a situation one of my developer friends had just recently gone through. \u00a0He updated a new driver for his graphics card and suddenly his pc bluescreened on restart. \u00a0After restarting several times he learned that he had approximately 10 seconds to delete the new updated driver before his pc shut down. \u00a0Eventually he got it after a dozen tries. \u00a0So I decided that because this kind of thing happens often, I’d use it as part of my theme.<\/p>\n So the original idea was to have a reflection of some nerdy kid in the screen who was constantly downloading viruses which you had to destroy before they bluescreened the computer. \u00a0Due to time, the reflection didn’t make it into the game, and due to the 1980’s theme downloading turned into installing software. \u00a0The software that contained the virus ended up being “Busty Cops II” and at the top of the installation screen in tiny font you could see the Paladin Virus Hunter Software (which you’d know about if you read the readme.txt from the title screen) warning you that the software contained malicious files. \u00a0Of course…. you install the pixelly goodness anyway and the game begins.<\/p>\n Language:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n So I used Stencyl to code the game. \u00a0I’ve been learning C# in my downtime, but I knew I’d never be able to create anything worthy of LD in 48 hours with my knowledge so far. \u00a0So I went back to what I know. \u00a0Stencyl is really easy to use once you know the basics of logic and what each logic block does. \u00a0For a prototyping engine it does wonders for game jams. \u00a0As soon as I had the outline for the game I started writing the pseudo code in my head while I was at work. \u00a0By the time I finished art and was ready to start coding, I had the entire game written out already. \u00a0The only thing I had difficulties with was adding the power button to the PC. \u00a0I added multiple copies because I changed tactics halfway through and it was causing the PC to shut off and turn back on immediately which was a very frustrating 20 minutes.<\/p>\n The Challenges:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I think the only part that was really challenging for me other than time constraints was the music. \u00a0I’ve never actually created my own music for games before. \u00a0I usually have a friend do it, or borrow it from a website. \u00a0So after multiple hours of attempting to create something using various softwares I decided to find a random music generator. \u00a0Finally I went with Sfxr for sound effects and Wolfram Tones for the music. \u00a0It turned out pretty good for randomly generated music.<\/p>\n The Rewards:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After the planning stage I went immediately to art. \u00a0I hate using placeholder art because I call myself a game artist. \u00a0Creating sloppy boxes for placeholders is too difficult for me to do when I can just create the finished product with just a little more effort. \u00a0When I decided that I was going to mix pixel and vector art in the same game I got really excited. \u00a0I’ve used both in games before, but never together. \u00a0I decided to make the computer as realistic as possible (given my lack of vector skills) and then use the 80’s theme for pixel art, which was ridiculously easy since I only had to settle on one color…. green.<\/p>\n The fact that the game came out bug-free (to the best of my knowledge) within less than 12 hours of actual work makes me ecstatic. \u00a0Bug testing and fixing is the worst part of game dev to me.<\/p>\n In essence:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I’m thrilled with how it turned out and at all the good feedback I’ve had. \u00a0Usually I get a lot of “Why didn’t you do this?” or “This part is too difficult”, etc. \u00a0But I really haven’t had any negative feedback that made me cringe while hearing it.<\/p>\n Thanks for reading! \u00a0Go play the game!<\/p>\n \n Tags: compo<\/a>, flash<\/a>, post-mortem<\/a>, postmortem<\/a>, screenshot<\/a><\/p>","time":"September 3rd, 2013 4:47 pm","title":"Bluescreen \u2013 Postmortem"}![\"Screenie\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Screenie-285x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n ![\"StencylScreen\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/StencylScreen-300x162.png\")
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