{"author_name":"iambored2006","cat":"LD #27","comments":[],"epoch":1378060920,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"37992","p_author":"iambored2006","p_authorkey":"22590","p_urlkey":"73608","p_title":"10 Second Gooback Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #27","p_event":"LD27","p_time":"1378060920","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"22590","us_name":"iambored2006","us_username":"iambored2006","event_start":"1377216000","event_key":"18","event_name":"LD27"},"text":"<p>I finally have time for this thing. Let&#8217;s do this!<\/p>\n <p>I&#8217;ve been waiting for this LD for some time. A whole lot of time, actually. So you can imagine my disappointment and disbelief when I tried turning on my computer when the LD started and it wouldn&#8217;t boot. I was crushed. Add to that the fact that I was forced to start 13 hours late (as always, it would seem), and that the theme wasn&#8217;t inspiring at first, and I was seriously considering passing this time. I still wanted to make something, and I had my mom&#8217;s computer, so I drew some sketches, and came up with this-<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_294252\" style=\"width: 557px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-00.jpeg\"><img class=\" wp-image-294252\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-00.jpeg\" alt=\"Day one\" width=\"547\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-00-300x225.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-00-550x412.jpeg 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-00.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Day one<\/p><\/div>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_294253\" style=\"width: 557px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-24.jpeg\"><img class=\" wp-image-294253\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-24.jpeg\" alt=\"Day two\" width=\"547\" height=\"411\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-24-300x225.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Photo-01-09-13-22-48-24.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Day two<\/p><\/div>\n <p>I know how much you guys love these pics. I know I do <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n <p>Anyway, I had a nice, simple concept for the game, which I was happy with. I decided that I won&#8217;t code anything before I sleep on it some more, and the next day I slept in. Great start.<\/p>\n <p>I had to attend this meeting up at my school for a few hours, so I started coding the basics before that, and then I went to the meeting. It took a while, but it was interesting and refreshing, so I&#8217;m not complaining. Problem is, it was really hot outside, so on the walk back home, I got a serious headache. Like, a really bad one. I knew I was supposed to go to school for the whole day the next day, so the only time I had was that evening. I was in a really bad mood, and I went to bed early.<\/p>\n <p>The next day, after the compo had already ended, I was feeling a bit better, but I decided not to go to school, and instead stayed home all day and wrote the game. I&#8217;m so happy I did this!<\/p>\n <p>As opposed to last time, I had a lot less time this jam, but I still feel like this is a better entry than my first one. On to the actual post-mortem!<\/p>\n <p><strong>What went right:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I had my own game engine! I&#8217;m constantly improving it, and the LD was no exception, but this isn&#8217;t a bad thing. I was able to deliver on a better experience than my previous entry, and keep the positive stuff I learned along the way in a very ordered fashion.<\/li>\n <li>I was able to achieve my full vision of the game, without cutting back on content. Granted, there isn&#8217;t much of it, but that was all I could think of, and I think it&#8217;s wonderful.<\/li>\n <li>I have a lot of motivation to keep working on the game right now. In fact, I already made a few changes, polished a few corners here and there. I think I&#8217;ll take this game to the next level. I already have a lot of ideas to flesh out the concept, and I&#8217;m working on a post-compo version right now!<\/li>\n <li>Graphics- are terrible. Even though I made an animation last time, and I worked a lot of time on the graphics, as opposed to this time, where I spent about 30 minutes on it, I still like it better. I feel like I&#8217;m progressing in a field which isn&#8217;t supposed to be my territory.<\/li>\n <li>Level editor- from a programming perspective, it was a life-saver. I spent most of my coding time writing the level and level editor framework, and I&#8217;m proud of it. I didn&#8217;t realize it back when I posted the entry, but built-in level editors sale big time! I&#8217;ll try to keep this trend in my next entries.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What went wrong:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>No time (I love that song, BTW) &#8211; as I said earlier, I had no time at all. For several reasons, which I will list below, I experienced the time-crunching madness of the last hours of an LD.<\/li>\n <li>No content- I had no ideas for levels, save for a few simple puzzles. I had the time and the tools to build levels, but I didn&#8217;t have any ideas, so I was really stressed out to make the levels I had perfect in the little time I had left.<\/li>\n <li>Turns out Java is a bitch. That&#8217;s right. Java is a fucking bitch. Why? Because I almost couldn&#8217;t enter my game because of its shenanigans- apparently, files can&#8217;t be read in the traditional \u00a0way when running the program in a jar. I made the mistake of not making a jar until a couple of hours before the end of the jam, so I didn&#8217;t know that my level storage system wouldn&#8217;t work. I tried opening the files containing the level data through some methods I found after frantic searching on the internet, but it didn&#8217;t work. Finally, I copied the data and put it in an array inside the program. Fucking disgusting. It got the job done, but I almost had a heart attack along the way. Being so close to the finish line, only to be dragged back by your own tool was almost too much to bear.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>So here&#8217;s my game &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-27\/?action=preview&amp;uid=22590\">http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-27\/?action=preview&amp;uid=22590<\/a><\/p>\n <p>Please rate it and enjoy! Happy rating, everyone!<\/p>","time":"September 1st, 2013 1:42 pm","title":"10 Second Gooback Post-Mortem"}