Hey guys, TheMaster99 here, bringing my post mortem for my 2nd Ludum Dare entry into the Jam. Let’s get right into it, shall we?

The Good

• I came up with a very good (IMO) idea for the theme. We actually came up with ideas for the 2 most popular themes (10 Seconds and Death is Useful) before voting was over, so we wouldn’t have to waste any time brainstorming.
• The programming went (relatively) smoothly, didn’t encounter many bugs that took much time to squash.
• Finished (excluding a few things that either I forgot to add or wish I added in hindsight) in time. That’s always a good thing, right?
• Learned about the ‘for each’ (Don’t know how I managed to go without knowing about it until know, but eh.)
• The response, so far, has been quite positive.
• Made a game I’m proud of.
• Had a blast!

The Bad

• Graphics artist didn’t have enough time due to school and other things to finish all the art.
• Didn’t have time to implement enemy/boss special attacks (although in hindsight, the fights are hard enough anyways, so special attacks would probably have made the game impossible, so maybe this isn’t really a bad thing.)
• Forgot to add a timer to show how much time until the shadow got to the next checkpoint, would have prevented some confusion and would make the game fit the theme a bit better.
• Didn’t implement any way to restart from the beginning unless you won, which made it possible to get stuck in infinite loss scenarios where you have to re-launch the game to solve.
• Restarting after victory is bugged (it doesn’t reset you to the beginning, but rather to the last checkpoint prior to the boss fight)
• Collision detection is imperfect (most of it is due to flaws in the level generation.)
• Faced a few major bugs that put me behind.

Conclusion

Overall, I had a great time. Will definitely be doing many more jams to come!

If you haven’t already, you can play my entry here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=20812

Happy gaming!

-TheMaster99