{"author_name":"TheMaster99","cat":"LD #27","comments":[],"epoch":1377634860,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"38222","p_author":"TheMaster99","p_authorkey":"20812","p_urlkey":"73840","p_title":"Umbra Machina \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #27","p_event":"LD27","p_time":"1377634860","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"20812","us_name":"TheMaster99","us_username":"themaster99","event_start":"1377216000","event_key":"18","event_name":"LD27"},"text":"<p>Hey guys, TheMaster99 here, bringing my post mortem for my 2nd Ludum Dare entry into the Jam. Let&#8217;s get right into it, shall we?<\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><strong>The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>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&#8217;t have to waste any time brainstorming.<\/li>\n <li>The programming went (relatively) smoothly, didn&#8217;t encounter many bugs that took much time to squash.<\/li>\n <li>Finished (excluding a few things that either I forgot to add or wish I added in hindsight) in time. That&#8217;s always a good thing, right?<\/li>\n <li>Learned about the &#8216;for each&#8217; (Don&#8217;t know how I managed to go without knowing about it until know, but eh.)<\/li>\n <li>The response, so far, has been quite positive.<\/li>\n <li>Made a game I&#8217;m proud of.<\/li>\n <li>Had a blast!<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><strong>The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Graphics artist didn&#8217;t have enough time due to school and other things to finish all the art.<\/li>\n <li>Didn&#8217;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&#8217;t really a bad thing.)<\/li>\n <li>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.<\/li>\n <li>Didn&#8217;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.<\/li>\n <li>Restarting after victory is bugged (it doesn&#8217;t reset you to the beginning, but rather to the last checkpoint prior to the boss fight)<\/li>\n <li>Collision detection is imperfect (most of it is due to flaws in the level generation.)<\/li>\n <li>Faced a few major bugs that put me behind.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>Overall, I had a great time. Will definitely be doing many more jams to come!<\/p>\n <p>If you haven&#8217;t already, you can play my entry here:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-27\/?action=preview&amp;uid=20812\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-27\/?action=preview&amp;uid=20812<\/a><\/p>\n <p>Happy gaming!<\/p>\n <p>-TheMaster99<\/p>","time":"August 27th, 2013 3:21 pm","title":"Umbra Machina \u2013 Post Mortem"}