With the 27th Ludum Dare now completed (well, the voting’s just begun, but the games themselves are supposed to be quite done), it’s time for some post-mortem joy!

The game our team made for the jam was 10 Seconds to Insanity, for those curious about it (I mean, it’s pretty slick, you should definitively check it out), here’s a link, as well as video, because god-dangit-I-made-it-so-I-want-people-to-see-it (also, shameless promotion)

Alright, now for some actual thoughts about the Ludum Dare.

What went right:
– Working with familiar languages and libraries ensured that no issues were had regarding the languages itself (by now, we were pretty familiar with Java and Slick, and as such didn’t waste any time learning stuff)
– Rendering in an isometric view, while it demanded more work than a regular view would’ve been, really gave the game charm
– Creating the game’s atmosphere was a blast, especially since we had both access to music and graphics (the best part of being a team, really)
– Having the labyrinth randomly generated really gave the game length and longer-lasting appeal
– The lighting system was easy to implement and a ton of fun to work with

What went wrong:
– Having the labyrinth randomly generated represented a huge workload that took up a significant portion of the time we had
– Having the only programmer with free time on monday night being called away by real life sadly prevented the addition of much-needed sound effects
– Ideas with dubious gameplay implementations proved to be dubious gameplay-wise, while the game was very atmospheric, the gameplay itself left much to be desired

Final thoughts:

Easily the best Ludum Dare that I (the guy writing the post-mortem) was able to participate in, also, I believe this is true for my partners as well