Finally, I get to write a Post-Mortem about my Game “Escape the Minimalism” that I made during LD26, my first LD. Here is my first short summary of my LD.

I’m not totally happy with how it turned out, but it still turned out better than I thought it would.

A screenshot of the “finished” game

So I think I will give this whole Post-Mortem thing a twist and do it a little bit different:

What went worse than expected:

• The THEME: From all the possibilities, why would it have to be Minimalism, and it struck me extra hard, because I think I’m not totally irresponsible for this. Well, at least we can all learn from our mistakes.
• The Motivation has been quite low at some times, partly because of the theme, partly because I got up at 4:00 AM to start working and kept working for a whole of 22 hours. Taking breaks and drinking a lot is essential to keep healthy, stay motivated and avoid dehydration.
• Being sick for one day is not awfully productive. I had food poisoning and spent the second day in bed and on the toilet. So be careful and watch what you eat, but eat something, because you need the nutrients for your brain.
• I didn’t even got the core mechanics ready after the first day, and I only started making levels after the second half of the last day, so I didn’t have enough time for smart level design. But I shouldn’t have skipped on letting others playtest it, because this really helps finding the balance in level difficulties and to get valuable feedback.
• Working in a team was not working out as I wanted, because of the theme I didn’t have a plan for a long time and still didn’t have a concrete one when I started working. Some of my friends didn’t have much time, and I was ill the second day. The last day I was already giving up on making a polished game, and just decided to push it through and get at least something playable out of this.

What went better than expected:

• The Feedback for my game has been surprisingly positive, I personally didn’t think at first, that people other than myself could actually enjoy it.
• The weather was perfect, it was cold and it has been raining a lot, so I didn’t have to come up with excuses why I wouldn’t leave my room.
• I was able to create my first game with Slick2D and I learned Tiled also along the way. This weekend had been more of an extensive learning session than a game jam, because I didn’t really know my tools beforehand.

What went like expected:

• As hoped I didn’t die from this extreme challenge or dehydration, but I nearly thought I would at some point over the weekend.
• I wasn’t able to create a complete polished game within 72 hours, but at least I made something playable and finish-able. But that’s okay, maybe next time I’ll use tools I’m already familiar with.

So my first LD made a lot of fun, and it motivated me to get at least something done. I will for sure create a more “finished” verison, fixing all the bugs and creating some better levels. And I think I will participate in the next one for sure.

Now when you go play my game, I would be happy if you left some constructive criticism, because I can’t believe that my game got so much positive feedback. 😀

Tags: postmortem