{"author_name":"rukbotto","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1368761040,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"42592","p_author":"rukbotto","p_authorkey":"17844","p_urlkey":"78227","p_title":"Ludum dare #26 postmortem: Title","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1368761040","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"17844","us_name":"rukbotto","us_username":"rukbotto","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"

\"ludumdare_26_game_screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Uh oh! Almost a month after the Ludum Dare #26 I’m here to write the postmortem of my “game”. It’s name is “Title”.<\/p>\n

Why Title? Well, the time was over and I couldn’t find a proper name for it, so “Title” was the way to go. That was the name I put when testing the game screens.<\/p>\n

The theme? Minimalism. Somewhat broad. Anyway, I had a couple ideas in my head: make a pacman-like or a tetris-like game with just two colors.<\/p>\n

But a few minutes after the idea of making something with a dark maze and a lonely player trying to get out came to my mind. The player could pick up some lights from the floor to lit it’s way out but the duration of each light would be limited. That idea was finally the winner.<\/p>\n

What went well?<\/h2>\n

I felt much more comfortable when doing the sprites. I like a lot the retro-8-bit-pixelated style so I tried to reproduce that style as well as I could\u00a0in all the game sprites.<\/p>\n

The sound effects were a little bit difficult for me. I had never done that before. However, I think the result was acceptable. It was difficult, especially when finding the proper sound for hitting the wall and picking up the lights.<\/p>\n

What went wrong?<\/h2>\n

The coding process was somewhat messy. I waste a lot of time fixing exceptions and errors. I also waste a lot of time changing parts that were working for something fancier.<\/p>\n

So, at T-3 hours to finish the Jam, I had no sprites, no start screen and just one game level. At the end, I couldn’t finish it completely. If you play it, you’ll notice some green boxes. Those boxes are suposed to be the lights you pick up when walking the maze. I couldn’t give them a proper texture.<\/p>\n

Lesson?<\/h2>\n

I truly believe you need to have a clear and simple idea from the beginning to finish this competition\u00a0successfully. Period.<\/p>\n

A good advise would be to not improve your idea until it is completely implemented. Simplicity is better, even more if you want to create a game in a weekend!<\/p>\n

That’s it. You can play it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, the traditional behind the scenes timelapse. Enjoy!<\/p>\n