{"author_name":"SuperDisk","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1368369480,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"42646","p_author":"SuperDisk","p_authorkey":"11035","p_urlkey":"78281","p_title":"DigQuest Post Mortem thing","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1368369480","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"11035","us_name":"SuperDisk","us_username":"superdisk","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"

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

Post Mortem<\/p>\n

Duran came over. Theme came out. We hated it. Went downstairs and started brainstorming on a piece of paper aptly titled:<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaem 1:<\/p>\n

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

Evolving-through-the-ages game where you’d start out at pong or breakout, then when the ball leaves the ceiling mario would jump out the other end, representing the transition through video game ages. It would end up at some sort of shooter, I suppose, as that’s what we’re at now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaem 2:<\/p>\n

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

PowerPong: Some sort of MMO pong game that would include a ton of wacky objects like giant chomping heads and blocks for your paddle to place. It would also take place in space… This game was more of a big “screw this” to the hated minimalism theme. Good thing it didn’t get chosen, I guess.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaem 3:<\/p>\n

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

Portal knockoff: Some Portal game. Eventually ditched, as it was too unoriginal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaem 4:<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

This looks familiar. Duran drew this one: it’s an ASCII guy holding a pickaxe and wearing a miner’s hat. This was actually a continuation of an older idea by me in which you’d try to survive in a canyon while finding out what’s at the core of the Earth (by digging and stuff)<\/p>\n

Then, this mockup was drawn:<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

We settled for it, headed upstairs and began working. And by working, I mean jacking around. We sat around kinda doing nothing for a little bit, then our first plan of action: download a character set of ASCII characters so we could actually start making the game. This proved troublesome; finding an ASCII charset in BMP\u00a0or\u00a0PNG\u00a0form was INCREDIBLY hard. We eventually found one on a Dwarf Fortress site somewhere, and split it with this fantastic tool:\u00a0http:\/\/www.mfgg.net\/index.php?act=resdb&param=02&c=6&id=8921<\/a><\/p>\n

We made our main character, named him Richard, and got the basic engine going within the first day. We slept, then resumed progress the next day, and that’s where the “good and bad” comes in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The good<\/p>\n