{"author_name":"nimblegorilla","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1368202980,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"42662","p_author":"nimblegorilla","p_authorkey":"15273","p_urlkey":"78297","p_title":"Hipster Pad: Ludum Dare 26 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1368202980","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"15273","us_name":"nimblegorilla","us_username":"nimblegorilla","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"

Hipster Pad<\/a> is my third Ludum Dare submission.<\/p>\n

In Hipster Pad the player attempts to arrange oddly shaped furniture on top of a rug. <\/p>\n

\"Hipser<\/p>\n

Previously I did the 48-hr jam and was fairly happy with the results, but I wanted to see what I could do if I got a few friends together for a team. Unfortunately most of my prime candidates were busy that weekend. I did get a few friends to do some brainstorming and design talk, but not a lot of help with programming or other development aspects.<\/p>\n

What went right: <\/p>\n

1. Simple Mechanics: I’ve seen a lot of other great ideas during this Ludum Dare. I think the minimalism theme has really helped developers embrace the “less is more” philosophy. When I first thought of doing a block-style pz<\/p>\n

2. Physical prototyping: I pulled out my copy of Blokus and drew out some different levels to see how the gameplay worked. I played around with different block mechanics for a couple hours until I had a simple rules system that still seemed meaningful. Every 5 minutes I could completely change my game rules without worrying about the code implementation. For the next Ludum Dare I will definitely prepare a prototyping kit ahead of time to test out game mechanics.<\/p>\n

3. Familiar frameworks: The entire game was built in one html file with a bunch of supporting css and javascript. I used bootstrap in my last two games to try and save time, but this time around I skipped that and only used jQuery. In my day job I mostly do business web apps with these tools so it was really easy to debug any issues that I ran into.<\/p>\n

4. Playable demo and Feedback from other people: I had several people that checked out my game over the course of the weekend. I was able to get some good feedback even on Saturday morning. That was much better than my last attempt were I didn’t have a playable game until the last few hours of the weekend.<\/p>\n

5. Relaxed schedule: I followed most of the 48-hr rules even though I did the 72-hr jam. The major benefit was having 72-hrs. Instead of working 2-days straight I did just a little work on Friday and Saturday to get my base game and on Sunday I spend time with family and friends. I think that gave my subconscious mind some time to mull over different aspects of the game.<\/p>\n

What went wrong:<\/p>\n

1. Forming a team: I spent some time before the jam weekend trying to recruit people to be part of a team. I got some interest, but I don’t think I gave people enough time to block out some time from their schedules. Next time I might start pinging people a month ahead of time to try to get something bigger. Alternatively I might go back to the 48-hr solo jam.<\/p>\n

2. Complicated level design: I hand-code my initial 5 levels and didn’t create a simple level format until nearly the end of the competition. I spent a fair amount of time tweaking and copy\/pasting updates between my levels. Next time I will probably create a level template sooner in the process.<\/p>\n

3. Too much time on art: I went down several paths trying to create sketches of furniture, doing fancier gradients and boxes for the rugs in the game. Ultimately I was happier with polished versions of the basic squares and probably could have created more interesting levels if I spent less time on the superficial appearance of the furniture.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/p>\n

With my third Ludum Dare under my belt I feel like I’m getting more efficient at creating a base game. Scope creep is always a lurking danger, but I am already looking forward to creating another game in a few months.<\/p>","time":"May 10th, 2013 11:23 am","title":"Hipster Pad: Ludum Dare 26 Post Mortem"}