{"author_name":"Entity2D","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367789100,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"42707","p_author":"Entity2D","p_authorkey":"10301","p_urlkey":"78342","p_title":"Stykk \u2013 Postmortem!","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367789100","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"10301","us_name":"Entity2d","us_username":"entity2d","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"

This has been the fourth time I’ve attempted to participate in Ludum Dare, and it has produced the third LD compo\/jam game I’ve released. Now, it’s time for me to talk about it:<\/p>\n

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

What went right<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Actually finishing the game.<\/strong> I was so uncertain that I would finish this game, until the last few hours of the jam deadline.<\/p>\n

Transitioning to a new platform.<\/strong> I made all my previous (mini) Ludum Dare games in either Flixel or FlashPunk, which are some really awesome frameworks focused on creating games in Flash, but I believe Flash is starting to become the new ‘Shockwave’, and will slowly be losing support from game developers, as the web, and HTML5, slowly evolves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What went wrong<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Inexperience with melonJS.<\/strong> I was originally going to use craftyJS for my game, but, a week before this Ludum Dare started, I switched to melonJS, as I had some issued with Crafty (which I also had little experience with). This lead me into…<\/p>\n

Nearly giving up.<\/strong> It was only within the last 4 hours of the jam deadline that I decided to take what I currently had, and attempt to turn it into what I consider a finished game.<\/p>\n

Ugly code.<\/strong> Because of my inexperience with melonJS, I had a lot of really unoptimized code, and I took many shortcuts, just to get the game working.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What was dropped:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Falling \/ shooting spikes.<\/strong>\u00a0I had planned to include falling spikes into the game, but due to my inexperience with melonJS, this was dropped, and dangers in the game were reduced to spikes.<\/p>\n

Colour changing character.<\/strong> I originally planned to have the character’s sprite change to white once they entered a dark area. I dropped this, due to the problems I had with inexperience with the engine I was working with.<\/p>\n

Checkpoints.\u00a0<\/strong>Many comments on my game’s page complain about the loss of their powerups once they make a tiny mistake. I had originally considered checkpoints, but they were dropped from the game, as I has no time left to implement them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am currently working on a post-compo version of Stykk, and I have cleaned up the code a lot, and I am also going to make it so you don’t lose your powerups on death, making it less frustrating. (I will also include the original behavior as a ‘rage mode’) \u00a0\":)\"<\/p>\n

Watch my entry page<\/a> for updates!<\/p>","time":"May 5th, 2013 4:25 pm","title":"Stykk \u2013 Postmortem!"}