{"author_name":"TriBeard","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367513160,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"42814","p_author":"TriBeard","p_authorkey":"20849","p_urlkey":"78449","p_title":"Type|FACE Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367513160","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"20849","us_name":"TriBeard","us_username":"tribeard","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"
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\"TypeFACE_SS_3\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Type|FACE was our first LD Jam, and it went really well. We’ll certainly be back for another go at it! This team had never worked together before, and so naturally we’re very proud of what we managed to create.<\/div>\n
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Most\u00a0importantly, we’re going to continue to work on Type|FACE and turn it into a fully featured game. This is by far the greatest gift that the LD\u00a0competition\u00a0has given us.<\/div>\n
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THE GOOD<\/b><\/div>\n
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    • We didn’t waste any time moaning about the theme, even though we all knew it wasn’t what we were hoping for. We took the theme as a\u00a0challenge\u00a0and tried our best to match our\u00a0skill sets to what we thought would be a fun game.<\/li>\n
    • We agreed upon a deadline for a game idea. This prevented us from wasting too much time throwing around crazy ideas, leaving not enough time to implement them. We quickly formulated a few ideas, and took a vote. From there, we did a good job planning out what we needed from just a handful of game sketches and quick chats.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/ul>\n
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      • Once we had a plan, we kept a very close eye on our priorities as the project progressed. We did things in the right order, and built up the game in logical chunks.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n
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          • No feature creep! We were ruthless on feature creep. Did the game\u00a0need<\/b>\u00a0a particular feature to be a game? If it didn’t, it was quickly culled.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/ul>\n
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            • Our music guy was excellent – with only the smallest amount of direction we got a perfect track in a small amount of time. Easily the single biggest ‘bang for buck’ in the project.<\/li>\n
            • We worked hard to get a playable build up and running as soon as possible. The game was fully playable on the morning of day 2.<\/li>\n
            • While we did work hard, we were also careful not to get too stressed. We ate properly, took breaks and had a proper sleep pattern. We knew we’d be more\u00a0productive\u00a0this way.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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              THE BAD<\/b><\/div>\n
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                • Unexpected sickness! Our lead coder was hit with a serious\u00a0migraine\u00a0on the final day. This meant we had to cut some features that we considered essential. Naturally this was very\u00a0disappointing, but we’re still proud of what we\u00a0achieved\u00a0in the time. The only way to mitigate this is for other\u00a0members\u00a0of the team to become more multi-skilled – leading to our next point.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/ul>\n
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                  • The original intention was that our designer, Chris, would be able to pick up some of the slack coding\u00a0simpler\u00a0ancillary features in the game. However, due to the nature of the game, Chris wasn’t really able to do much code wise in this project. Hopefully in a more ‘traditional’ game, and with more experience, we\u00a0hope\u00a0this will balance out in time.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n
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                      • All of the team were in the same flat in Sweden, except for Chris who is UK based. While Skype, Google Drive and Subversion make it pretty easy to work this way, there are limits. The most obvious example being the limited interaction between Chris and Anton, the artist on the project. If they had been in the same room, ideas could have been\u00a0conveyed\u00a0much faster, and it would have given them both more to do during down time, while waiting for critical features to be implemented. Next time, we will make sure to all work from the same location.<\/li>\n
                      • Not enough blogging! After finishing the game and looking back over what we had done – we realised we had documented nearly none of the creation. While this didn’t directly effect the game, it’s a real shame we don’t have more to look back upon during the creation of the game. Next time, we’ll make sure to make much more frequent updates, take\u00a0pictures\u00a0and\u00a0generally\u00a0contribute\u00a0to the community at large.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/ul>\n
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                        • Not everyone in the project had Visual Studio, meaning one of the coders would have to copy out builds\u00a0every\u00a0now and then for testing. The project was small, and this wasn’t a massive hardship. However next time it would be worth the time automating the process to\u00a0maximize\u00a0time spent actually developing the game.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n

                          Until next time!<\/p>\n

                          \/TriBeard<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n

                          Tags: LD #26<\/a><\/p>","time":"May 2nd, 2013 11:46 am","title":"Type|FACE Post Mortem"}