{"author_name":"zazery","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367351760,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"42933","p_author":"zazery","p_authorkey":"2362","p_urlkey":"78568","p_title":"The Side Factor (Jam)","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367351760","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"2362","us_name":"zazery","us_username":"zazery","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"

The Side Factor is a\u00a0local 2 player turn based strategy game. It explores the idea of creating a strategy game with a minimal number of unit types, in this case only 1. The core mechanic is shooting through things.<\/p>\n

What went right<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Paper prototyping<\/strong> – We used a Chess board and some folded pieces of pape<\/a>r\u00a0<\/span>to iterate over the concept of shooting through things. Originally we played with a rule that you could capture enemy pieces by straddling it on both sides and shooting through it. That was\u00a0abandoned\u00a0in favour of gameplay where players never lost any pieces.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Audio design<\/strong>\u00a0– One of the reasons why I entered the jam instead of the compo was to work with a fantastic audio designer, Gordon McGladdery. I spent a lot of time implementing it and adjusting the animations so it felt right.<\/li>\n
  3. Visual design & polish<\/strong> – Gameplay was completed on Sunday so I spent all of Monday polishing it. It’s one of the prettiest games I’ve made in a game jam. Below is a series of progress shots from the end of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.<\/li>\n <\/ol>\n

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

    <\/h3>\n

    What went wrong<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. The Theme<\/strong> – Minimalism is not a great theme when you assemble a team ahead of time to create a highly polished game. Instead of focusing on aesthetic minimalism we tried to explore it through gameplay. When I created the instructions on the website I realized even though there was one unit type the rules weren’t that compact.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Playtesting<\/strong> – It’s really difficult to playtest a 2 player game by yourself and writing an AI was out of the question.<\/li>\n
    3. Publishing on Android<\/strong> – One of my goals was to release this on the Google Play store. It runs surprisingly well on my Nexus S but still needs some optimizations, buttons need to be bigger, and support for different aspect ratios. It’s still in the cards but a post jam version with playtesting and tweaks instead.<\/li>\n <\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Play Now (Unity web \u2013\u00a0Mac\/Win\/Linux binaries too!)<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

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

      Tags: jam<\/a>, multiplayer<\/a>, unity3d<\/a>, vs<\/a><\/p>","time":"April 30th, 2013 2:56 pm","title":"The Side Factor (Jam)"}