I am learning things!  In this, my first Ludum Dare!  (Take a drink?)

This probably won’t be a proper postmortem.  I’ve never written one, but I do think quite a bit about things I’ve done, so here.  we.  are.

Things that went wrong-ish: should have allowed more time to properly flesh out the concept.  As I mention on the game page, I was indisposed for a large portion of this weekend, but… I figured, if I had something built that I was relatively proud of by the time the 48-hour period ended, I might as well submit; no?  Maybe you, my audience, would have been better served by a spill over into the jam, but what are jams for if not to challenge oneself and expand experiential boundaries?

I used Construct 2, which I’d never used before other than to assemble a sample game from a tutorial earlier last week, and found it to be more helpful than restrictive.  I almost certainly would not have been able to get things up and running so quickly without it, but also ran into some relatively severe limits to either the product itself or my knowledge of the product (most likely the latter).  What should have been seemingly simple sprite collisions were totally all like, “wait, what brosef?”

So back to time as a factor: I furiously pounded URLs into fields screaming, “SUBMIT, YOU MONSTER!” as the clock for preparation time counted down to zero.  Then I realized a timer for submission had an hour left on it and cackled as would a maniac.

Spoilers?  There might be spoilers coming up here.  Actually, I think I’m about to spoil what didn’t make it into the game, but that might spoil a little bit of what did, so you decide if you want to keep reading before playing!

“Oh no, don’t.  Stop reading.  Ahhhh.”

I wanted to explore a little more; I envisioned a sunrise paired with music.  I wanted to wander through the thoughts of the character with a little more abandon.  I wanted to visually represent the people speaking in the narrator.  I think I will, but probably not for another twenty days or so.

I have this nagging feeling, which has become a fear, that I have “ripped-off” this concept; that I have seen this very game before in passing and internalized it in such a way as to not recognize the idea as belonging to someone other than myself.  I seek comfort in the knowledge that the game is populated with the thoughts and feelings of my character, and not someone else’s.

 So did anything actually go right?

Some things did!  For one: you people!

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing, rating, and commenting on the contributions of others.

I have also enjoyed reading comments on one life.  After a while I started to view the game as sort of a fun social experiment: it’s fascinating, the different ways people play and interpret.   It brightens my day to know that others have laughed, or contemplated, or maybe even a gotten a little angry, and this community seems fantastic.

The game’s nowhere near perfect, but I am happy with my submission, which with any luck will be the first of many.  Nice meeting all of you.