{"author_name":"enfyrneaux","cat":"LD #25","comments":[],"epoch":1355767440,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"47671","p_author":"enfyrneaux","p_authorkey":"11040","p_urlkey":"83336","p_title":"Flight of the Abductor, post mortem","p_cat":"LD #25","p_event":"LD25","p_time":"1355767440","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"11040","us_name":"enfyrneaux","us_username":"enfyrneaux","event_start":"1355443200","event_key":"14","event_name":"LD25"},"text":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-25\/?action=preview&amp;uid=11040\">Play it here, if you haven&#8217;t already.<\/a><\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>What went well:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><span style=\"line-height: 13px\">Using Box2D with libGDX. \u00a0It was so easy that I&#8217;m almost ashamed I didn&#8217;t try it sooner.<\/span><\/li>\n <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecircuitcenter.com\/Circuits\/pid1\/pid1.htm\">PID controllers<\/a>. \u00a0The thought occurred to me from my engineering courses and I&#8217;m still surprised at how well they worked. \u00a0Three of them are used in controlling the saucer (tilt, torque, thrust), and each <del>victim<\/del> goat has one for tractor beam simulation. The camera class uses one, too.<\/li>\n <li>The little noises from the saucer? \u00a0I used my <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/reads-as-gollum\">Gollum impression (yes, that&#8217;s me)<\/a>\u00a0and ran it through GoldWave&#8217;s mechanize filter.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>What didn&#8217;t:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><span style=\"line-height: 13px\">An unfinished enemy (fighter jet) that was to chase the saucer around. \u00a0The code as it exists now is so hilariously unstable that it made the game nearly unplayable. \u00a0With an hour left in the compo, I had to cut it out.<\/span><\/li>\n <li>The beam visual effect. \u00a0Again, had the sprite done, didn&#8217;t have the time to get it in.<\/li>\n <li>Way too much time trying to get the terrain shader code to work&#8230;when the real problem was in how I was assembling the mesh.<\/li>\n <li>As mentioned in the comments, it definitely is more of a toy than a game right now. \u00a0The timer and score counter were quite literally added in the last minute of development.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>(As requested) Accelerometer-based control for the Android version.<\/li>\n <li>Better visuals. \u00a0Actually winnable gameplay.<\/li>\n <li>More victims. \u00a0And enemies.<\/li>\n <li>Google Play release&#8230;and Ouya, whenever it comes out.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 17th, 2012 1:04 pm","title":"Flight of the Abductor, post mortem"}