{"author_name":"Zelen3d","cat":"LD #24","comments":[],"epoch":1346632080,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"51543","p_author":"Zelen3d","p_authorkey":"13310","p_urlkey":"87237","p_title":"Evolution of the Flying Pinatas post-mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346632080","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"13310","us_name":"Zelen3d","us_username":"zelen3d","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"

Hello world!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PLAY MY GAME!!!!!!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

This was my first Ludum Dare and I made something I’m proud of. It just happened so that on the weekend when I decided to make a game in 48 hours, friends and family came from the whole world to see us, and unrelatedly, our local house of culture held a festival with free shows and free wine and cheese. Anyway, even if I couldn’t code all the time, I had fun. I wanted to submit to compo, but nothing was ready in time, so I “jammed”.<\/p>\n

After I finished my game and submitted it I have found out that my commitment is supposed to extend after the initial 48\/72 hours. After that there is testing and evaluating, wich is difficult work! I try to play each game as thouroughly as I can and give a nice constructive or encouraging comment. Some games that are flash or html5 are easy to test, since there is no downloading, others are more hard.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I have made a game about a Mexican that chases overgrown flies in a biotech laboratory with a bat, and candy falls out, so…<\/p>\n

I used html5\/javascript.<\/p>\n

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

–The Ludum Dare and its community<\/strong> : It is so awesome! I would have never done what I did without it! The IRC channel was pretty friendly when seeking advice. I have also seen some really great games out there, lots of innovation and lots of fun. Lots of great ideas.<\/p>\n

-Modular programming<\/strong> : This was the case or never that proved that modular programming and object orientation and inheritance was the way to go. I have passed most of the first day creating my “game engine” if you shall permit, made all the base “classes” (the base prototypes<\/strong> to be correct, but nobody would understand), and other boring work, but the last day was the day when I turned this everything into a “game”. The modularity of most of my code made it really easy to add stuff, and would make it really easy for me to extend the game!<\/p>\n

-Graphics<\/strong> : I have made a nice set of graphics, even if not totally complete, is well integrated, where no image that shouts out, or so it seems to me, but you can go and check \":)\"\u00a0\u00a0 …\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

-Flies reproducing<\/strong>: This is kinda’ related to modular programming, but the evolution system I made for the flies could be easily transformed to add more parameters or even to make a separate species.<\/p>\n

-Time lapse<\/strong>:<\/a> This may seem quite ordinary, but for me, viewing my time lapse seemed so empowering! Like watching your past self code in fast-mo!<\/p>\n

–My super-duper optimised javascript binary array grid manager<\/strong> that I made for the compo seemed to work really well. It makes things faster and more memory efficient by using typed arrays. You can find an explanation in my previous post: http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2012\/08\/23\/binary-data-in-javascript\/<\/a> I am thinking about submitting this to git-hub but I’m using mercurial, HELP!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

–I Got ideas late<\/strong> : the moment I saw the theme, my brain seemed to stop working. It took me roughly 24 hours to actually get the real idea. The first day I was actually just building a generic tile-based environment. Only when in the evening I got tired of doing math and started doing graphics, I got the flash for the idea I currently have.<\/p>\n

-Time <\/strong>: I didn’t have much time, and my timelapse showed that I spent part of my first day just watching videos and listening to music on Youtube. I should use time-management next time. And motivate myself with a great idea early.<\/p>\n

-Not really a game<\/strong> : well, even if it is a game, nothing happens if you kill all the flies. There is no end and, like, no beginning. I wanted to add an intro and something that happens at the end, or maybe a boss or something, but I didn’t have time.<\/p>\n

–No goal<\/strong> there are candies in the game but they give you nothing, yet.<\/p>\n

–No audio<\/strong> : I was going to add music. in fact, for the last few hours I was working on a song to add to the game. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it untill the next day, and then I also realized that adding music in html5 is still really complex.<\/p>\n

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What’s next:<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Music: <\/strong>I have my song already, but I should integrate it and see what people think, yet it is hard to make it optimally work on all browsers.<\/p>\n

-More evolution<\/strong> : making flies fly away from the player would be good. Also adding different types of flies.<\/p>\n

–Level system<\/strong> this would take some time to integrate, since I would need to redo the whole code.<\/p>\n

-More graphics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Would I be able to make a full game based on this? What I hoped was that Ludum Dare would push me on the path to eventually making a great game. For now on I play other peoples games.<\/p>\n

Play my game:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-24\/?action=preview&uid=13310 \u00a0<\/a> and comment and rate please.<\/p>","time":"September 2nd, 2012 7:28 pm","title":"Evolution of the Flying Pinatas post-mortem"}