Ludum Dare 24 started nearly a week ago, enough time to think it through and
\n write up the postmortem for “Literally: Earth Shaping”. This was my second LD
\n and overall I am very happy with how it progressed. The final result was not
\n much of a game this time, but I am much happier about the process than last time.<\/p>\n
I spent the week before this Ludum Dare refamilarise myself with Java and
\n learning LWJGL. I started the compo with an engine that could draw textured
\n sprites and play sounds. I could also present menus that produced satisfying
\n click sounds. This start spring boarded me forward at the start of the compo,it
\n really gave me a good boost considering the theme.<\/p>\n
I discovered Pixen in the aftermath of LD22. It is probably the best dedicated
\n pixel art tools on OS X. Pixen is quite limited in its ability, as an example
\n you cant set a colour scheme to use across multiple files. In the end it is a really
\n useful tool.<\/p>\n
So I built my own engine and it was a really good idea. There was one issue that
\n cropped up over and over again though. I used integers to store the location of
\n Entity’s. This made life really difficult when it came to moving things around
\n the screen. If anything hit (0,0) then it would never move again. <\/p>\n
Overall my use of types in java was a constant issue. I used floats all over the
\n place. In reality floats should have been a cast down from a double in the
\n OpenGL calls and not used anywhere else. Java is silent about casting between
\n faults in certain cases, this coupled with the pressure of the compo made life
\n a night mare.<\/p>\n
While Pixen was a brilliant tool for the art I needed it was not at the latest
\n version until about halfway into the compo. I has a crash just after finishing
\n the “Play” button and lost about an hour of work. When this happened I decided
\n to find and install any pixen updates. The updated pixen was a mile better and
\n I managed to created the play button in about 20 minutes. The lesson here is to
\n make sure your tools are up to date before the start, you will be able to work
\n a lot faster.<\/p>\n
In the 48 hours I had maybe 3 hours sleep. This is against the popular wisdom,
\n but I was good on my first LD and I wanted to see how this would go. Starting
\n straight out was a good idea, but I should have taken advantage of Saturday
\n night. Sleep is good for you.<\/p>\n
48 hours is really not enough time to think thoroughly through and implement
\n complex game mechanics. I have definitely learnt that lesson now, its just a
\n shame I had to use this LD to figure it out. I started with good yet complex
\n ideas, but instead of implementing just enough to get going I did the whole
\n thing in one fell swoop. If I had only included two or three of these ideas I
\n could have created much more of an accomplished game.<\/p>\n
I really did not know how to use SFXR at the out set and that never really
\n improved. I also have no real skill in sound creation and so didn’t get around to
\n creating a sound track. Something to definitely fix for the next LD.<\/p>\n
I wish I had taken better advantage of version control and other tools. This
\n would have given me data to create some awesome graphs in the aftermath of
\n Ludum Dare.<\/p>","time":"August 31st, 2012 10:25 am","title":"Ludum Dare 24 Postmortem"}