{"author_name":"The Jahn","cat":"LD #24","comments":[{"author_name":"johnfn","time":"August 27, 2012 11:52 pm","epoch":1346129520,"text":"Your game was fun! You should keep working at it.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1346125320,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"51739","p_author":"The Jahn","p_authorkey":"2485","p_urlkey":"87434","p_title":"\u201cModula\u201d Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346125320","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"2485","us_name":"The Jahn","us_username":"the-jahn","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"<h2>The idea :<\/h2>\n <p>A vertical SHMUP with procedurally-generated enemies undergoing natural selection.<\/p>\n <h2>What went right?<\/h2>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Planning<\/strong> : I had a solid idea of where I wanted to go with the game from the start &#8211; I followed through with that idea to the end, only changing the cosmetics of it.<\/li>\n <li><strong>Taking Risks<\/strong> : I&#8217;d never created a shmup, or implemented a genetic algorithm of any kind before. I didn&#8217;t fall back to my comfort zone when things got tough &#8211; I stuck with it and learned a lot in the process.<\/li>\n <li><strong>Implementation<\/strong> : I worked out what kinds of classes would be necessary for the game at the beginning, and implemented\/tested all of them before starting. This ground up approach helped me maintain a grasp on the scope.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <h2>What went wrong?<\/h2>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>Organization<\/strong> : It seems the deadline got the best of me, as towards the end I started throwing quick hacks into wherever I could to get things working. This resulted in a chaotic mess of unreadable code &#8211; code which probably could have saved me time working with if it had been more cleanly organized.<\/li>\n <li><strong>Playtesting<\/strong> : I got so caught up in finishing the game that I forgot the most important part &#8211; making sure it&#8217;s fun. I played the game, but only for the sake of debugging &#8211; not in the mindset of a player. This resulted in very unbalanced gameplay, and a poorly-executed difficulty curve.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Also, I forgot about autotracker. Definitely would have helped, as I had &#8220;musicians-block&#8221; all weekend.<\/p>\n <p style=\"text-align: left\">If you&#8217;re interested, you can play my game Modula <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-24\/?action=preview&amp;uid=2485\">here<\/a>.<\/p>","time":"August 27th, 2012 10:42 pm","title":"\u201cModula\u201d Post Mortem"}