{"author_name":"Fadobo","cat":"LD #24","comments":[],"epoch":1346065860,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"51911","p_author":"Fadobo","p_authorkey":"15165","p_urlkey":"87609","p_title":"Catching Life \u2013 First ever LD Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346065860","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"15165","us_name":"Fadobo","us_username":"fadobo","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"

Even though I was more looking at the Jam in the beginning, I tried to stick to the compo rules and actually succeeded!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

-Coding proceeded way faster then expected. I aimed low (threw away the idea of randomly generated universes pretty quickly) and had no unexpected problems. I’m not really good at math, so I expected many problems with orbits and rotations, but everything went smooth.<\/p>\n

-Gameplay finished by Saturday night. I got that suggestion from the LD subreddit and tried to crunch in as much as possible on Sat. While some important features (time, wining\/losing, score) weren’t finished by then, it left enough room to finish the game up during Sunday.<\/p>\n

-Visuals turned out “ok” especially for my non-existing skills as an artist.<\/p>\n

-Time was biggest fear in the beginning but even though I was out on Saturday for a couple of \u00a0hours, I was able to finish Sunday night by midnight CEST (three hours before the compo ends)<\/p>\n

What went wrong:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

-I started out with a different resolution and halfway through I realized that the screen didn’t stretch properly when I ran the game in fullscreen. I upped the resolution to a higher, more common resolution, but so much was hard-coded that I couldn’t change the planet sizes anymore, which made them very small in the final game.<\/p>\n

-Collision was a bit tricky, because I forgot that the rectangle around a sprite doesn’t rotate with it, making the collision between the rocket and a planet really wonky. I ended up adding a small 2×2 px hitbox, which orbits around the rectangle’s origin to (almost) match up with the tip of the rocket. Again, this process went much smoother \/ faster than expected.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I aimed low from the beginning, but considering this is the first Ludum Dare and the second game I ever completed, I am very proud of the result. It was also great hanging out with everybody in the IRC and seeing other games develop and everybody being really passionate. It was a great experience that was totally worth a weekend of hard work and little sleep, keeping me excited all the way through. I am looking forward to December!<\/p>\n

I am sorry the game only runs in Windows and has to be installed, but XNA 4.0 is the only framework I am really comfortable with. I will try porting to Linux \/ Mac with MonoGame in the next couple of days, but I am not sure how that will turn out.<\/p>\n

I want to thank the makers of Gimp, Aseprite, sfxr and Microsoft (Visual Studio \/ XNA) for putting out such great tools FOR FREE that allow guys like me to get creative.<\/p>\n

You can find the game here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-24\/?action=preview&uid=15165<\/a><\/p>\n

There is also a short gameplay video on YouTube here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=U47zYXkmyyY&feature=plcp<\/a><\/p>","time":"August 27th, 2012 6:11 am","title":"Catching Life \u2013 First ever LD Post Mortem"}