I would love to get some more feedback on my game, and I’m hoping to reach at least 50 by the end of today. I will play and rate yours in return, if I haven’t already done so.

Excited about the results tomorrow!

Square Peg Round Hole

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THE POST MORTEM:

What went well:

• I finished a game! After 3 previously failed Ludum Dare attempts, I finally made something that can be considered a complete game in 48 hours. I had only submitted once before, and that was a terribly unfinished game for LD32, so to finally have something to submit that I’m actually quite pleased with is a wonderful accomplishment, and a win in itself.
• Time management. I was able to follow my plan and have a working skeleton of a game after day 1. This was my plan, so I could spend day 2 adding some flair to the game – sounds, particle effects and a few more features that would make the game better.
• Kept things simple. I didn’t try to do too much. The idea I came up with was a rather simple one, and this meant I was able to focus more on gameplay than just trying to make everything work. I also kept the graphical assets to a bare minimum, considering I genuinely stink at making graphics.

What I need to improve:

• The tutorial I made for the game was/is a mess. I think I confuse people more than I help them understand the game. Being tired and worried people wouldn’t understand I tried too hard to explain everything in large blocks of text. Don’t do that again!
• Sleep. Well, I haven’t slept well in years… suffering from insomnia, so being excited about the upcoming Ludum Dare didn’t make things better. I had really wanted to get some Z’s taken care of before it started, but it was not to be. Still, I fought through it and actually managed to stay relatively focused.
• There were a couple of sloppy bugs when I submitted. Again, lack of sleep is the culprit. I had turned off checks for playtesting purposes, and forgot to turn them back on before I submitted, and I had missed a couple of variable changes on the colors, which meant you couldn’t play the color cards on the correct colors after shapeshifting. Couldn’t leave it like that, so I had to update at least the web version.

Square Peg Round Hole – Plans:

I will do a couple of additions to the game after the results are in. I want to add a High Score to the game, as well as do some balancing. There’s a little too much luck involved, rather than strategy.

My plan is to make it so it is more likely that you get the more useful cards (those that can be played on any peg, or at least those that only require a specific color or shape). The cards that require both a specific shape and color are way too prominent, and very hard to get an opportunity to play. I may also make it so that cards can be played on the blocks as well as the pegs, which gives you more opportunities to change things up. I’ll have to see where the balance ends up… because the game still needs to be challenging. What I want is for the player to feel like they have options, though, at all times. No more half-heartedly waiting for the timer to run out and take the hit – hoping that the new batch of pegs will match what you need.

Also – I need to do something about that awful tutorial!

After that, I believe this will be the end of this game. It will remain on itch.io as a free-to-play game. I doubt that there’s a market for sales for this type of game. It is more the kind of game that you can play when you got 15 minutes to kill before you go somewhere, or something. I have considered a mobile version of it, and there might be a small market for sales there… but would also require more work to make it compatible.

End Notes:

I am very pleased with the whole experience so far this Ludum Dare. I’m learning a lot, and I’m getting invaluable experience. I can’t wait for the next one, and hopefully I’ll be able to make an even better game next time.

Thank You to all who have commented and given constructive criticism on my game. I am one of those who genuinely appreciate it when you do. If you don’t like something, please let me know – but make sure you explain WHY you don’t like it, and HOW you think it could’ve been improved. Some things come down to personal taste, while other things are just plain ol’ right or wrong. I learned my mistake about the tutorial from the comments. Many have been confused as they start playing, but seem to generally like it when they start to understand what they are doing. That right there – that’s a situation where I was unquestionably in the wrong at how I did the tutorial. Lesson learned!

Keep voting! Keep playing!

…and most of all – Keep Having FUN!