{"author_name":"jwueller","cat":"LD #22","comments":[],"epoch":1324689900,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"60038","p_author":"jwueller","p_authorkey":"509127","p_urlkey":"95790","p_title":"Obligatory Post Mortem Post: LEFTalone","p_cat":"LD #22","p_event":"LD22","p_time":"1324689900","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"509127","us_name":"jwueller","us_username":"jwueller","event_start":"1323993600","event_key":"8","event_name":"LD22"},"text":"<p>So this is it. This was my first time participating in Ludum Dare, and it is definitely not going to be the last time! It was incredibly stressful, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Wow. Thanks for the great experience everybody!<\/p>\n <p>I am very proud of the result.<br \/>\n We are talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-22\/?action=rate&amp;uid=5895\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a>.<\/p>\n <p><strong>The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><em>The idea<\/em> \u2014 I had a pretty strong image of what I wanted to do in my head. It wasn&#8217;t very innovative, but I was sure not to stumble into a situation that I did not know how to get out of.<\/li>\n <li><em>The language<\/em> \u2014 Using C++\/SFML has been great. I considered using HTML5\/JavaScript at the beginning, but now I am very happy that I changed my mind. Everything went smoothly and none of the expected cross-platform issues arose (even though I did not have the time to package it for Linux, yet).<\/li>\n <li><em>The tools<\/em> \u2014 I used Photoshop for graphics, SFXR for sound effects and the NetBeans IDE. I did not have trouble with any of them. Everything worked like a charm.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><em>The time management (who would have expected that?)<\/em> \u2014 Everything went nice until I hit a very ugly bug in my collision\/line-of-sight-detection system and got stuck. That caused me to loose many hours, resulting in limited content. I should have skipped it to deal with it at a later moment in time.<\/li>\n <li><em>The planning<\/em> \u2014 I should have laid out more of the game before starting. I had to re-do my map system after discovering that it simply would not be fast enough to edit the map in Photoshop. I could have avoided that by realizing that a tile-engine would fit my needs best at the very beginning.<\/li>\n <li><em>The communication<\/em> \u2014 Even though the IRC was permanently running on my second screen, I totally missed to socialize with other participants. I also planned to post status updates with screenshots on the blog, but that did not happen either. This will change next time!<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Nonetheless, I am really happy with how everything turned out. I could adjust my path in time, so that the game ended up being fully playable, even though some planned content was missing.<\/p>\n <p>Please feel free to play and rate my entry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-22\/?action=rate&amp;uid=5895\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>! <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n <p>Finally, here is my timelapse for this LD:<br \/>\n <iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Kmvyd6zGW0?fs=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n <p>Also, NO DAMN KITTY IN MY GAME!<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/leftalone\/\" rel=\"tag\">LEFTalone<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/timelapse\/\" rel=\"tag\">timelapse<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 23rd, 2011 8:25 pm","title":"Obligatory Post Mortem Post: LEFTalone"}