Another one bites the dust, i’m afraid…

Don’t use untried middleware, I added several peices of the engine recently which I’d never used in anger and its showed, simple AI tooks ages as the new interaction and systems I’d used which should have made it easier, didn’t due to lack of experience and now hit a similar issue with some effects to mark various spells.

Work out how to win/lose early… When I thought up the idea (you have to convert the villagers to worship you, so your not alone) I never really thought to hard on win/lose, the obvious “have another god competing” clearly would need a lot of AI which just wasn’t going to happen. I never quite found a substitute, I added a mechanic that your so hidous that if your followers see you, the laugh and stop following you but thats not enough.

Game design and implementation are a muscle, they need practise. All of us who have entered Ludum Dare are like Olympic athletes, you have to practice, exercise, lose sometime but dust off and go again.

This is my third time, and both this time and the last one I didn’t finish however I can feel I’m getting better at designing at speed to unknown ideas, but still I have to learn to design something I can finish in time.

NEXT TIME Ludum Dare NEXT TIME!

And one (unused action shot!)

Slimer on a stick of fire