Not that much of a fail

I can add a post to the site too? Wow, I really am new at this!

This is my first Ludum Dare, and I only really heard about it last year so am glad I was able to take part.

Unfortunately, due to my terrible organisational skills, I forgot which weekend it was (Fail #1).  When I got the email about Theme voting, I had already made plans to paint the kitchen and had no plans for offloading the other half for the weekend (Fail #2).  Not to worry, I can get up early and make a start before painting… I over slept… til about 10.30 GMT, some 9 hours after the theme was announced (Fail #3).  Then came the theme announcement – Shapeshift – the hell can I make with that!? I was stumped, and for 5 or so hours couldn’t think of ANYTHING to do with shapeshifting that was viable for me within the time limit (Fail #4).

Where am I going with this? I don’t really know. But with a third of the kitchen painted, I’d earned a “break” and started scribbling down ideas.  Eventually I settled on Origami – obvious, right? Too obvious? Too hard to Draw/Animate? All yes.  I returned to the kitchen to paint and try to think of what to do with this idea I finally had.  By midnight I had half a painted kitchen, 4 origami animals, and a neglected partner*..Sunday’s going to be tough.

After some breakfast and a return trip to the train station, I was left to my own devices.  I hit the kitchen hard and painted straight through to completion.  Great, now its 2PM and I have shopping to do (on a Sunday, 2 hours before closing, genius).   I finally sit down at the computer and throw sprites and code at a blank canvas hoping some of it will stick… and eventually, by 2AM GMT (with a 30 minute break for pizza!) I actually had something.

Was it good? No. Was it pretty? Sort of. But was it a game? Apparently so.

With literally no time to spare I compiled, tested, fixed, compiled, tested, tweaked, compiled, tested, swore, fixed, compiled, tested, and submitted “Golden Fold“.

With a nominal 13-15 hours spent on it, was it worth the hassle and stress?  Please vote and let me know :)

 

*In all seriousness, she was great. Fully supportive and frankly, happy to have me out of her hair for a while. Couldn’t have done it without her.

Tags: 2D, compo, game, LD35