For my third LD I knew from the beginning that I would have less than one full day to complete the game. Knowing that, I first planned not to join, but when I saw the theme I thought that I should at least be able to do something small.

Again my weapon of choice was AS3 and low res pixel graphics. This time I tried out FlashPunk (thanks to Sos’s framework posted earlier) and even if I used very little FP code I was quite happy with my choice.

All together it turned out more or less like I imagined it to be. If you haven’t played it I strongly suggest you do so before reading any further as the game is quite spolier fragile. Feel free to try the game here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=rate&uid=608

What went wrong
– story
I wanted to really put the player into the action and let the player imagine what had happened before for herself. This had could been done a lot better and I’m not happy with the intro and outro texts at all. They worked, but nothing more. I think better texts could have emphasized the point of the game and the players’ reactions even more.

– framework code
I hadn’t used FP before so when I found out that Sos had posted a quick and dirty platformer framework I decided to use it right away. The framework was good for most parts (thanks Sos!) but there where some minor glitches that stopped me from adding some of the polish I wanted in the end. Since there is so little platforming actually in the game I might have been better off writing it from scratch.

– not much
I tried to think of a third thing that didn’t work out but failed. I didn’t eat very much, but that was expected. Next time I really should take more breaks and eat better – pomodoro style!

Base functionality complete! Time for graphics!

What went right
– scope
Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to pull any all nighters I decided to try something very special and short instead of generic and large. Usually I want to make levels after level, but this time I was smart enough to realize my weaknesses and use them as strengths.

– graphics
While I usually dabble with pixel graphics, I wanted to try a new style this time. Normally I’m very much about child-like proportions, big eyes, and black outlines. In BATHOS I aimed for a realistic style in order to make it feel more real. Wether I actually achieved the latter or not, I’m very happy with the looks of the game and it is something that I will surely use again.

– framework code
Although there were some minor kinks in the framework I used on top of FlashPunk it allowed me to dive straight into the game mechanics. This saved me a lot of time and I think it was the first time in many years that I didn’t write any engine code for a game. Big thanks to Sos and Chevy!

– the name
Reading the initial response I am very happy with positive comments, something which I am very grateful for. There are of course people who don’t like the game and/or hate the ending, which it why I named it BATHOS ( = anti-climax ).

Final look of the first room.

On a final note, let me recommend WolframTones for quick music. It requires some clicking to get the desired result, but it beats composing for a musical newbie like me.

And that’s it! I’m really loking forward to try the entries of this LD, a lot of great looking entries. Extra kudos to Phil and PoV for putting in the extra time and effort to keep the site running – thanks a million!

Tags: postmortem, screenshot