{"author_name":"johanp","cat":"LD #21","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"August 24, 2011 2:04 am","epoch":1314169440,"text":"You did a great job for the graphics \":)\" Love the style!
\n Thanks for your postmortem, and especially for the WolframTones link : I didn’t know this tool, this a MUST have for musical noobs like us!","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"August 24, 2011 2:24 am","epoch":1314170640,"text":"Woah, that’s a huge improvement in the graphics department. Post-mortems are good marketing, I’ll check this one out.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"August 24, 2011 5:08 am","epoch":1314180480,"text":"I’ll check this one out. It looks quite interesting.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"August 24, 2011 5:33 am","epoch":1314181980,"text":"I spent quite a while trying to figure this one out, great work! I especially like the realistic art style \ud83d\ude1b","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"August 24, 2011 6:41 am","epoch":1314186060,"text":"I really enjoyed it. I’m glad that you did push through and make a game.
\n And thanks for the tip on WolframTones! I didn’t know about that!","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1314166320,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"63650","p_author":"johanp","p_authorkey":"608","p_urlkey":"99435","p_title":"BATHOS \u2013 post mortem","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1314166320","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"6","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"608","us_name":"johanp","us_username":"johanp","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-21\/?action=rate&uid=608<\/a><\/p>\n

What went wrong<\/strong>
\n – story<\/em>
\n 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.<\/p>\n

– framework code<\/em>
\n 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.<\/p>\n

– not much<\/em>
\n 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!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Base functionality complete! Time for graphics!<\/p><\/div>\n

What went right<\/strong>
\n – scope<\/em>
\n 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.<\/p>\n

– graphics<\/em>
\n 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.<\/p>\n

– framework code<\/em>
\n 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!<\/p>\n

– the name
\n <\/em>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 ). \":)\"<\/p>\n

\"\"

Final look of the first room.<\/p><\/div>\n

On a final note, let me recommend WolframTones<\/a>\u00a0for quick music. It requires some clicking to get the desired result, but it beats composing for a musical newbie like me.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n \n

Tags: postmortem<\/a>, screenshot<\/a><\/p>","time":"August 24th, 2011 1:12 am","title":"BATHOS \u2013 post mortem"}