{"author_name":"RipX","cat":"LD #21","comments":[],"epoch":1314152700,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"63657","p_author":"RipX","p_authorkey":"5896","p_urlkey":"99442","p_title":"Escape the Flood \u2013 Post mortem","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1314152700","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5896","us_name":"RipX","us_username":"ripx","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/08\/21\/escape-the-flood\/ss001\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-68501\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-68501\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss001-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss001-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss001-550x412.jpg 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss001.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>When the LD48 v.21 competition started I was on the Loas border taking a short break with my girlfriend. I contemplated going home to Chiang Mai but insisted to myself that cutting my holiday short would probably mean that I was inevitably going to get killed and I&#8217;d spend the next six months trying to Escape the wrath of my better half. So, I figured I&#8217;d leave it and enter next time. Usually when I want to do something, nothing much stops me.<\/p>\n <p>I traveled from Chiang Khong on the border down to Chiang Mai, Thailand. A journey that took about 7 hours (4 of which I was chatting to a nice Swedish guy with a questionable hair piece) Anyway, I arrived back in Chiang Mai, got a taxi home and sat chatting to my work mate. The competition was well underway, so I didn&#8217;t think about it too much. I went over to my computer to see if anyone else had submitted games and couldn&#8217;t believe, there was a rook of entries already and I saw the keyword&#8230; That was it, 14 hours to go on the board&#8230; I need to make something. \ud83d\ude2e<\/p>\n <p>I needed an idea so I threw a couple around&#8230; &#8220;You need to escape from the government&#8221;, &#8220;You are a rioter, and need to escape from the police&#8221;, &#8220;You are dead and need to escape the afterlife&#8221;&#8230; you know, the non-sense ideas (Maybe the last one isn&#8217;t so non-sense) ^_^<\/p>\n <p>A few weeks ago, the same friend bought an xbox, the first game he bought for it was &#8220;From Dust&#8221;, a game I&#8217;d found through @photonstorm via twitter and keenly showed my friend. (I&#8217;m still yet to play it, although I have seen the gameplay). When thinking about escape games, it jumped into my mind and even though it was demanding to write a prototype of such a game in Flash, I had a full 14 hours&#8230; \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n <p>The result is here: <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/pCvKDo\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/pCvKDo<\/a><\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/08\/21\/escape-the-flood\/ss02-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-68502\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-68502\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss02-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/08\/21\/escape-the-flood\/ss03\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-68503\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-68503\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss03-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/08\/22\/final-update-to-my-game\/ss05\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-69033\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-69033 alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ss05-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>OK&#8230; The rights and the wrongs.<\/p>\n <p><strong>RIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>It&#8217;s visually quite impressive for Flash<\/li>\n <li>I got more that a single level in<\/li>\n <li>Its nice to play with as a sandbox<\/li>\n <li>The characters have different walk speeds and recovery rates<\/li>\n <li>The game is quite small due to some procedurally generated environments using fractals<\/li>\n <li>Environments look organic<\/li>\n <li>The point and click mechanism is nice for a 3D game in Flash<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>WRONGS<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The game is unbalanced for the requirements of this competition<\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;m getting feedback that the controls are quite difficult<\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;m getting feedback that the CPU usage on some machines is high<\/li>\n <li>The camera is not bound and can pass through the terrain<\/li>\n <li>Level design is generally poor<\/li>\n <li>Game mechanics are lacking<\/li>\n <li>UI is poor, because my FlashBuilder trial ran out and I would usually have used that<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>All in all, I&#8217;m happy&#8230;because I was able to build a working game in 26 hours (remember the 12 hour extension? Yes, I needed it all- no sleep for 35+ hours)!! I had super fun with the hallucinating finish where pixels were moving and I was thinking&#8230;&#8221;Hang on, I didn&#8217;t code that in??&#8221;)- I loved the spirit of the competition.<\/p>\n <p><strong>WHAT I&#8217;LL DO DIFFERENT<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>Yes, I have the bug so hopefully LD22 will see an entrr from me next time and I&#8217;ll be prepared&#8230; In fact, that&#8217;s my main tactic, organization. Get my workflow for all game elements ready and use the full term. I think I&#8217;ll probably prepare a screen cast since I saw some of Notches screencast and it&#8217;s probably good to read back to see if there are any constructive comments within the flame flood. Anyway, thank you LD for a fun time and see you at LD22.<\/p>\n <p>Peace<\/p>","time":"August 23rd, 2011 9:25 pm","title":"Escape the Flood \u2013 Post mortem"}