{"author_name":"Andrew","cat":"LD #21","comments":[],"epoch":1314018900,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"63807","p_author":"Andrew","p_authorkey":"5432","p_urlkey":"99592","p_title":"Urth \u2013 looking back on the last 2 days","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1314018900","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5432","us_name":"Andrew","us_username":"andrew-2","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"

PLAY<\/a>\u00a0~ VIEW PAGE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was an intense couple of days<\/strong>, and felt more like a week had passed. It being my first ludum dare I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve made games before, and I’ve made games with deadlines before, but the ones I’ve finished were not much.<\/p>\n

As the time of the theme’s announcement came closer<\/strong> I wasn’t worried too much, I had some vague ideas on some types of games to do. One game could fit several themes. Then the theme was announced: escape! I have to admit that this was one of the themes I overlooked in my mental preparation as I assumed people will want to avoid a pile of room escape games. I didn’t want to do a\u00a0platformer\u00a0because I assumed that there will be enough little jumping men and floating platforms from other competitors. So I sat down<\/del>\u00a0started pacing around the whole house and tried to think what I’d like to escape from: cities came to mind, then I thought that’s too much of a cliche since the whole world would want the same. Now that’s an Idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"

First let's get them spinning<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0First thing’s first in an orbit-based game<\/strong>: get the orbit working. That worked easily enough.\u00a0Geting them spinning around eachother was trickier though.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Then get them spinning around eachother<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The coding went a lot more smoothly than I had anticipated<\/strong>, the only slight issue was in switching orbits where Urth (I’ve been told repeatedly that it looked like a hairy circle in its first incarnation) would randomly teleport around.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Probably my favorite level<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the end of day one<\/strong> I had 6 finished levels and escape mode. There were still no menus, no sounds, no interface of any\u00a0recognizable\u00a0sort, and at this point I hadn’t slept for well over 24 hours, not due to a lack of trying though. I’d sit in my bed, lights off and sleep wouldn’t happen. Instead what happened were the storyline overlays. Then sleep happened.<\/p>\n

Day two<\/strong>\u00a0started with implementing some suggestions from preliminary testing, adding the artwork, doing the menus, and generally improving the\u00a0game play\u00a0experience.<\/p>\n

Music and sounds<\/strong> were a headache. I rarely add sounds to projects, so this was mostly new and uncharted territory. Some fumbling with lmms wasted several hours, so I just went and picked up my dusty old mandolin (no I can’t actually play it other than one song: Planxty Irwin) and banged and pinched on it (the sound effects) until I eventually managed a slow tune (the music). Some tweaking in audacity made it bearable to listen to.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ready for my world tour, fetch my manager!<\/p><\/div>\n

With that out of the way<\/strong> I still had some hours to spare. Since I became addicted to the Escape game mode, and would play it repeatedly for minutes on end instead of doing actual work I decided to make a high score table so others can show off their planetary avoidance skills. This only works in the applet though, the compiled versions will save your scores in a text file.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Escape this if you can<\/p><\/div>\n

To conclude, some advice:<\/strong><\/p>\n