So, that’s it, this frantic weekend is over, and live from a train, I’m going to give you some thoughts about how the making of my entry went.

What went right :

• The coding itself. Once again, I used python, and everything went smoothly. Not having to spend time working around language limitations was a huge advantage, and helped me stay focused on getting things working.
• Using a new engine (Panda3D). Prior to LD20, I had never used Panda3D for more than just fooling around and display a couple of objects. But once again (as with pygame last time), the Ludum Dare constraints helped me to just take the plunge and get to grip with the engine. This learning aspect is probably the best thing about LD compos from my point of view.
• Time management. I’m really, really happy with how that turned out. I managed to get almost everything I had envisionned done, and even had time to record two tracks for use in-game. I had a good night sleep, and managed to spend some time with my girlfriend. And that’s with the first 8 hours or so of the compo lost to night and a japanese exam. So all in all it went well.

What went wrong :

• The packaging… Once more, I found out that packaging wasn’t as straightforward as I had hoped. Though a helpful comment prior to the weekend had made me research packaging means beforehand, I still find that packages don’t work as expected. For example, the easy windows installer present you with a “run the game” option that just doesn’t work. It’s a bit frustrating, really… For the record I may try a web-based game next time, Flash maybe (that is, if I can lake myself a nice dev environment on Linux… any tips ?)
• Making the game fail beautifully. Even though almost all of the planned features made it into the final release, I failed miserably to include any kind of checks to see if, for examples, shaders were available on the user’s GPU.
• Sticking to the theme. The problem was two-fold. First, I wasn’t inspired much by it. And second, I had a game idea of which OUT OF HERE is  a prototype in my head for a couple of week. The first reason then quickly became a justification to just go with that idea and simply try to somehow shoehorn the theme into the game. But well, at least I know have a prototype I can build upon. The code is really short, so tidying up shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

That’s it. Once again, Ludum Dare has been a blast (which means I’ll definitely be there next time around), and a tremendous opportunity to learn and, basically,  just go and make a game. All in all I’m quite happy with the end result, and while it’s not breaking any new ground, it gave me confidence that the much broader idea I have should be, basically a fun game.

Thanks to everyone for all the motivational/informative blog posts and project updates, I’m looking forward to continuing rating games until time runs out ! Here’s mine if you want to do the same. Cheers !