It was a long haul, but I’m glad to say that I actually finished my first Ludum Dare about 45 minutes ago.

I made Armageddon Moochery, a game where you act all heroic to mooch stuff off of other people. I thought it was a nifty idea, and I’m happy with how the finished product turned out. Bad code though. It isn’t the worst code I’ve ever written, but it comes close.

That being said, I’ve learned a few things for next time:

• I needed to have a better, more solid idea for the model for the game. All the entities are reaching all over the code because I didn’t have a strong concept of how to organize conversations. If I did it again, I’d probably have swappable controller classes for switching between walking and conversation states. As it is, the controlling code for the conversation is half in the player and half in the townsperson who is being talked to, and the controlling code for the walking state is all over the place. Not really sure if it would be overkill to do this, but I might give it a shot next time.
• I started with graphics that I thought were really simple, at 32×32. I soon realized that if I wanted to finish the project, I would have to simplify the graphics further – I’m not much of an artist anyway, but I was spending a lot of my time trying to draw tons of walking frames. When I simplified the basic character model, it got way easier to create a much more diverse cast.
• I’d like to do music next time. If I follow my plan and don’t waste my time with simple graphics, I’ll probably be able to squeeze some music composition into the next try.

But holy crap. I haven’t finished a self-directed project in years.

I’m totally sold on Ludum Dare. I’m balls tired, but it was totally worth it.