{"author_name":"AtkinsSJ","cat":"LD #16 - Exploration - 2009","comments":[],"epoch":1261056900,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"71702","p_author":"AtkinsSJ","p_authorkey":"1049","p_urlkey":"107524","p_title":"Boboil goes Exploring: Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #16 - Exploration - 2009","p_event":"LD16","p_time":"1261056900","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"1049","us_name":"AtkinsSJ","us_username":"atkinssj","event_start":"1260489600","event_key":"2","event_name":"LD16"},"text":"<p>LD16 was a lot of fun, despite continually running into killer bugs that took ages to fix.<\/p>\n <p><strong>What went well:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I managed to pull it all together in the last couple of hours and actually end-up with a game. I very nearly didn&#8217;t.<\/li>\n <li>People seem to like it, too! Didn&#8217;t expect that one.<\/li>\n <li>After releasing, I managed to locate and destroy one last memory leak. Otherwise it would have been unplayable.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What went badly:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The aforementioned bugs.I probably spent at least a third of the time I was working on the game trying to fix memory leaks, infinite loops, and the like. These were often related to&#8230;<\/li>\n <li>I didn&#8217;t prepare. DESPITE knowing very well that I needed to get a basic framework, in the end I was just too lazy, and started the compo even without most of the libraries I needed.<\/li>\n <li>I didn&#8217;t spend enough time at the start thinking about what my game would be. Instead, I charged ahead with a turn- and tile-based engine, assuming I&#8217;d think of something later. Fortunately I did, and the idea was reasonably fun.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What I would improve:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>There are still a couple of glitches &#8211; one is that sometimes monsters manage to get on the same tile as you and you can&#8217;t attack them &#8211; not sure why.<\/li>\n <li>The view is too small. This is mostly so I could avoid trying to do any ray-casting and what-have-you. Though since I let you see monsters for an extra tile away, you can still see through walls. Whoops.<\/li>\n <li>You automatically climb down ladders, which isn&#8217;t ideal. In fact, I think I accidentally left it so that you&#8217;ll go down a ladder if you attack a monster which is standing on it. I ran out of time, and it was easier to code like this. Sorry!<\/li>\n <li>I had ideas for more things you could &#8216;explore&#8217; and earn XP from &#8211; such as each time you come across a new animal or plant. But I never got time for it.<\/li>\n <li>The difficulty increase is really naff. Or at least, what&#8217;s meant to increase the difficulty &#8211; each time you go down a level, the monsters get +1 to attack, defence, and hp. But each time you level up, which can occur 2 or 3 times per level, you get +2 max hp, are fully healed, and your attack and defence increase by 1. So it&#8217;s very, very easy to quickly outpace the monsters. I didn&#8217;t take the time to balance it, as it was about 1:30 am by then, so yeah.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>Final notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I do have some ideas for expanding it, and I hope I actually get around to doing so this time. I think I will do, as I&#8217;ve wanted to make a roguelike for a long while, and after I lost all the code to my other one (Nooooooo!) this is a good opportunity to get back into it.<\/li>\n <li>Hanging out in #ludumdare made the whole thing a lot more fun, even when it seemed I would end the competition with only a mediocre level-generator. \ud83d\ude00<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 17th, 2009 8:35 am","title":"Boboil goes Exploring: Post Mortem"}