{"author_name":"Green Soda","cat":"LD #37","comments":[],"epoch":1483070400,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"775","p_author":"Green Soda","p_authorkey":"64207","p_urlkey":"35623","p_title":"Gun Shop Loadout Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #37","p_event":"LD37","p_time":"1483070400","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"64207","us_name":"Green Soda","us_username":"maekeruu","event_start":"1481241600","event_key":"81","event_name":"Ludum Dare 37"},"text":"
Before anything else, you can PLAY THE GAME!<\/a><\/p>\n

No, this is not my first time joining Ludum Dare Game Jam (held every 4 months). I have been joining different game jams and since then, a team was made called Green Soda. We\u2019ve been growing ever since, started from 2 people, now we\u2019re 5 \u2013 consisting of 1 programmer and 4 artists.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Whenever I check the time (Photo not mine)<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
Each game jam experience is different\u2026 What remains the same though is that YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME\u2026 Like seriously, even when we sacrifice sleep you still feel time is going so fast\u2026 one second it\u2019s theme announcement, the next thing you know, and it is already submission time.<\/div>\n
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Now, let me tell your things that happened…<\/div>\n
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Few days before the jam…<\/span><\/h3>\n
An old friend (Joshua Flores) asked me what it\u2019s like to join the Global Game Jam. I assumed he asked this because he recently joined an IT hackathon. At that moment, it struck me that it\u2019s only just a week left before Ludum Dare 37. I was surprised that the game jam is just around the corner. I was expecting it but I never thought it\u2019d be so soon because as far as I remembered, we just finished a Ludum Dare game recently.<\/div>\n
I told Joshua about the Global Game Jam and asked if he wanted to join us. He agreed and I was like \u201cOkay, while we\u2019re at it, why not join us this Ludum Dare too?\u201d<\/div>\n
I then told everyone in the team that Ludum Dare is soon and all I got was \u201cSEEN 4:07pm\u201d. Good thing is that each of them PM\u2019ed me and said they\u2019re good to go. Jay told me to make a SIMPLE game\u2026 not too elaborate like past games.<\/div>\n

What went right:<\/h3>\n
Theme voting happened<\/span>. The thing about Ludum Dare is that a week before the actual game jam, participants suggest themes and vote which one should be the theme. There were 4 rounds all in all. A lot of the suggested themes were pretty interesting and I looked forward to seeing some of them in the final round of voting…<\/div>\n
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My votes for final round<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
Seeing these made me pretty hyped up. These are nice themes. I showed it to everyone in the team and they all reacted the same. TEAM REACTION: \u201cOne Room!!!\u201d<\/div>\n
Everyone in the team liked that theme and also the \u2018Wait are we the bad guys?\u2019<\/div>\n
During this time, lots of things are playing through my mind, thinking what would be nice for each theme.<\/div>\n
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Welcome to the club (Photo not mine)<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
New team member<\/span>. Green Soda consisted of 4 members, now we\u2019re 5 because Joshua joined. He\u2019s an artist and a programmer but he doesn\u2019t do C# and Unity so he\u2019s better off as an artist.<\/div>\n
Now, Green Soda is a team consisted of JKAP (Animator), Jeff\/Jay (Character artits), Lex (Environment artits), Joshua (Environment assist and UI artits), and me (proggy and project manager). This was Joshua\u2019s first time to join a game jam so this was to make him familiar with the workflow in a game jam. He\u2019ll be with us on Global Game Jam so he better should\u2019ve learned something xD.<\/div>\n

What went wrong:<\/h3>\n
Busy bees.<\/span> Even before the game jam, I already knew this one would be different and tougher. Before, we can have all the 72 hours for ourselves, now something changed \u2013 WE HAVE WORK ON MONDAY.<\/div>\n
Ideally, the production runs until submission date, Tuesday 10am\u2026 That\u2019s how we\u2019ve always done it, but this time, we had to make strict schedules and finish each member\u2019s tasks before the day they\u2019ll be unavailable. Example, JKAP (animator) has work on Monday so he has to finish animations before Monday BUT he can\u2019t animate when the 3D model\u2019s not done so the character modelling should be done sooner (smth like that).<\/div>\n
Well, shit\u2026 no wonder Jay said we\u2019re better off making a simple game. And I understood why.<\/div>\n
Vacationers. <\/span>Two of our members were set to go on a vacation with their peeps. That sucked, but it was cool because they told me beforehand.<\/div>\n
Jay (Character artist) told me he\u2019d be out by Sunday whole day. That was fine by me since I can afford to make some adjustments and I\u2019m assured he finishes his job fast.<\/div>\n
Next day, Lex (Environment artist) told me he won\u2019t be able to join. I was shocked and disappointed. I immediately told Joshua to be the one in-charge with environment and Jay had to double his lift.<\/div>\n
FORTUNATELY, Lex decided to join after all and bring his laptop with him during his vacation. I felt guilty he wouldn\u2019t get the most out of his vacation.<\/div>\n
BUT THINGS ENDED UP WELL and not as bad as it could have possibly been.<\/div>\n

Day 1<\/span><\/h3>\n
The first day of the event. I woke up with an irritating headache and checked online for the theme. I was not surprised with what I saw:<\/div>\n

ONE ROOM.<\/span><\/h2>\n
Yay! Yes.<\/div>\n
Seeing this, I thought \u201cHa! I knew it\u201d but in truth, even though this was one of those themes that we wanted to be picked, we didn\u2019t really have anything in mind regarding it. We tried brainstorming for game ideas but things didn\u2019t come easy for us. We expected to see lots of puzzle games this LD, albeit we don\u2019t fancy developing puzzle games as they take more time and we suck at it.<\/div>\n
Detectives? Nah, clich\u00e9. Spy Cats? Office? Glory holes? Room Race? We thought of lots of stuff\u2026 both stupid and non-stupid (mostly stupid) but we just couldn\u2019t get the gist of it so we scratch it and move on to next. Like this one pitch Joshua suggested where you play as a guy who watches porn in your room and you avoid getting caught. Then I was like: \u201cWhy not be an office guy who watches porn at work or a hacker etc\u201d. It was funny and all but it just died in the end because lack of mechanics and I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019ll just be a waiting game.<\/div>\n
In the end, we caught up with an idea of playing as a shop owner\u2026 yes, clich\u00e9 cuz blabla, diner dash, blabla Potion punch. Yes. Until the part where we make it 3D isometric and u shoot zombies while u sell guns and survive.<\/div>\n
BOOM. I just thought it\u2019d be interesting to play…<\/div>\n
(Well, it\u2019s still cliche… but that\u2019s all we had at the time) :c<\/div>\n

What went wrong:<\/h3>\n
Under-hyped<\/span>. Everyone was just fully into it, including me (but I think Joshua was hyped). The artists felt lazy and had plans to go somewhere but that was okay. Maybe because it\u2019s been months since they developed a game and we also had our own errands but we tried to keep the project going.<\/div>\n
Lex is away<\/span>. Lex was unavailable for production the whole day. That\u2019s okay though since he works fast and he said he had a solid idea of how the game\u2019s supposed to look.<\/div>\n

What went right:<\/h3>\n
Idea Sync<\/span>. After storming our brains, I immediately started on writing the Game Pitch Document for everyone to have the same view\/idea in mind. I asked Christian Katipunan for his opinion regarding the pitch and we had a meaningful discussion on what should be and and not be on the game. I, who\u2019s not really well at game design, found that of great help to start off the production.<\/div>\n
When I showed everyone the document, it was great that they immediately caught what it\u2019s all about and proceeded to making art assets. We all had the same idea in mind.<\/div>\n
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Main Character concept art by Jay<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
Moments later, Jay sent me a concept art of the main character. I liked it because it was just like the way I had imagined.<\/div>\n
Joshua was constantly messaging me about the things he was about to do and the things he already finished. He was quick in making the UI assets. When I asked something for him to do, he immediately responds back waiting for approval of the task he finished. Kudos for him!<\/div>\n
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Level design by Lex<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
Later on, Lex showed me the level design he made. It wasn\u2019t the one I had originally in mind but I thought this one is the better version.<\/div>\n
I gave him approval to continue making it into 3D.<\/div>\n
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Code Rain<\/span>. I managed to code all the basic mechanics on day 1, ranging from character navigation to entity mortality (hit and death system). All is well as it may seem, I mostly coded the aesthetic stuff most OC people would do instead of focusing on the more important stuff so…<\/div>\n
The day ended with basic and advanced animation mechanics but no winning and losing condition. yet. RIP.<\/div>\n

Day 2<\/span><\/h3>\n
I woke up late on day 2. Things got pretty messed up on day 2 as issues came up. I continued production but I was really demotivated and didn\u2019t feel like working at all.<\/div>\n

What went right:<\/h3>\n
Lookin\u2019 good<\/span>. I went online and Jay sent me an image of the main character, fully modelled and textured, waiting to be animated. It looked much better than what I\u2019d expected.<\/div>\n
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Main character<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
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Pewds reference<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
Fam-nimations<\/span>. Fam (JKAP) sent me the first batch of animations — Survivors and Zombies animations. YOU GOTTA LIKE IT BEFORE YOU SEE IT!!! SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON, FUKKEN DESTROY THAT SHIT! and yes, I did… I liked the animations before I even saw it.<\/div>\n
What I love when he sends me animation files is that it feels like receiving new toys to play with because coding and implementing the animations actually felt like playing with a toy. SMASH THAT LIKE!!!!<\/div>\n
All bots done<\/span>. I spent the whole day implementing all the AI in our game while polishing the aesthetic stuff and implementing animations. I had vague memories of what happened on day 2 because I was really not into it. Maybe I just spent most of the time just rotating the game scene and staring at the monitor.<\/div>\n
Finished all the AI but still no win and lose condition. yet. RIP.<\/div>\n

What went wrong:<\/h3>\n
Lex is away (part 2)<\/span>. Day 2 and Lex is unavailable for whole day again. He did try to start making the environments but his Unity software can\u2019t be opened and showed up an obnoxious error. He tried reinstalling but to no avail.<\/div>\n
He promised to work full-time on day 3 and I trusted that we can make it.<\/div>\n
Animation Errors<\/span>. JKAP bumped into an issue where he used IK animation but when he imported the animation to Unity, the arms were stretched because of incorrect joint scale values.<\/div>\n
I tried helping him and agreed to make a workaround fix to get by. We were all confident it\u2019d go well but just when I told him \u201cI fixed it\u201d, it immediately turned into \u201cOH WAIT… ITS WRONG\u201d. At that moment, he was AFK and I started panicking and I couldn\u2019t continue working because I\u2019m OC.<\/div>\n
We ended up having to redo the exporting and probably from skinning to re-animating (or rather remapping) of keyframes.<\/div>\n
Time Management<\/span>. In a production, one thing that is always there is PROCRASTINATION. Everyone does that no exceptions. And…<\/div>\n
Like I said, I was feeling really down because of some personal stuff and it got me so demotivated af. I spent most of the day watching youtube videos and chatting with friends to find the hype again.<\/div>\n

Day 3<\/span><\/h3>\n
Day 3 went by in a flash. Everyone\u2019s pretty much done with their tasks except me and Lex. Joshua was there on standby for some quick errands or polishing to be done. He modelled some more props for environment and worked with Lex.<\/div>\n
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Lex sent me initial blockings of level<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
I worked til last hour of jam and barely made it to submission even though I sacrificed sleep. It felt hectic compiling all the art assets and code into game in rush and it felt like I was missing something but I brushed it off and continued putting all the necessary parts in the game.<\/div>\n
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Finished a build and let them play the game but everyone couldn’t pass through level 4 and there’s barely an hour left… I did a quick tweak to make the levels easier and brushed it off because there’s really no time left. I ended up making the game too easy, but it’s too late…<\/div>\n
Now, we managed to finish our entry for the Ludum Dare 37!! Done in 72 hours… it\u2019s something. I really appreciate it if you managed to read this far. c:<\/div>","time":"December 29th, 2016 11:00 pm","title":"Gun Shop Loadout Post-Mortem"}