{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/agersant\/","author_name":"agersant","cat":"LD #22","categories":["LD #22"],"comments":[],"epoch":1324812780,"event":"LD22","likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"77662","p_author":"agersant","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"286513","p_title":"Castaway post-mortem","p_cat":"LD #22","p_event":"LD22","p_time":"1324812780","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1323993600","event_key":"8","event_name":"LD22"},"source_url":"2011\/12\/25\/castaway-post-mortem\/","text":"<p>Ahoy all!<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend I made a compo entry called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-22\/?action=preview&amp;uid=4958\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Castaway\">Castaway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you speak French, you might want to read my lengthy writeup on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesforges.org\/article\/ld22\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Castaway writeup on Les Forges\">Les Forges<\/a>. Else, here are the traditional bullet point lists :<\/p>\n<h2>What went well<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Using familiar tools (custom framework, FlashDevelop, HaXe, Photoshop, Reason, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>Using project management techniques and tools. I used Asana to handle my ever growing todo list and a mini scrumboard for tracking bugs. Pictures at the end of this post.<\/li>\n<li>Recording custom sound effects. This was my first time and I\u2019m very happy with the result (especially since it didnt take long). Picture below.<\/li>\n<li>Testing. Two friends came on Sunday evening and played the game again and again to spot bugs. They were the one writing the scrum post-it and it was very useful.<\/li>\n<li>Chronolapse. Making a timelapse took no effort and I love the end result.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What went not so well<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Theme. I did not think long enough of the theme and started working without a clear idea of what my game would be.<\/li>\n<li>Time management. I spent too much time working on animations and art assets instead of making content. Look at this 8 frames walk cycle : <img alt=\"walk cycle\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesforges.org\/media\/img\/ld22-walk_gif.gif\"\/>. This is wasted time, lots of it.<\/li>\n<li>Balancing. The game is way too hard ; my testers thought it was funny because of it but I should have considered this as alarming.<\/li>\n<li>Oops. A critical bug that crashes the game on slow computer was shipped in the compo version. Maybe the test configuration should include a slow computer too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Pictures<\/h2>\n<p><img alt=\"Asana\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesforges.org\/media\/img\/ld22-asana.jpg\"\/><br\/>\nAsana<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Bug tracking scrumboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesforges.org\/media\/img\/ld22-scrum_debug.jpg\"\/><br\/>\nBug tracking scrumboard<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Sound design tools\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesforges.org\/media\/img\/ld22-sfx_making.jpg\"\/><br\/>\nSound design tools<\/p>\n<p>Even though my game is way too hard, too short and unforgiving, I\u2019m still happy with what I did. I am satisfied I made some art and music that were not 8bit\/chiptune over the course of the weekend and more importantly, I had lots of fun. Next time, I will NOT make a sidescrolling platformer, that\u2019s my objective.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all for reading\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-22\/?action=preview&amp;uid=4958\" title=\"Castaway\">playing\/rating<\/a> !<\/p>\n<p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a><\/p> <div style=\"float: right;border: 1px solid #eee;padding: 2px;background: #fff;\"><div class=\"iLikeThis\" id=\"iLikeThis-104623\"><span class=\"counter\"><a class=\"image\" onclick=\"likeThis(104623);\">5<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"postmetadata alt\">\n<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis entry was posted\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton Sunday, December 25th, 2011 at 11:33 am\t\t\t\t\t\tand is filed under <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/category\/ld-22\/\" rel=\"category tag\" title=\"View all posts in LD #22\">LD #22<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t\t\tYou can follow any responses to this entry through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/12\/25\/castaway-post-mortem\/feed\/\">RSS 2.0<\/a> feed.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou can <a href=\"#respond\">leave a response<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2011\/12\/25\/castaway-post-mortem\/trackback\/\" rel=\"trackback\">trackback<\/a> from your own site.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n<\/p>","time":"December 25th, 2011 11:33 am","title":"Castaway post-mortem","title_was_empty":false}