{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/social_evolution.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2012\/09\/e9d1e22bd3ce9aff64b10173622e6642.png"},{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/sad.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2012\/09\/6a70ed7371802702a346b46b11e453dc.png"},{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/chicks.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2012\/09\/7f1377806a49da2df29f43244536c4e0.png"}],"author_link":"author\/jorjon\/","author_name":"Jorjon","cat":"LD #24","categories":["LD #24"],"comments":[],"epoch":1346527020,"event":"LD24","likes":12,"metadata":{"p_key":"78193","p_author":"Jorjon","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"287203","p_title":"Social Evolution Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346527020","p_likes":"12","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"source_url":"2012\/09\/01\/social-evolution-post-mortem-2\/","text":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

\nPLAY<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0::\u00a0<\/strong>RATE<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>::\u00a0TIMELAPSE<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You need to socially evolve to get the girl you want<\/strong>. To have money<\/strong>, a car<\/strong>, popularity<\/strong>, etc. That\u2019s what I tried to tell in my last game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0Warning:<\/strong>\u00a0This is intented to be a\u00a0parody<\/strong>\u00a0game, so please don\u2019t take any advice\u00a0in the game into the real life \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

In this post-mortem, I\u2019ll try to explain what things of the development process made me mad<\/strong>, what made me sad<\/strong>, and what made me glad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>not<\/em> a fun game!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

At least for the last 30 minutes<\/strong>, the game wasn\u2019t fun. That was driving me nuts through all the development process. I was thinking \u201cI need to make this game fun, but how?\u201d<\/em>. Finally at the last moment I decided to make the \u201cpower-ups\u201d come from the right side on a random basis. Before that, they were static.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t my<\/em><\/strong> o<\/em>riginal<\/em> idea<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Indeed it wasn\u2019t. I wanted to make a more strategic<\/strong> game, in which you had to train yourself to get more girls, and eventually you could get Lucy, the girl you always wanted. Of course, that was out of the scope<\/strong> because of the short time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/em><\/strong> only<\/em><\/em> had 24 hours<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/em>I woke up at around 8pm (yeah, I know), looked up the theme, and tried to think something cool. Obviously, nothing cool came about, or only ideas related to genetic algorithms<\/a>, which I didn\u2019t have the time to implement. At the end, I could have made a better and more balanced game with those extra 24 hours.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m<\/em><\/strong> (<\/em>still)<\/em> not good at pixel art<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Not a bit. I lost too much time drawing and redrawing the characters and the background, and even though didn\u2019t come with something cool. This is\u00a0definitely\u00a0something I need to improve for the next projects.<\/p>\n

\"\"

I had many versions before the \u201cfinal\u201d art<\/p><\/div>\n

I couldn\u2019t<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>use<\/em> my framework<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/em>My framework was on process on refactor when I learned that LD was the next day. So for obvious reasons, I couldn\u2019t use it, and had to stick with plain Actionscript.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The<\/em><\/strong> Resour<\/em>ce<\/em> Maker saved lot of time<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/em>Indeed it did! If you haven\u2019t checked out, my\u00a0Resource Maker<\/a>\u00a0can process a folder and generate a Resources.as<\/strong> file which contains embeds for the assets found in that folder. I made a simple *.bat<\/strong> with a call to Resource Maker, hooked it on the pre-compile process, and I didn\u2019t have to write a single embed line \":)\"<\/p>\n

I was<\/em><\/strong> w<\/em>ell<\/em> organized<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is something I\u2019m more and more aware of: TODO list<\/strong> are a win. After I had some idea of what I wanted to do, I wrote a TODO list on a text file with what I needed to make in order to complete the game. Next, I had to stick to the plan, adding and removing things as necessary. After 12 hours, I was already implementing sounds and music, since the core game was already finished (although it was still boring).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0No<\/em> interru<\/em>ptions<\/em><\/h2>\n

I wasn\u2019t\u00a0interrupted\u00a0at all<\/strong> (except for going to sleep, going to the toilet and sleeping). That was a good thing since I was fully concentrated on the development.<\/p>\n

Good<\/em><\/strong> prior<\/em><\/em> sleep<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since I woke up at 8pm Saturday, I already had a full sleep<\/strong>. So all I needed was sleep only 4 hours during the development.<\/p>\n

G<\/em>ood<\/em> post-render effects<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I followed this tutorial<\/a> to make my fancy post-render effect. It took me around 3 hours to implement it, and it was well worth it \":)\"<\/p>\n