{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/murrayl\/","author_name":"MurrayL","cat":"LD #24","categories":["LD #24"],"comments":[],"epoch":1346130840,"event":"LD24","likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"78525","p_author":"MurrayL","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"287535","p_title":"Plan M \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346130840","p_likes":"4","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\/08\/28\/plan-m-post-mortem\/","text":"<p>Plan M is now out and, as far as I know, completable. So that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<p>Give it a play <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-24\/?action=preview&amp;uid=7835\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"here\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2012\/08\/27\/5-hours-to-go\/presidential-penetration\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-176354\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-176354\" height=\"223\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Presidential-penetration-550x279.png\" width=\"440\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What went Right<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>art<\/strong> is a continuation of the subAtomic style, and I think we\u2019ve pulled it off pretty well in Plan M. My skills with Paint.NET have increased dramatically since subAtomic (thanks in large part to using it for other games in the meantime), and it shows in the increase in visual fidelity. On the other hand, you might hate gradients.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>font<\/strong> is fantastic, isn\u2019t it? I just wish there was a dedicated \u2018outline\u2019 version. It\u2019s \u2018Burvetica NC\u2019 by <a href=\"http:\/\/grandchaos9000.deviantart.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jayvee D. Enaguas<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>humour<\/strong> is well and truly in-place. I didn\u2019t have as much time to spend on dialogue as I had during subAtomic\u2019s development, but I think the characters shine through their speech.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scale<\/strong>. I mean, bloody hell. Plan M is <em>at least<\/em> twice the size of subAtomic, and twice as long to boot. That\u2019s something to be proud of.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Speed<\/strong> of development. Plan M was coded <em>entirely<\/em> on day three of the jam. That\u2019s got to be some sort of record for speed-adventure-game-scripting.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Features <\/strong>to make playing the game easier. subAtomic didn\u2019t have saving or loading. Plan M has BOTH!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What didn\u2019t go so right<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bugs. Ugh. I found 3 different game-breaking (as in \u2018oh I can\u2019t finish the game now\u2019) bugs in submission hour. Every time I fixed one, another one appeared. If anything, it was because it was 2am and I was causing more problems by trying to fix things. As far as I know, it\u2019s all now completely playable as intended, but I feel bad for anyone who tried to play it between last night and this morning. I hope they try again with the updated version.<br\/>\nI also uploaded debug versions a couple of times and had to quickly replace them. If you\u2019ve ever used AGS, you know that giving a debug version out to the public is not a good idea.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Audio<\/strong> is non-existent. To be fair, subAtomic didn\u2019t exactly excel in this area \u2013 it had one or two bleepy-bloopy sound effects, and some really rubbish music. Plan M, however, has neither of these things; we simply didn\u2019t have time. They\u2019ll be in for the post-compo version, though \u2013 so keep an eye (ear?) out for that.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scale<\/strong>. Okay, this is a good point and a bad point. There were a lot of things that we wanted to be in the game, and they had to be cut out if we were ever going to finish. A lot of this is to do with developing the character of Dr. M, who is practically a side-character in the Jam release. Again, this will be rectified in the post-compo edition.<br\/>\nOh, and the scale made it a complete nightmare to test for bugs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gameplay variety<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>is lacking, in my opinion. This may well be just because I\u2019ve spent so long working on it, so I tend to overlook 99% of the gameplay. There\u2019s a dialogue puzzle (subAtomic had several), but most of the game is an item fetch-quest. I\u2019m not sure I like that. If I had time, I would\u2019ve added some neat minigames, but them\u2019s the breaks when it comes to Ludum Dare. If you want minigames, go check out my upcoming commercial point &amp; click game <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hungryplanetgames.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Hungry Planet Games\">Astroloco<\/a>. It\u2019s gonna be awesome. [\/shameless plug]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As always, if you have any questions, comments, or (heaven forbid) bug reports, you can reach me in the comments below, or on Twitter (@GameDevIdeas).<\/p>\n<p>Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have 1404 other games to play.<\/p>","time":"August 28th, 2012 5:14 am","title":"Plan M \u2013 Post Mortem","title_was_empty":false}