{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/saguaro\/","author_name":"saguaro","cat":"LD #26","categories":["LD #26"],"comments":[],"epoch":1367344620,"event":"LD26","likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"78825","p_author":"saguaro","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"287835","p_title":"Broke Down Postmortem","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367344620","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"source_url":"2013\/04\/30\/broke-down-postmortem\/","text":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/30\/broke-down-postmortem\/brokedown_title\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-253275\"><img alt=\"brokedown_title\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-253275\" height=\"61\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/brokedown_title-550x61.png\" width=\"550\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As it says on the tin:<i> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-26\/?action=preview&amp;uid=14557\">Broke Down<\/a> is a Twinestory about tearing shit up and getting off on it.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gimcrackd.com\/etc\/src\/\">Twine<\/a> is easy to use, but it takes a little persistence to coax out the possibilities.  Fortunately, there are resources everywhere (<a href=\"http:\/\/aliendovecote.com\/?page_id=4047\">Porpentine has collected<\/a> many).  I relied heavily on the collective knowledge shared by the <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.google.com\/forum\/?fromgroups#!forum\/tweecode\">Twine community<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1 Design<\/strong><br\/>\nI wanted to design the layout first, because I knew that there would be a temptation to use the default CSS styling if there was a time crunch. The hardest part was figuring out which elements affected what, especially for the sidebar (the hyperlink in the byline bedeviled me).  When I got stuck, I was able to look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glorioustrainwrecks.com\/node\/5163\">Leon and Porpentine\u2019s stylesheets<\/a> to figure out which elements to reference in my own CSS.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/blogs\/DanCox\/20130208\/186341\/Learning_Twine_Part_2.php\">Dan Cox\u2019s Twine tutorial<\/a> provided information about using Google Web Fonts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/30\/broke-down-postmortem\/brokedown_mechanic\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-253276\"><img alt=\"brokedown_mechanic\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-253276\" height=\"186\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/brokedown_mechanic-550x186.png\" width=\"550\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>2 Mechanic<\/strong><br\/>\nImplementing the story layers was easily done using Twine\u2019s built-in if macro and jumping to \u201cmore\u201d and \u201cless\u201d passages that changed the level variable. The hard part was resetting the variable each time the reader advanced, and I felt this was critical. I couldn\u2019t find a way to combine the set macro with internal links.  I thought I found a workaround using Leon\u2019s timedreplace macro, but an hour before the deadline I realized it didn\u2019t work.  As a last-minute MacGuyver move I created duplicate passages that reset the variable and automatically jumped to the prose passage using Leon\u2019s goto macro. It doubles the number of passages but it works.<\/p>\n<p>I used a number of Leon\u2019s excellent macros and fixes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glorioustrainwrecks.com\/node\/5108\">Timedgoto macro<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glorioustrainwrecks.com\/node\/5029\">Timedreplace and timedinsert macros<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glorioustrainwrecks.com\/node\/5082\">Display macro fix (allows variable passage names)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glorioustrainwrecks.com\/node\/5063\">Inline CSS fix<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/30\/broke-down-postmortem\/brokedown_stats\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-253296\"><img alt=\"brokedown_stats\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-253296\" height=\"207\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/brokedown_stats.png\" width=\"231\"\/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/30\/broke-down-postmortem\/brokedown_nodes3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-253310\"><img alt=\"brokedown_nodes3\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-253310\" height=\"322\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/brokedown_nodes3.png\" width=\"344\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>3 Writing<\/strong><br\/>\nI got a late start Saturday morning. I wasn\u2019t sure about the story, I just knew I wanted 3 levels of prose.  I spent most of the day freewriting stuff and reading erotic fanfiction (sorry, it\u2019s true), and I thought about people in rollover crashes and what it might be like to roll downhill in a metal cage and maybe hit a tree or water. I don\u2019t know what that says exactly, it\u2019s just where my head was at. Sometime Sunday morning the story clicked and I wrote the bulk of the prose from then until deadline. I was writing up until the last ten minutes and ended up condensing routes to make it in on time. What you\u2019re seeing is relatively raw. <\/p>\n<p><strong>4 Post-competition<\/strong><br\/>\nI will release a post-competition version before voting ends. I mainly want to expand the routes and add more diversity, but I had an idea for color scheme changes that I want to try implementing. Li\u2019l, my jam partner for LD25, has expressed interest in creating music. <\/p>\n<p>As far as what worked\/didn\u2019t work, I got lucky and had access to awesome macros that let me set up the story experience I wanted.  It was a much more organic process than my previous entries, but it worked out.<\/p>","time":"April 30th, 2013 5:57 pm","title":"Broke Down Postmortem","title_was_empty":false}