{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Photo-12-05-13-18-23-42.jpg","local":"\/data\/posts\/2013\/05\/5675420a5d2070219f8d884b020bf23f.jpg"}],"author_link":"author\/patacorow\/","author_name":"Patacorow","cat":"LD #26","categories":["LD #26"],"comments":[],"epoch":1368503580,"event":"LD26","likes":21,"metadata":{"p_key":"79362","p_author":"Patacorow","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"288372","p_title":"Cottonhead: The Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1368503580","p_likes":"21","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\/05\/14\/cottonhead-the-post-mortem\/","text":"

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hi! Welcome to the post-mortem for Cottonhead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the trailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Day 0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Remember Bottled Worlds? Once again, I came over to Itamar and Mati\u2019s house with a laptop. We spent the night playing Rhythm Heaven and watching some weird and loud videos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Day<\/strong><\/span> 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

We woke up early, saw the theme, and instead of breaking our heads over it like in all previous Ludum Dares, we went out and got ourselves some\u2026 Burekas!<\/p>\n

We sat down in some nearby garden and started coming up with ideas. We had plenty of ideas, one including a story where the world is being kept minimal by an evil machine. Another idea is that you\u2019re something who wants to fly. How is that minimal? That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the story. You\u2019re something that wants to fly. We weren\u2019t sure where to take it from here but it seemed like a good idea at the time.<\/p>\n

We sat there with a pile of papers and Burekas and began drawing some ideas.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our brain storming session was interrupted by a birthday party, but we still had plenty of ideas we wanted to put to test.<\/p>\n

We already had the basic concept art for the main character finished. We wanted a blob with a big nose.\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We headed back home and started working! After a short dilemma, we decided that, yet again, we\u2019re making a platformer, woo! (we love platformers)<\/p>\n

We decided to\u00a0not\u00a0<\/strong>think about the gameplay and keep that for the end, so we polish the game properly and make it pretty. This is the first time we were doing this \u2018experiment\u2019 and I think we\u2019re very pleased with how it came out, I\u2019ll touch on that later in the pros-cons.<\/p>\n

So after a few hours we created a basic engine with concept art for the main character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We also had a basic idea of how we wanted NPCs to work in the game; we didn\u2019t want anything violent or action-oriented, we wanted some minimal banter between them and the player that will only add to the mood of the game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mati started working on the tileset:\u00a0\"tileset\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Itamar drew some NPCs:<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And after many hours of work we had a basic level created!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(also notice the feathers on the bottom left!)<\/p>\n

I went home, but we weren\u2019t finished yet! I put up a post on lonebot.net<\/a> for a recap of our first day, then headed to bed.<\/p>\n

Day 2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OH MY GOD, I came to their house again (with a laptop).<\/p>\n

We dedicated the second day to completely finishing everything except for the level design. We decided to leave that for the final day. The reason we did this is because we wanted the map to be balanced in terms of content \u2013 to have everything ready to be placed within the final map while making it, without having to change things around.<\/p>\n

So first of all we finished the NPCs! Here\u2019s a collection of all of some them for reference:<\/p>\n

\"mimiga<\/a>\u00a0\"curly<\/a>\u00a0\"Dubina<\/a><\/p>\n

We started adding the main quest: collecting feathers. We didn\u2019t hide feathers around the world yet (we were saving that for\u00a0tomorrow).<\/p>\n

We also added some pretty eye candy such as birds, and leaves falling from trees!\u00a0\"blue<\/a><\/p>\n

Also dancing flower\u00a0\"blue<\/a>\u00a0\"red<\/a>\u00a0\"pink<\/a><\/p>\n

This day was tons of fun because it mainly consisted of making pretty particles, finding music and adding awesome effects.<\/p>\n

We also made Magina the Wizard!<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Itamar drew a new tileset:<\/p>\n

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

And they both drew some houses:<\/p>\n

\"farm<\/a> \"Green<\/a> \"house<\/a> \"house\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We added more sounds and an ending, and that was the end of day 2!<\/p>\n

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

Sadly, for some reason, lonebot.net \u00a0got hacked!!!!!! \":(\" So we couldn\u2019t post a day 2 recap!!!<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day 3<\/strong><\/span>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Final day! I came over to Mati and Itamar\u2019s house\u2026. again!! Without a laptop this time. This day was pretty short-lived because all we did was build a level and playtest our game.<\/p>\n

Making the level was extremely fun! Unfortunately, I don\u2019t have much to write about this day because it mainly revolved around the map and fixing small bugs, here\u2019s this picture instead \ud83d\ude00\n\"end\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

also an intro:<\/p>\n

\"screenshot116\"\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"screenshot118\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And thus, Cottonhead was finished.<\/p>\n

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

And unlike any other Ludum Dare, we finished it BEFORE the deadline without any stress!!!<\/p>\n

And now:<\/p>\n

What went right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n