Yeah! It’s a rare genre. Did you ever seen a puzzle game post-mortem? So let’s do this!

BEFORE LUDUM DARE – PREPARATION

You must prepare yourself to the event. Sharp your tools. Prepare a code template. Training in your coding IDE, graphic editor, music and sound editors is also a good idea.
I did nothing of these things.
But I did one important thing: Warn my wife weeks before the event, and repeat the warning time from time. Otherwise she surely would ruin my plans.

FIRST – THE DESIGN

When I first saw the theme, I did think that 10 seconds was the countdown approaching to zero. I hit F5, and again, and the 10 second remains. I though “Man, it’s locked in 10 seconds!” Finally I realized that 10 seconds was the theme. Holy crap!
So I hated the theme. The first and obvious interpretation should be a 10 seconds time limit. You should never take the obvious interpretation. Later I was shocked that everyone took the obvious interpretation.
I spend the night thinking about a different take on the theme. After a while I had the idea about the ordinal second. The second one things. Finally I get rid from the damn time limit.
So I needed a design. And that night I thought in no one. Then I went to sleep.
In the next morning I woke up without an idea. I took a breakfast and start to work. After half an hour I made the design of the game. Probably my subconscious worked during the sleep.

THE CODING

I had planned to use Construct 2. But after finish the design, I realized that for this kind of puzzle game pure Javascript would be more productive. I didn’t need collision, physics or other things that Construct 2 usually help you.
The next step was coding. At the end of the day I had the first prototype, with scratch graphics. At night I started to draw the final graphics.
Testing was a serious problem. Finish the first stage could spend five to ten minutes. I could run just a few cycles of testing.
At sunday morning I continued making graphics and some testing/debugging. After the lunch I
had a problem. I had planned to go to the Escher’s expo at the city museum. That was the final day to the expo.
The game was almost finished, so I went to the museum. I expected to spent just a couple of hors but I spent six. It was a huge expo!

So I returned to home lasting only some hours to the timeline. I rushed to finish the graphics, add basic sound and make some testing. 15 minutes before the timeline the game was finished.

WHAT WENT WRONG:

•     Graphics are poor. It’s not the worst, but certainly is not the best graphics. I need drawing lessons.
•     Sound are poor. The last thing I did of course.
•     No music. No time to think about it.

WHAT WENT RIGHT:

•     The design was very appreciated. An uncommon mechanics.
•     Javascript is great. I’m really amateur in Javascript. But the language was so productive that I made the game easily. The source went very short: just 296 lines.

THE BALANCE

I really enjoyed the experience. Now I know my weak points and I will train hard to the next battle. See you soon guys!

NOW PLAY THE GAME!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=24602