This is quite a lousy postmortem, but there’s nothing more adequate than a shit postmortem for a shit game. So, how well did my first Ludum Dare (and heck, one of my first things that sort of resemble a full game) ever do?

The greatest idea of all time

I got together with some friends and, as expected, we came up with a simple and grotesque idea (the best type of idea, obviously): you only get one shit. More specifically, it was about a pigeon taking a crap on an old man for revenge. There’s really not much more to say about it, but we initially “planned” to have upgrades and other stuff which unfortunately couldn’t be included in the final version.

Thus, division of labor is born

Though the game itself was done by me, my friends provided most of the art, not to mention the brainstorming, random ideas and suggestions. The music kind of got lost on the way.

Let’s get to work

The development started in Java using the LibGDX framework, taking for granted that it would run anywhere. I still have very few doubts about that claim, but it just so happens that my friends are some of the unfortunate people who couldn’t open it. Though LibGDX is able to port games to HTML5 via GWT, exporting the project so that others can test it takes a long time. Besides, there are a lot of things to take into consideration for cross-compatibility, and my intention was to get things done as fast as possible by focusing on the desktop version.

The worst part of it was that it took me a long time to change tools, since I thought to myself: “Well, I’m sure we can solve this problem eventually, so let’s focus on other stuff for now”. Terrible time for positive thinking. Optimism has no place in the battlefield, only in times of peace. Remember, kids: make sure your gear is ready before marching into battle, but if it does fail, change strategies at once without hesitation.

Construct 2 was my path to salvation, despite my lack of experience with the program. It was very easy to pick and my productivity actually increased, leaving me to question why I hadn’t chosen it in the first place. Of course, there were still some bumps in the road which led me to remove the options menu, the scoreboard and other functionalities, but hey, that’s part of the fun.

My development plan was quite simple: implement a module, test, refine it so that it would be good enough for the moment, and move along. The final touches would be done when the game was in a more complete state, with full gameplay tests. Unfortunately, this state came pretty late in development and my friends weren’t able to test it thoroughly before the submission.

So what?

All things considered, it was a pretty satisfactory journey and one that makes me even more eager to throw myself into the game development world. The final product may not be something I’m excited to brag about or put in my curriculum, but it could be. Knowing that you have the potential to follow through your plan, achieve something and display it to others is never a useless experience. The worst that can happen is being harshly criticized and mocked, which is awesome for you, because then you’ll do whatever it takes for this to never repeat itself.

Tags: postmortem