{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/308734\/4232-shot0.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/01\/bd0a0313b382ec93fcc0ee6c37066e70.png"}],"author_link":"author\/headchant\/","author_name":"headchant","cat":"LD #28","categories":["LD #28"],"comments":[],"epoch":1388997780,"event":"LD28","likes":7,"metadata":{"p_key":"81675","p_author":"headchant","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"290792","p_title":"Post Mortem: You only get 1-1","p_cat":"LD #28","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1388997780","p_likes":"7","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1386892800","event_key":"20","event_name":"LD28"},"source_url":"2014\/01\/06\/post-mortem-you-only-get-1-1\/","text":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The end of rating is \u2018nigh and I feel the urge to put together my thoughts on the last ludum dare.<\/p>\n

Play the game.<\/a><\/p>\n

The theme<\/h2>\n

As usual I tried to stay away from the obvious interpretations of the theme. I had the strong desire to make something in the platformer\/action area and decided on the theme \u2018you only get juan': a mexican princess gets married against her will \u2013 everytime you try to break out of this arranged marriage your father says: \u201cyou only get juan\u201d with juan being you future husband.<\/p>\n

The story was cut out in the end and during development I found out that all the underlying Ideas were centered around the mario games. Inversed roles of the princess and mario, a corrupted mario, a redux version of mario: all of this has been done before. I looked at pictures of the first mario level \u00a0from super mario bros on vgmaps\u00a0and really wondered how a world could be expanded. Especially if there was some kind of underworld beneath 1-1. In the end I decided to expand on that idea and turned the game into what it is now: A deeper and darker exploration of the first super mario bros level and the life and death of game characters. \u201cYou only get 1-1\u2033.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What went right<\/h2>\n

As complicated as the design process was, I think in the end it turned out all right. Level design was my major concern and level design in this case involved a lot of testing. Luckily I had some local people who helped and made some great suggestions. People are great \":)\"\nI am at a point right now that I can really work fast with Lua and the L\u00f6ve framework. I have some good workflows and patterns in place. My code in (generally) structured and stays readible for me.\nImplementing plattforming physics is always \u2018fun\u2019 and a bit tedious but this time I think I nailed it: no major bugs like in some former LDs.<\/p>\n

What went wrong<\/h2>\n

There is some code that I really want to tidy up and I think I still have some design issues.<\/p>\n

First of all there is a coingate which only lets you through to the last part of the level, which is the replay of the first part. You have to have a specified amount of coins so that the gate opens. I played around with different values but decided to reduce the coins in the end. The gate was built because I wanted to encourage exploration and discourage speed runs. But for LD game it you also should be able to play through most of the game in 10-15 minutes, so I lowered that. In the end the value was a bit too low, as most players didn\u2019t felt that there was a barrier here.<\/p>\n

The code had some major delta time issues, especially on slower machines, so that in the end I decided to give upper values to delta time to still get predictable and expected behaviour of the collision detection. I\u2019m really tired of things falling through grounds \":o\"<\/p>\n

Media<\/h2>\n

I made a walkthrough of the game which covers most (but I think not all) of it.<\/p>\n