{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/alexbrainbox\/","author_name":"Alexbrainbox","cat":"LD #28","categories":["LD #28"],"comments":[],"epoch":1392132600,"event":"LD28","likes":8,"metadata":{"p_key":"81723","p_author":"Alexbrainbox","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"290840","p_title":"LD28 Aftermath \u2013 Glide","p_cat":"LD #28","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1392132600","p_likes":"8","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\/02\/11\/ld28-aftermath-glide\/","text":"<p>For me, LD28 was the best Ludum Dare I\u2019ve had. Even though it was about 2 months ago, I\u2019ve only just got round to putting the post-compo finishing touches onto my game.\u00a0I ended up building a game, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongregate.com\/games\/Alexbrainbox\/graviglide\">Glide<\/a>, which I\u2019d had the idea of for a while. Sadly I\u2019m fairly unmotivated at the best of times, but Ludum Dare is always capable of getting me into action!<\/p>\n<h5><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongregate.com\/games\/Alexbrainbox\/graviglide\"><img alt=\"SS3\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-330241\" height=\"412\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SS3-550x412.png\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SS3-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SS3-550x412.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SS3.png 600w\" width=\"550\"\/><\/a><\/h5>\n<h3>What is Glide?<\/h3>\n<p>The basic premise is that you use the single control (spacebar) to switch \u201cgravity\u201d on and off. Technically it\u2019s not quite an implementation of gravity, but we\u2019ll get to that. The game only has ten levels at the moment \u2013 this was partially due to timing constraints during LD28, and partly due to my inability to come up with new levels \u2013 but most of all, it seems that hardly anybody actually plays through to the end of the game anyway.<\/p>\n<h3>What went right?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The aesthetic<\/em> \u2013 I was incredibly happy with how the look and feel of the game turned out. Despite some lag issues on Firefox and on slow browsers, play seemed to be generally quite smooth. Feedback assures me that the way the game played was consistent and this helped it to stay fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The idea<\/em> \u2013 For once, I was actually able to reap the benefits of a Ludum Dare idea which was easy to implement. I cannot overstate how useful this was in enabling me to create what I feel is a \u201cgood\u201d game during the short amount of time available. I knew I was in with a hope when the raw game was almost completely implemented by the end of Saturday night.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The fun\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 I think this is without a doubt the only LD entry which I can confidently say was actually fun to play. For me at least. I think this was in part down to the learnability of \u00a0the controls \u2013 After a few goes it is actually possible to complete some of the more difficult levels, and it doesn\u2019t just feel like trial and error. (An exception to this being \u201cTWITCH\u201d.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongregate.com\/games\/Alexbrainbox\/graviglide\"><img alt=\"ss2\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-330242\" height=\"408\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ss2-550x408.png\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ss2-300x222.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ss2-550x408.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ss2.png 596w\" width=\"550\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>What went wrong?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The curve<\/em> \u2013 I have heard from quite a few people that the difficulty curve was way off. I think this can be put down to the fact that I have little experience in level design, almost all of my previous games having been arcade-style procedurally generated gameplay, rather than pre-built levels. More time would have enabled some more detailed level design and if I build more levels then this is certainly something that I will take into account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The assets\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 The lack of music in the game felt a little off and it\u2019s possible this is one of the reasons many people didn\u2019t stick around in the game. Since the compo has ended I\u2019ve added some fantastic music from the equally fantastic Kevin McLeod, and it\u2019s improved the aesthetic greatly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The name<\/em> \u2013 I should have absolutely checked that the name\u00a0<em>Glide<\/em> was available on my Flash portal of choice (Kongregate) before embarking. Sadly, it was taken, and so I\u2019ve had to release under the name\u00a0<em>GraviGlide<\/em> on Kongregate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Overall<\/h3>\n<p>All in all, I\u2019m really happy with how Glide turned out. If anybody feels like giving it a go (and I\u2019m still incredibly open to constructive criticism), and\/or giving it a fair rating, I\u2019d be more than chuffed! You can find it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongregate.com\/games\/Alexbrainbox\/graviglide\" title=\"Play GraviGlide\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","time":"February 11th, 2014 3:30 pm","title":"LD28 Aftermath \u2013 Glide","title_was_empty":false}