{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Universe-Connector-THUMBNAIL-550x412.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/09\/01c6d5f0376044f3b8b9fd244c773701.png"},{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/LD30_SK16Games-2014-09-02-22-54-59-913-550x412.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/09\/c32705b0d56a36d3d2f49538f33bad79.png"}],"author_link":"author\/sk16games\/","author_name":"SK16 Games","cat":"LD #30","categories":["LD #30"],"comments":[],"epoch":1409667000,"event":"LD30","likes":7,"metadata":{"p_key":"81975","p_author":"SK16 Games","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"292707","p_title":"Universe Connector Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1409667000","p_likes":"7","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"source_url":"2014\/09\/02\/universe-connector\/","text":"

\u2014 I know this post is looong, but I would be so happy if you would read it and maybe comment your thoughts \":)\" \u2014<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So I finished my game very tight to the deadline, but I finished it! YAY<\/p>\n

About the game<\/h2>\n

So you are an (evil) empire that wants to take over the universe. You start by choosing your own name such as \u201cLudum Dare Galaxy Empire\u201d, \u201cDas Dritte Reich\u201d, \u201cLittle Tim\u2019s Multi-World\u00a0Domination\u201d, \u201cDPRK\u201d\u00a0or something else creative for you to come up with. (HAS TO BE EVIL) To connect worlds to your empire, make a spaceship by resources and start connecting!<\/p>\n

\u2013>\u00a0Play Universe Connector\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0<\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bad\u00a0beginning<\/h2>\n

First of all I started making the game too late. I stayed up all night and waited for the theme to be announced at 3:00 (danish time) and went to sleep after that. I woke up at about 13:00 and was kind of too lazy to get up and start Ludum Dare\u2019ing. So I got some food and started making a game. I thought I would use Unity, but I just wasted my first hours to find out\u00a0my idea was too hard to make (I have only made one game in Unity before\u2026) So\u2026 I ended up using Game Maker: Studio like last time, and I had to come up with a new idea\u2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The thumbnail for my game<\/p><\/div>\n

The progress<\/h2>\n

Time passed and I finally had an idea but it was kind of unclear, so I started by making the graphics. I worked and worked and checked twitter and facebook and worked and checked youtube and worked and got distracted again and worked and so on. When it was around 4:00 and I decided to get some sleep my game wasn\u2019t even near a game yet. Half time; not at all half done. The next day I was a bit more concentrated, but my idea wasn\u2019t clear enough\u00a0yet. I made some sketches on paper to get a better overview of what my game was about. I worked a lot without being sure what the game would turn in to. But around 6 hours before deadline I thought my idea was done enough, and I just had to finish the game too.<\/p>\n

The original idea:<\/h3>\n

At that point my idea was something like: You have a planet. The population grows and there is a maximum number of people the Earth has room for, so you have to get the population over to other planets. To get to different planets you need spaceships, you make by resources. The Earth also has an amount of resourses that grows. There are different planets, that have different: number of spaceships needed to connect, speed of getting resources and max capacity of\u00a0people. So you had to populate all the planets without getting overpopulated and getting a lot of resources.<\/p>\n

But\u2026 All I had done at that time was: The system for getting resources and population, displaying everything over the planet, and upgrading and buying stuff. Now I just needed to make the player able to connect to the other planets by using the spaceships\u2026 And long story short: I used some\u00a0hours to figure out how to \u201ccopy\u201d the system to more planets\u00a0and ended up not getting it to work. So it was 2-3\u00a0hours before deadline I only had one working planet, and no connection-stuff.<\/p>\n

The final one:<\/h3>\n

So\u2026 I changed the idea totally, so you just connected to other worlds with spaceships, and it just said \u201cconnected\u201d, instead of the idea of every planet having different population, stuff to upgrade, buttons etc. And by doing that the \u201cpopulation\u201d thing would make no sense, so I removed that too.<\/p>\n

So the deadline came closer and I\u00a0worked as fast as I could. I remembered there was also the \u201csubmission hour\u201d and quick made some music, and finished the game itself in the last 10 minutes of the submission hour (Yes, it was technically over deadline, but fuck it\u2026). I uploaded it, and did the porting after the deadline. SLEEP. The next day I made the thumbnail and uploaded the source.<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

The game:<\/h3>\n

I feel okay about the final result, but the game turned out to be a bit\u00a0boring\u2026 Overall this was probably the worst \u2013 out of 2 LD compos, and 4 total game jams I participated in \u2013 game I\u2019ve made. But again, it\u2019s okay; A nice little game.<\/p>\n

Looking forward to see the results!<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ll do better next:<\/h3>\n

Next time I will work more focused\u00a0instead of the on\/off-work as I did this time. Get up. Food. Jam.<\/p>\n

I will learn Unity more, and test some ideas before the compo starts AKA do the warm-up weekend, so I\u2019m ready\u00a0to make a game.<\/p>\n

Timelapse \/ follow<\/h3>\n

Soming soon \u2013 follow me on Twitter<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>\u00a0to keep updated.<\/p>\n

I made it with ChronoLapse, nice software!<\/p>\n