{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/375043\/23493-shot2.png","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/08\/8a8c9261f015247c29779616ea6ec2e9.png"}],"author_link":"author\/teameagle\/","author_name":"TeamEagle","cat":"LD #30","categories":["LD #30"],"comments":[],"epoch":1409386440,"event":"LD30","likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"82660","p_author":"TeamEagle","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"293392","p_title":"Connector \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1409386440","p_likes":"4","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\/08\/30\/connector-post-mortem\/","text":"<p>Check out this short \u2018trailer\u2019 to see\u00a0what it\u2019s about or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=23493\" target=\"_blank\">play &amp; rate it here<\/a>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=23493\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=23493<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><iframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7c2oDUkfSSs?feature=oembed\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>tl;dr<\/strong>:\u00a0if you have an idea but think it\u2019s not fun enough, try it anyway if you can\u2019t think of something better, you might be surprised <img alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The longer read<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The theme was a tough one again, at least one where it was hard to be creative since\u00a0the theme described something (of course it can still be interpreted differently)\u00a0which would result in a lot of\u00a0visually (in broad terms) similar games. Think of planets, space, a double sided platformer or any side by side worlds where two things happen at once, when you have a theme like \u2018chaos\u2019\u00a0there isn\u2019t really something that\u2019s described. Anyway, enough about the theme.<\/p>\n<p>After brainstorming a bit we\u00a0quickly landed on\u00a0the idea of taking it pretty literal and physically connect planets in space, with the humorous twist that you\u2019re there to provide the galaxy with internet. Connecting planets with an ethernet cable (because why would you do this wirelessly, everyone knows it\u2019s more efficient to just lay\u00a0a cable!). We figured the rest of the mechanics would come along the way while building the cable physics and topdown spaceship movement.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone\" height=\"335\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/375043\/23493-shot1.png\" width=\"484\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t, we wondered at one point what the fun would be just flying around and connecting planets. Would it be time pressure?, Impending doom? Snapping cables? After having the rope physics and movement\u00a0mostly done on the first day the other two were mostly spent pivotting and prototyping several gameplay ideas. What if you would be attacked by ufo\u2019s and had to connect them to blow them up or had waves of asteroids coming which would screw up your cables and you had to reconnect them? What if it was some kind of tower defense this way that you had to purchase turrets!? (some\u00a0of which you can see gif\u2019d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/category\/ld-30\/?author_name=teameagle\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/f.cl.ly\/items\/2d2G0V2220420W0m161M\/licecap.gif\" width=\"489\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Eventually we were running out of time and we still (in our minds) didn\u2019t find anything fun yet, so\u00a0with around 3 hours left on the clock we decided we just build the original idea. Connect the planets, everytime you connect one you get this extra sound track layer mixed. Added to that was the turrets that we built, figuring after you connect more and more planets these \u2018enemy\u2019 turrets would come trying to destroy your cable. How to defend against them? Just connect them to your\u00a0cables \/ powered planets and they become yours <img alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone\" height=\"335\" src=\"\/data\/posts\/2014\/08\/8a8c9261f015247c29779616ea6ec2e9.png\" width=\"484\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We realised that this was pretty fun after all, it\u2019s not hard but it we didn\u2019t have much time to balance everything out. And to be honest, it\u2019s better to have it a bit too easy than impossible or very hard, especially when someone will play it for a short amount of time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our main lesson is learned is, something in your head might\u00a0not seem to be fun, but if you don\u2019t have any better ideas just prototype it instead of just trying to think of something better. Especially if you\u2019re working with a tight schedule\u00a0<img alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=23493\" target=\"_blank\">Play &amp; Rate it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","time":"August 30th, 2014 8:14 am","title":"Connector \u2013 Post Mortem","title_was_empty":false}