{"author_link":"\/users\/anarbitrarymustache","author_name":"anarbitrarymustache","author_uid":"anarbitrarymustache","comments":[],"epoch":1493042631,"event":"LD38","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":26436,"likes":10,"metadata":{"p_key":"90481","p_author":"anarbitrarymustache","p_authorkey":"1011902","p_urlkey":"303288","p_title":"Small Kingdoms: Postmortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD38","p_time":"1493042631","p_likes":"10","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1011902","us_name":"anarbitrarymustache","us_username":"anarbitrarymustache","event_start":"1492732800","event_key":"69","event_name":"LD 38"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD38","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9405,"_trust":1,"author":11902,"body":"It's been over a year since my last Ludum Dare and none of that time was spent better preparing. Here is a recap of what went right (I'm sure something must have), wrong, and the lessons I may have learned along the way.\n\n* Code: **GameMaker Studio 1.4**\n* Pixels: **Photoshop**\n* Sounds: **Bxfr, Audacity**\n\nWhen the \"A Small World\" theme was announced, I was actually kind of surprised. It was one of the themes I actually voted for in the finals and yet I had no ideas pre-lined up. \u201cI\u2019ll do something involving a small planet that you run around.\u201d, I had thought. Instead, I had an idea for an abbreviated version of Risk (or at least what I believe I remember as being Risk, since it's been a while); just played on a much smaller board. This idea later evolved into something that I\u2019m not entirely sure how to label. In my mind, I think I was envisioning a simplified, turn-based, 1v1 MOBA-esque game. Each player attempts to control a board with a hero, defeating the opposing base as the end goal. \n\n\n## What went right:\n\n**Persistence\/Changing Directions** \u2013 It is hard to abandon something that you\u2019ve invested time into. About 20 hours into the Dare, I was incredibly unhappy with my project. I had made good headway and encountered very few headaches. Unfortunately, my game was not working. And I don\u2019t mean that in a technical sense. It wasn't fun to play. It felt pointless, so I felt pointless. I was ready to quit. I took a nice long walk, stretching my legs and my mind. I then came up with an idea for a direction that could use some of the work I had already created. The change provided new motivation. In the end, I still don\u2019t think my game works, but I\u2019m proud for not quitting.\n\n**Prioritization** \u2013 Typically, I'll have a bug or design flaw that I know needs to be fixed. Something important like, you can't get to the game from the main menu. However, because I think it's something I can knock out quickly, I keep putting it off while I figure out how to animate individual blades of grass. Then suddenly it's 15 minutes before I need to post and my blades of grass are animating but you can\u2019t get to the game from the menu. Or I gave up on the grass because I became distracted by some other creep and still no menu fix. This time around, I found myself scope creeping every now and then, but I consistently checked my punch list and if I was working on something that wasn\u2019t on the list, I'd stop and re-prioritize.\n\n**Animation** \u2013 I chose to do virtually no pixel animation this time around. Instead, I animated with code so that I could still add some \"flair\" but save hours of pixel work. Some of the code animations were more than sufficient, I think.\n\n## What went wrong:\n\n**My Health** \u2013 I came into the weekend slightly under the weather, an injury to my hand, and due to not sleeping well, I was nice and tired. But I didn't care. I was so pumped for the Dare that my excitement was kind of curing my ailments. And by curing I just mean masking. As a result, I didn't proceed with my health as an utmost concern. I'm already feeling and will continue to feel the consequences of these actions for at least the rest of this week (and probably 3 more after that).\n\n**Music\/Sound** \u2013 I need to spend some time, post-jam, learning the necessary tools so that my learning curve isn\u2019t eating into my schedule. As fun as it was playing with some of these tools, I have nothing that users wouldn't immediately mute. In the end, I just left it out of the game. I'm not really happy with the sound effects I chose to include either.\n\n**The Idea\/Design** \u2013 Coming into LD38, I had planned to spend the first night dedicated to design and planning. Really hash it out and have a good roadmap for the morning. About 6 hours after the theme was announced, I had created a mockup in Photoshop and had a basic working prototype \u2013 I even had a basic schedule for the next two days. I went to bed thinking, \u201cWow, I\u2019m really moving. This is great.\u201d. As I mentioned above, I didn\u2019t feel the same 14 hours later. Not every game idea is going to be a winner; I just need to figure out how to recognize the duds a little sooner.\n\n**AI** \u2013 My previous experiences had not prepared me for the type of AI necessary for the type of game I was trying to make. I ultimately made a judgement call to move on to other tasks and leave, what I am calling \u201cStupid AI\u201d in place.   \n\n\n\n## Closing thoughts\n\nI\u2019m really not happy with my final game. I have my \u201cif I have time\u201d list, but I don\u2019t see myself continuing work on Small Kingdoms. Ultimately, this isn\u2019t the type of game I want to play. I think if I take away anything this time around, it\u2019s that I need to make what I like \u2013 something I\u2019d have fun playing. Oh, and I don't like hex grids. It\u2019s been a blast as always and I\u2019m looking forward to the next Ludum Dare. I think I\u2019m going to spend some time in between brushing up on my music and 3D skills. I really want to try something different next time. \n\nI\u2019ll be posting a time-lapse of the making of Small Kingdoms later this week. In the meantime, you can check out my entry here:\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/$15171\n\n![da3.gif](\/\/\/raw\/e7e\/2\/z\/1216.gif)\n\n","comments":1,"comments-timestamp":"2017-04-29T23:11:16Z","created":"2017-04-24T13:52:44Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":26436,"love":10,"love-timestamp":"2017-05-01T08:43:52Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-05-01T08:43:52Z","name":"Small Kingdoms: Postmortem","node-timestamp":"2017-04-29T23:15:36Z","parent":15171,"parents":[1,5,9,9405,15171],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/small-kingdoms-1\/small-kingdoms-postmortem","published":"2017-04-24T14:03:51Z","scope":"public","slug":"small-kingdoms-postmortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":71718},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"26436","n_urlkey":"303288","n_parent":"15171","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/small-kingdoms-1\/small-kingdoms-postmortem","n_slug":"small-kingdoms-postmortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"11902","n_created":"1493041964","n_modified":"1493628232","n_version":"71718","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/small-kingdoms-1\/small-kingdoms-postmortem","text":"It's been over a year since my last Ludum Dare and none of that time was spent better preparing. Here is a recap of what went right (I'm sure something must have), wrong, and the lessons I may have learned along the way.\n\n* Code: **GameMaker Studio 1.4**\n* Pixels: **Photoshop**\n* Sounds: **Bxfr, Audacity**\n\nWhen the \"A Small World\" theme was announced, I was actually kind of surprised. It was one of the themes I actually voted for in the finals and yet I had no ideas pre-lined up. \u201cI\u2019ll do something involving a small planet that you run around.\u201d, I had thought. Instead, I had an idea for an abbreviated version of Risk (or at least what I believe I remember as being Risk, since it's been a while); just played on a much smaller board. This idea later evolved into something that I\u2019m not entirely sure how to label. In my mind, I think I was envisioning a simplified, turn-based, 1v1 MOBA-esque game. Each player attempts to control a board with a hero, defeating the opposing base as the end goal. \n\n\n## What went right:\n\n**Persistence\/Changing Directions** \u2013 It is hard to abandon something that you\u2019ve invested time into. About 20 hours into the Dare, I was incredibly unhappy with my project. I had made good headway and encountered very few headaches. Unfortunately, my game was not working. And I don\u2019t mean that in a technical sense. It wasn't fun to play. It felt pointless, so I felt pointless. I was ready to quit. I took a nice long walk, stretching my legs and my mind. I then came up with an idea for a direction that could use some of the work I had already created. The change provided new motivation. In the end, I still don\u2019t think my game works, but I\u2019m proud for not quitting.\n\n**Prioritization** \u2013 Typically, I'll have a bug or design flaw that I know needs to be fixed. Something important like, you can't get to the game from the main menu. However, because I think it's something I can knock out quickly, I keep putting it off while I figure out how to animate individual blades of grass. Then suddenly it's 15 minutes before I need to post and my blades of grass are animating but you can\u2019t get to the game from the menu. Or I gave up on the grass because I became distracted by some other creep and still no menu fix. This time around, I found myself scope creeping every now and then, but I consistently checked my punch list and if I was working on something that wasn\u2019t on the list, I'd stop and re-prioritize.\n\n**Animation** \u2013 I chose to do virtually no pixel animation this time around. Instead, I animated with code so that I could still add some \"flair\" but save hours of pixel work. Some of the code animations were more than sufficient, I think.\n\n## What went wrong:\n\n**My Health** \u2013 I came into the weekend slightly under the weather, an injury to my hand, and due to not sleeping well, I was nice and tired. But I didn't care. I was so pumped for the Dare that my excitement was kind of curing my ailments. And by curing I just mean masking. As a result, I didn't proceed with my health as an utmost concern. I'm already feeling and will continue to feel the consequences of these actions for at least the rest of this week (and probably 3 more after that).\n\n**Music\/Sound** \u2013 I need to spend some time, post-jam, learning the necessary tools so that my learning curve isn\u2019t eating into my schedule. As fun as it was playing with some of these tools, I have nothing that users wouldn't immediately mute. In the end, I just left it out of the game. I'm not really happy with the sound effects I chose to include either.\n\n**The Idea\/Design** \u2013 Coming into LD38, I had planned to spend the first night dedicated to design and planning. Really hash it out and have a good roadmap for the morning. About 6 hours after the theme was announced, I had created a mockup in Photoshop and had a basic working prototype \u2013 I even had a basic schedule for the next two days. I went to bed thinking, \u201cWow, I\u2019m really moving. This is great.\u201d. As I mentioned above, I didn\u2019t feel the same 14 hours later. Not every game idea is going to be a winner; I just need to figure out how to recognize the duds a little sooner.\n\n**AI** \u2013 My previous experiences had not prepared me for the type of AI necessary for the type of game I was trying to make. I ultimately made a judgement call to move on to other tasks and leave, what I am calling \u201cStupid AI\u201d in place.   \n\n\n\n## Closing thoughts\n\nI\u2019m really not happy with my final game. I have my \u201cif I have time\u201d list, but I don\u2019t see myself continuing work on Small Kingdoms. Ultimately, this isn\u2019t the type of game I want to play. I think if I take away anything this time around, it\u2019s that I need to make what I like \u2013 something I\u2019d have fun playing. Oh, and I don't like hex grids. It\u2019s been a blast as always and I\u2019m looking forward to the next Ludum Dare. I think I\u2019m going to spend some time in between brushing up on my music and 3D skills. I really want to try something different next time. \n\nI\u2019ll be posting a time-lapse of the making of Small Kingdoms later this week. In the meantime, you can check out my entry here:\n\nhttps:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/$15171\n\n![da3.gif](\/\/\/raw\/e7e\/2\/z\/1216.gif)\n\n","title":"Small Kingdoms: Postmortem","wayback_source":[]}