This has been my first Ludum Dare. And not only that, this is the first time I have actually "finished" a game. So, I want to go through everything now and write about what went well and what went not as well.

If you want to play my game before you read on (maybe you should do that, this post could affect your opinion), just go here: https://ktak.itch.io/little-space

What went well:

Game got finished

This is really important for me. I managed to stick to an idea and didn't throw in the towel after one day.

Game is mostly playable

Here's the thing: I wouldn't call my game "fun" (more on that front later), but it is playable from start to finish. It has a win-state, something that you could call mechanics, a lose-condition... all that "good stuff". And maybe there are people out there who think this game is fun. :D

Soundtrack

This was something I knew I would have fun making. Composing as well as playing guitar have been my hobbies for almost nine years now and going into this I knew I wanted to record something for my game. And since I love improvising tracks like this... Yeah, I think you get it, I'll stop now. :D

Graphics (well, they're passable)

Yeah, the game isn't really what I would call beautiful, but this is the best artwork i made for anything ever. I know, this doesn't mean much, but it's a big improvement over previous attempts. I'm not really good at drawing but this showed me that I can improve even at an activity i thought I was really really bad at. Again, not great art, not at all, but I made worse.

You could argue if all of the points above are really positive, but I think in these areas this game is a improvement over my previous attempts to make a game. Of course, not everything went that "good", so...

What went not really well:

Bugs (and knowing my engine)

I decided to go with Construct 2 as my game engine, because its the engine I tampered with most. But since I never actually completed a game before, I had a lot of moments where I would just go "How do I do that?". I learned quite some things about Construct 2 and how it ticks, but that wasn't enough. This game still has some bugs that I don't understand. But I will continue to look through the code (ehm, events) and try to understand what is going on for the love of... And speaking of bad code:

AI (or lack thereof)

The citizens in my game are not the smartest people around. Maybe because I didn't really now how to implement the kind of AI I need for this game. I eventually got them to work, eat, sleep and relax as much as their needs would allow, but their pathfinding is just baaaad.

Idea too complicated / Didn't focus on fun

This is the biggest problem I had. The entire first day I thought, that I had at least solid mechanics, but the game wasn't fun or challenging. This is why I made this weird thing where you need to destroy asteroids before they destroy your buildings. It's something I made to make the game a bit of a challenge, which it did, but I'm still not sure if this makes the game more fun. I should have taken more time to think about this.

Conclusion

Little Space: something weird/10

Ludum Dare: 10/10, would jam again

And I will. This has been so much fun and I'm already pumped for the next one. :D