Now that judging has started, I wanted to release my postmortem. Here goes. This postmortem is based on the same categories Ludum Dare itself uses for judging.

But first, the basics! LD38 was the first game jam I've participated in, and resulted in the first game I've ever released: Booster's Day Out.   * ### Visit the itch.io page to play Booster's Day Out in glorious WebGL!

• ### Check out the ldjam.com page for voting and feedback.

       

Overall

After years of making excuses, I finally participated in a Ludum Dare! Better yet, I finished a working game with a win condition by myself in almost exactly 48 hours; my final commit was 92 seconds before the 6PM Sunday deadline! I had an absolute blast, and can't wait for the next one.

I'm pretty happy with the game, even given all its missing bits and rough edges, and plan to expand it in the future. I'd call that a pretty big success, no matter what happens in judging.

Fun

I've always been obsessed with physics-based games. To me, this version of BDO feels a bit like a miniature, extremely simplified Kerbal Space Program, which is something I find quite enjoyable. It's pretty dang tough, too; I still have trouble beating it sometimes! On the other side of the coin, it definitely needs more content. Right now, there's only one powerup (fuel), one type of obstacle (planets), and one level.

Innovation

There's not exactly a ton of innovation here. Lots of people have made physics games before me, and lots will after. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Theme

BDO is a bit more "small worlds" than "a small world", since the whole thing is based on traveling from planet to planet. A bit on the nose, but gameplay over theme is best in my book! I arrived at the current gameplay by starting off with what I thought I wanted to do, and then going with whatever felt most fun as I built things out. Originally, my idea was a Super Mario Galaxy-esque 3D platformer! It took about six hours from the start of the competition for me to arrive at "rocket game".

Graphics

I'm very pleased with the rocket itself, especially the engine particles (and the crash explosion, of course). The worlds are too bland, simply because I didn't have time to flesh each one of them out. In the planned full release of the game, there will be significantly more planet diversity, both in terms of shape, as well as items on the planets (plant life, landing pads, structures, etc). Overall, I'm happy with what I was able to achieve in such a small amount of time.

I like the 2D/3D environment, it seems like a good base and future direction for improving things. One specific thing I'd really like to play with on that front is subtly rotating the camera around the rocket a bit as it approaches and leaves planets.

Audio

Audio ended up super rushed (committed ~100 minutes before the deadline). I was only able to add a sound for the rocket engine and for crashing. Some sounds I'll be adding: fuel pickup, win condition, and possibly ambient "gravity"/"atmosphere" noises.

I also didn't get a chance to create any music, which is a bit of a bummer, as I was looking forward to trying my hand with that. Ah well, next time! For the full release of Booster's Day Out, I'm planning to feature some music from my good pal Kevin, who's also doing the soundtrack for my VR game, Microcosm.

I highly recommend checking out this sneak peek of Kevin's work during a second playthrough of Booster's Day Out. 👌 👌 👌

Humor

I didn't focus a ton on humor, but tried to make sure there were nice little touches of "soul" in the game. Specifically, this was done though floating text, which also serves as a tutorial. Also, you get little messages of encouragement when you die, which seems nice.

Mood

This is a spot where music would have really helped. I like the current mood, but the ideal Booster's Day Out in my head feels a bit more lonely. I think fixing those dang walls will also help with the mood a lot.

Let's talk about those dang walls for a second. I added the walls very shortly before the deadline to prevent three things:

• Skipping the whole level. Ha.
• Getting through the "moons" segment too easily.
• Getting too far out of orbit and having to just drift while you burn off fuel.

To solve the current issues with the walls, they are going to be made much more transparent (maybe entirely), and moved quite a bit further out. To prevent level and "moon" skipping, I'll be using "asteroid fields" and other obstacles.

Conclusion

One of the things that really struck me about LD is how much it flexes every creative muscle you've got. Of course there's the code part, but not having a team or the ability to use existing design assets means everything falls on your plate. Code, design, modeling (in Blender and MagicaVoxel), "marketing" copy and images, sound, music (which I didn't get to), and probably more. It's really an incredible creative workout, and a great way to pick up new skills, or hone skills that need work.

Enjoyed the postmortem? Play the game and vote!

• Visit the itch.io page to play Booster's Day Out in glorious WebGL!

• Check out the ldjam.com page for voting and feedback.