{"author_name":"nopogo","cat":"LD #34","comments":[],"epoch":1450260300,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"9654","p_author":"nopogo","p_authorkey":"22228","p_urlkey":"44876","p_title":"Post Mortem of Zen Roots LD34","p_cat":"LD #34","p_event":"LD34","p_time":"1450260300","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"22228","us_name":"nopogo","us_username":"nopogo","event_start":"1449792000","event_key":"31","event_name":"LD34"},"text":"

\"start\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So this is the first time I have ever written a post mortem after LD. The 4th one I have entered. And my second time making an entry by myself. I had a blast and am really pleased with the results of this entry. So now that we got the statistics out of the way, on to the development itself!<\/p>\n

I was lucky with the whole growth theme because I had a game in the back of my mind for a while now that fitted quite well. It was going to be about nurturing a seed through all steps of its life from seedling to tree. However, I really wanted to use both themes. Then I came up with the mechanics of\u00a0 growing a single root through obstacles and the basis of this game was clear. The basis was quite simple, but also expandable so perfect in terms of scope.<\/p>\n

\"tree\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was around that time that I was dicking around on the irc channel procrastinating that Lindar announced he had some timeslots available to make game audio for people. I checked out his sound cloud and was immediately sold. So the decision to push for Jam instead of Compo was easily made. I told him I was looking for a Zen type feel to the game and he just jumped right on it.<\/p>\n

The whole game wasn’t really clear in my head until I received the audio file from lindar. It was perfect. I put the audio on a loop and the game just kind of build itself around that.<\/p>\n

I had some questions in the comments about how the game was made, so ON TO THE CODE!<\/p>\n

\"rocks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The game was made in Unity 5.3. the root, the trees and the rocks are all just Line Renderer objects that are being spawned in by code. The root has a “rootNode” that’s just an empty game object you steer. The rest of the root just spawns after it in small segments each Update. Because of this the game creates a lot of objects, so one of the first things I did to optimize was delete out of sight line Renderers. The rocks are spawned in as crude circles with a semi-random radius, I then randomize some of the nodes on that circle to get the crudely drawn effect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What went right:<\/p>\n

-I had the basis of the game in my head in the first 5 minutes. This really gave me a lot of time to implement and in the end polish.<\/p>\n

– I was REALLY lucky to spot Lindar’s offer, that sound really made this game. (I can not say this enough ^^)<\/p>\n

– Since I’m no artist I’ve decided to play my strengths and build an “artless” game. Looking at my last pixel art submission I’d say this was a good thing \":)\"<\/p>\n

-I never hung around irc this much and those guys really helped with motivating me to keep going.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What went wrong:<\/p>\n

-Except for a high score there is no real clear goal for the game<\/p>\n

-I wanted to implement more meaningful and varying pick-ups. Invulnerability for example.<\/p>\n

-The bloom looks great in the standalone versions, but for the life of me I could not get it to look properly in the WebGL version<\/p>\n

-There is still a bug with pick-ups spawning within rocks that I did not have time for.<\/p>\n

\"credits\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Linkylinks:<\/p>\n

Lindar’s soundcloud<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for reading everyone and definitely until next LudumDare!<\/p>\n

o\/<\/p>\n

Nopogo<\/p>","time":"December 16th, 2015 5:05 am","title":"Post Mortem of Zen Roots LD34"}