{"author_name":"merrak","cat":"LD #34","comments":[],"epoch":1450246200,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"9660","p_author":"merrak","p_authorkey":"46508","p_urlkey":"44882","p_title":"LD34 Post-Mortem \u2014 Panda and Squirrel","p_cat":"LD #34","p_event":"LD34","p_time":"1450246200","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"46508","us_name":"merrak","us_username":"\/author\/merrak\/","event_start":"1449792000","event_key":"31","event_name":"LD34"},"text":"<p>This is my fourth LD, and I think I&#8217;m starting to get a hang of figuring out what I can and can&#8217;t accomplish in 48 hours. This time around I had a bit of luck on my side. My wife gave me the idea for a similar game a long time ago, but I just never got around to doing anything with it. With a few tweaks, the idea was able to fit the theme. Usually I waste a few hours with a game that doesn&#8217;t work out. For this round, I was able to get straight to work.<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_526263\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-01.png\"><img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-01-300x200.png\" alt=\"Panda and Squirrel screenshot\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-526263\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-01-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-01.png 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snow, squirrels, and pandas!<\/p><\/div>\n <p>I got the basic mechanics for &#8220;Panda and Squirrel&#8221; working by the end of the first evening. This is the whole game, without the &#8220;face&#8221;:<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_526265\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-12-01.png\"><img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-12-01-300x200.png\" alt=\"Saturday, 3 am\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-526265\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-12-01-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-12-01.png 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saturday, 3 am<\/p><\/div>\n <p>What went right:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I had the rest of the weekend to work on art, music, etc. I usually don&#8217;t have that much time after doing the coding.<\/li>\n <li>The atmosphere came out well. There&#8217;s snow and a sunset.\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-03.png\"><img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-03-300x200.png\" alt=\"2015-12-13-03\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-526267\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-03-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-13-03.png 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n <\/li>\n <li>I wrote some code I can re-use on other projects.<\/li>\n <li>The floor is randomly generated, so no two games play exactly the same.<\/li>\n <li>I think I have a game I can do some more with later, and some good feedback on what to tackle next (thanks, guys!)<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>What didn&#8217;t go well:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The focus of the game changed halfway through the project. The original game had more action planned for the ground-level. The change left me with too little time to add more variety to the collectibles and foes<\/li>\n <li>The code that draws the snow isn&#8217;t very optimized. As a consequence, I had to keep the screen size small.<\/li>\n <li>The two-button control is a bit limiting. A third button to slow the characters down, or even push them backward, would be helpful.<\/li>\n <li>I would have liked to have given the player more control over the snowball.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Next time around I&#8217;d like to experiment with more complex mechanics. One problem I consistently run into is not enough time to test. There are a lot of &#8220;why didn&#8217;t I think of that yesterday?&#8221; moments. This time I didn&#8217;t make a total mess of the code, so maybe I can incorporate a few of those ideas into a proper post-compo version <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/post-mortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">post-mortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 16th, 2015 1:10 am","title":"LD34 Post-Mortem \u2014 Panda and Squirrel"}