{"author_link":"\/users\/tomssuli","author_name":"Tomssuli","author_uid":"tomssuli","comments":[],"epoch":1777914387,"event":"LD59","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":432459,"likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"96895","p_author":"Tomssuli","p_authorkey":"1119866","p_urlkey":"312544","p_title":"Making of LightHouse Diaries","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD59","p_time":"1777914387","p_likes":"4","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1119866","us_name":"Tomssuli","us_username":"tomssuli","event_start":"1776470400","event_key":"113","event_name":"Ludum Dare 59"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD59","removed_author":false},"_superparent":424249,"_trust":7,"author":119866,"body":"First time making postmortem. Our LD59 game [Lighthouse Diaries](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries) was special game in many aspects, so I thought it would warrant a post mortem.\n\nThere would be lot to say if I told everything we did. However, there was many same things that we've done in previous ludums and the most learning occurs when doing something new and going out of comfort zone, so I tell what we did differently this time.\n\n**Light effect**\n\nWe planned a normal light effect first, but then the graphics team got a wild idea that it could be an old map that turns into a more natural looking surface when the beacon light touches it. We achieved this by making all map graphics two times and using mask layer.\n\n![zoom.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/7316a.jpg)\n\n**zoom levels**\n\nThis time we wanted to try using variable zoom levels and actually achieved it. You could zoom in and out with mousewheel and it was awesome!\n\n![maa_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73160.jpg)\n\nThe zooming or more like the scaling thing posed some problems too... which were our own making. There was some miscalculation of the asset sizes in the planning and our graphics team made super high resolution graphics compared to the actual zoom level they would be viewed.\n\n![laivakesken_Clipboard_05-04-2026_03.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73161.jpg)\n\nThere would be pixel by pixel accurately drawn ships in something in the lines of 256x256 and they looked amazing, but also took whole lot of artists time\n\n![shipsprite_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73162.jpg)\n\nAll active objects were drawn in super big size and levels became about 10k x10k pixels, so drawing the maps was an opposite of a breeze \n\n![laivakartalla_Clipboard_05-04-2026_04.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73163.jpg)\n\n...Yeah, we're probably never doing that again!\n\n![dead_Clipboard_05-04-2026_02.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73164.jpg)\n\n**Water Shader**\n\nFor the first time in Ludum, we used a shader and with some effort from one of our coders we got very beautiful \"animated\" sea.\n\n![meri_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73165.jpg)\n\n![maa2_Clipboard_05-04-2026_04.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73166.jpg)\n\n**Dynamic music**\n\nYou heard it right. DYNAMIC. MUSIC.\n\nOur Music team has always overdone itself and made such wonderful consistent and catchy songs for our games (and even a rap for the credits screen for every game!) ...But this time they planned something totally new! \n\nIn the first plan, not only would the music change depending on the events, but it would also constitute of several tracks that would be played simultaneously. How awesome would that be!\n\nSo two different themed layers of music was made, one bunch for lighter mood and another for a more scary\/anxious mood:\n\n![layerA.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73167.jpg)\n![layerBClipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73168.jpg)\n\n...In the end we didn't have time to implement the situational music properly, but we still used all the tracks!\n\nNow in the current gamejam implementation there are two lighter maps and an anxious map... And you will have a randomized easy going music that is slightly different for each time you play it and similarly randomized anxious music in the last level. \n\nEach 20 seconds of music consists of 2-4 randomly chosen clips layered on top of each other... So with quick calculation there's 7x7x7x7 + 7x7x7 + 7x7 = 2793 different ways any 20 seconds of the song might play.\n\nSame calculation for anxious music where 1-2 of 4 clips might play simultaneously: 4x4 + 4 = 20 different anxious music compositions.\n\nThat was about all the new stuff \n\n...So enjoy the game with super accurate zoom in and your unique soundtrack every play!\n\nAnd if you haven't yet tried it, try [Lighthouse Diaries](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries)\n\n","comments":1,"comments-timestamp":"2026-05-04T17:26:43Z","created":"2026-05-04T16:59:00Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":432459,"love":4,"love-timestamp":"2026-05-05T09:51:37Z","meta":[],"modified":"2026-05-05T09:51:37Z","name":"Making of LightHouse Diaries","node-timestamp":"2026-05-04T20:13:49Z","parent":425888,"parents":[1,5,9,424249,425888],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries\/making-of-lighthouse-diaries","published":"2026-05-04T17:06:27Z","scope":"public","slug":"making-of-lighthouse-diaries","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1374274},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"432459","n_urlkey":"312544","n_parent":"425888","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries\/making-of-lighthouse-diaries","n_slug":"making-of-lighthouse-diaries","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"119866","n_created":"1777913940","n_modified":"1777974697","n_version":"1374274","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries\/making-of-lighthouse-diaries","text":"First time making postmortem. Our LD59 game [Lighthouse Diaries](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries) was special game in many aspects, so I thought it would warrant a post mortem.\n\nThere would be lot to say if I told everything we did. However, there was many same things that we've done in previous ludums and the most learning occurs when doing something new and going out of comfort zone, so I tell what we did differently this time.\n\n**Light effect**\n\nWe planned a normal light effect first, but then the graphics team got a wild idea that it could be an old map that turns into a more natural looking surface when the beacon light touches it. We achieved this by making all map graphics two times and using mask layer.\n\n![zoom.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/7316a.jpg)\n\n**zoom levels**\n\nThis time we wanted to try using variable zoom levels and actually achieved it. You could zoom in and out with mousewheel and it was awesome!\n\n![maa_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73160.jpg)\n\nThe zooming or more like the scaling thing posed some problems too... which were our own making. There was some miscalculation of the asset sizes in the planning and our graphics team made super high resolution graphics compared to the actual zoom level they would be viewed.\n\n![laivakesken_Clipboard_05-04-2026_03.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73161.jpg)\n\nThere would be pixel by pixel accurately drawn ships in something in the lines of 256x256 and they looked amazing, but also took whole lot of artists time\n\n![shipsprite_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73162.jpg)\n\nAll active objects were drawn in super big size and levels became about 10k x10k pixels, so drawing the maps was an opposite of a breeze \n\n![laivakartalla_Clipboard_05-04-2026_04.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73163.jpg)\n\n...Yeah, we're probably never doing that again!\n\n![dead_Clipboard_05-04-2026_02.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73164.jpg)\n\n**Water Shader**\n\nFor the first time in Ludum, we used a shader and with some effort from one of our coders we got very beautiful \"animated\" sea.\n\n![meri_Clipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73165.jpg)\n\n![maa2_Clipboard_05-04-2026_04.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73166.jpg)\n\n**Dynamic music**\n\nYou heard it right. DYNAMIC. MUSIC.\n\nOur Music team has always overdone itself and made such wonderful consistent and catchy songs for our games (and even a rap for the credits screen for every game!) ...But this time they planned something totally new! \n\nIn the first plan, not only would the music change depending on the events, but it would also constitute of several tracks that would be played simultaneously. How awesome would that be!\n\nSo two different themed layers of music was made, one bunch for lighter mood and another for a more scary\/anxious mood:\n\n![layerA.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73167.jpg)\n![layerBClipboard_05-04-2026_01.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/a34\/d1\/z\/73168.jpg)\n\n...In the end we didn't have time to implement the situational music properly, but we still used all the tracks!\n\nNow in the current gamejam implementation there are two lighter maps and an anxious map... And you will have a randomized easy going music that is slightly different for each time you play it and similarly randomized anxious music in the last level. \n\nEach 20 seconds of music consists of 2-4 randomly chosen clips layered on top of each other... So with quick calculation there's 7x7x7x7 + 7x7x7 + 7x7 = 2793 different ways any 20 seconds of the song might play.\n\nSame calculation for anxious music where 1-2 of 4 clips might play simultaneously: 4x4 + 4 = 20 different anxious music compositions.\n\nThat was about all the new stuff \n\n...So enjoy the game with super accurate zoom in and your unique soundtrack every play!\n\nAnd if you haven't yet tried it, try [Lighthouse Diaries](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/lighthouse-diaries)\n\n","title":"Making of LightHouse Diaries","wayback_source":[]}