ADD Kiwi Postmortem – LD27 48HR Competition
In this 48 hour competition, participants created video games from scratch based on the theme of “10 seconds.” I had a difficult time deciding on a solid idea for my entry, discarding ideas like:
- A timed destroy the targets test.
- 10 second dungeon crawler.
- Time traveling machine with a range of 10 seconds.
I finally settled on an idea based on Simon Says, a game which everyone already knows how to play. This is important because 10 seconds doesn’t allow you much time to teach new rules. The goal was to help players grasp the game’s rules quicker before they get frustrated by the time limit.
My idea combines 2D platforming and Simon Says, an idea inspired by Wario Land II and the Simon memory game that you unlock after beating the game. I also drew artistic inspiration from that game, adopting a retro Gameboy look.
What Went Wrong
I struggled a lot more with time this competition than with the last competition. I worked 5 hours Friday night and 9 hours Sunday morning for a total of 14 hours. There are several aesthetic bugs left in the final product due to not having time to work on the game on Saturday.
If I had another 5 hours to work on the game, I would have ironed out the visual appeal of the game by fixing bugs, adding particle effects, adding scan lines, and improving animations. Another aspect that suffered due to time is the unclear game directions. I planned to implement a graphical cue to let players know when a condition is met or failed, but that did not make it into the game.
Currently, the only thing that hints success or failure are sound clips which do not sufficiently get the point across. New players will be lost, not knowing if they are winning or loosing until the end. However, I could be wrong. It will be interesting to hear the feedback I get on this game.
What (I Think) Went Right
I was happy with the graphics for the most part. The character design was something I did in the tail end of development. The name of the game was coined somewhere along development as I scampered around the level in testing trying to accomplish rapidly appearing demands like a small bird with short attention span who flutters about with no obvious goal or purpose. I settled for implying a story with the title rather than spelling everything out for the player to maintain the simplicity needed for such short play sessions.
I was happy with the main character’s walking animation and sound effects. They’re kind of derpy, and it makes me happy. Although I’m not sure if I pulled my original vision for the game, I was proud of my concept, and it’s an idea I think I will return to some day when I have more time.
My tools of choice in making this game included Unity 3D, Graphics Gale, and Photoshop. I used the platforming framework I posted via Youtube for most of the player physics. I also constructed a horribly inefficient 2D sprite generator for this game using techniques I need to research more.
If you’re interested in playing the game, follow the link below.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16605964/10/ADDKIWIWEB/ADDKIWIWEB.html
Likewise, I’d love to hear your feedback. Comment can be posted here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=22587
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/zanzindorf
My Tumblr: http://zanzindorf.tumblr.com/
Tags: 48 hours, gameboy, retro, Simon Says
