This was my 2nd Ludum Dare, and only my 6th or 7th attempt at a game since I started developing games last spring. Figured I’d do a post-mortem post on this one.
What Went Right:
We got the game finished (well…sorta; we’re not gonna talk about that pole vault thing).
This was my first completed project in Monogame; everything went pretty smoothly in that regard.
My partner (who hadn’t completed a project like this before now) was super-impressed with almost everything I did, even though I half-assed a lot of things, so I was super-encouraged for the majority of the development time.
When it became clear that 10 seconds would probably be the theme, I was determined to not interpret in a “you have 10 seconds of time to do a thing, go!” way, since I assumed that’s what almost everyone would be doing. So, I spent some time trying to find a more creative interpretation of the theme, came up with 10 2nd places, and managed to implement it.
I got to make a game that actually uses multiple screens, which I’d neglected to get around to until now.
I also got a really light introduction on working with camera movement vs. just player movement, which will probably be the most useful thing I take from this. Looking forward to doing a better job with that on other projects.
Potatoes, goats and the Flying Spaghetti Monster all get brief mentions.
Testing that gorram 400m event has reminded me that carpal tunnel exists and should be avoided. It also made me love putting secret cheat modes into things (oh, btw, there’s a secret button combo for super speed that was part debugging tool and part scrapped feature). Yes, I realize this sounds more like something that went wrong than something that went right, but it’s kind of both in a weird way.
Finally, I learned that I am much more comfortable with week-long game jams, but I am also much more likely to get distracted and not complete them. Ludum Dare operates on such a short schedule that I actually get things done.
What Went Wrong:
The game had too much going on. I knew at the onset that it’d be tough to work in all 10 events, but I didn’t count on my partner’s computer (and math homework) refusing to cooperate, which made it hard for him to code anything, making our time crunch that much worse (though he did do most of the art when we hit an impasse with compiling on his machine).
There’s no sound. I really wanted to get some sound effects in there, at least, maybe even some simple music.
Pole vault–just didn’t happen. That one would have been interesting to to around with, though I imagine it would have been atrocious with that jumping/throwing code we ended up using (more on that in a second).
That jumping/throwing code we’re using needs desperate improvements. It does ok for some things, but other times it just ends up looking terrible. I’ll confess I had no clue what to do with it and ended up getting lucky with a few alterations that made it passable. After that I just didn’t have time to tweak it.
I’d rather be working on Yesterday’s Papers or Push Out, my two partially-developed ideas from failed game jams over the summer. While I liked the story of this idea, I barely even brought that into the game; apart from that, this game just didn’t interest me as much as I would have liked. This probably led to more willingness on my part to say “eh, at least that part’s done” rather than actually trying to make things good.
Things I’ll keep in mind for LD28:
The idea is too big and needs to be stripped down.
The idea is still probably a little too big.
“Eh, at least it sorta works; I’ll just leave it like that,” might be okay in a couple spots when you’re down to the wire on time; however, it is not okay for a mechanic 70% of your game depends on.
Ludum Dare is not the proper time for roommates, friends, concerts, or super-long not-really-important conversations with people I can easily talk to on Tuesday.
Earplugs or noise-canceling headphones are a beautiful invention that significantly improve coding performance; however, they are difficult to utilize when working on a team.
When it comes to a time crunch, I think I prefer working alone. It’s lonely and potentially miserable, but I get things done when you lock me away with only my code and some energy drinks.
Tags: LD #27, post-mortem
