Hey guys, we need some more rating to get a score, drop a comment so we can return the favour!

Don't forget the audio! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/is-your-refrigerator-running https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/is-your-refrigerator-running

Welcome to the third post in GLOWs Post-Mortem series. I was asked to relink previous entries; find one on Audio here and one one workflow here. This one is about getting backlogs, feedback and observations and implementing it. I promise to keep this one a bit shorter.

Backlog

There's always things you would love to implement, but you don't have the time for. While I think my schedule is was pretty great, I (intentionally) didn't account for technical difficulties, so I could push the game to it's limits if everything went great.

What I wanted to implement was the follow: - Animations - I only had time for some sine waves and linear movement implemented by code - A in-game menu - Volume levels are quite dynamic - An enemy - Its art didn't fit the rest, and his mechanics (though I spent a lot of time on it) weren't fun - A slightly less random story - Just some icons at the start were shown and faded out directly afterwards. The bug had to collect them. Icons inspired by the icons on the menu bar. - Proper respawn - I just did a reset position of the player, missing resetting the health pickups. It was still possible, but much harder without them. - A better health indicator - The rings on the bugs back were intended as a health bar. But instead I went with a fading pulse.

Feedback

The main feedback I got is that people didn't like the controls. Some people even seemed to hate them passionately (What!?! I love the controls, they feel exactly the way I wanted, matching the environment and giving a challenge). I always forget that controls are very personal, so it's better to stay close to standards set by similar more widely known games.

It was not clear to go back to the start after collection the three Icons. (I made a clear animation to explain it, how could you have missed it?!?) This was a quick implementation to add some story and add some achievable goals. Even coming up with this weak idea proved a challenge.

Most of the other feedback for improvement was in line with my backlog, so that was great.

Observations

A few Twitchers played my game on their streams. While they "I can't really tell you what's bad about this game." But it was still clear that there were some difficulties that the player faced. "I have no idea where to go." while I knew there were plenty of other areas to go to. Or "I don't like the controls, but they do make sense in the water, so they are good" In fact they are bad, and I should find another way to get them to feel good. And stuff they don't know. They went the wrong direction (which is not necessarily bad), but they died (still not bad), went the wrong way (okay, you didn't like the area) and totally forgot about the area (ah, that's a problem). And almost everyone I saw playing it did the same. There's some room for improvement, right there.

Changes

- I added some animations. I dissected each monster, put them back to gather part by part and moved them around like a puppet. - I added an in game menu. I hate making UIs :( - I redid the art for the enemy, and slightly changed his behaviour. And I added him (although he was the first enemy I designed). He's in the green area. (Bottom-left one in the gif) - I added some story. A bit cliché, especially since its in an ocean, but I think it's an improvement. - Proper respawn, I made sure the game didn't become harder after dying.

• I added the health indicator, I really like how it plays out. (Its always great when Ideas in your head just work like you hoped they would) (See images top:before bottom:after)
• I tweaked lighting a bit more. Navigating should be a tiny bit easier, and the contrast is a bit larger. (See images top:before bottom:after)
• I changed my beloved controls. They are still close enough to what I wanted, but it might not be enough.
• I redid some level guiding for less getting lost.

I think that's it. The list is much shorter than I thought, so I think I made a lot of progress after the compo.

Did it work?

I have no idea. I have yet to get feedback on the new version, but I have asked some people to play and record it, and optionally give some feedback. The process repeats: Check out the Post-Compo version here.

i feel this went rather well :P

Post mortem is coming. i promised it a while ago but i got rather busy making art for my next game.

ok guys we just need 4 votes to complete this challenge it is the last day WE CAN DO IT

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

We're almost at 40 ratings! I'd love to hear your feedback on where we messed up.

Play Plagued Station!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/plagued-station

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If you like turbo blasting your way around obstacles, saving identical people and experiencing a bullshit randomised finale, you’ll love/hate Plagued Station.

I mean my entry [X] is so close to [math.ceil(XRATINGSLEN/10.0)*10] ratings!!!

We can actually make it!

I like round numbers!

I hope y'all have OCD!

...

Man why can't we just post-mortem like usual?

As we approach the final week of rating our games, I would like to remind everyone that I will play/rate your game if you do the same. Currently, Inefficient Plasma Weapon has 30 reviews, and that's great! Thanks to all that have already played my game.

For those upcoming players/raters, I am interested in your thoughts on whether I should continue development in order to release on Steam and mobile, and I am interested in your thoughts on what to add/remove/change in order to make a full release as fun as it could be!

Link to my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/inefficient-plasma-weapon

Hi everyone! If you haven't tried it yet I'd like to present to you Every Light Goes Out:

In our game you'll need to escape from a dark dungeon while you battery is running out.

The twist is: you can use an actual flashlight!

So turn off your lights, grab a flashlight or a simple lighter and light your way through the maze.

of course you'll need a webcam to use an external light source as controller, but if you don't have one you can still try the game using only the keyboard instead

Please leave us a comment so we can know what you would like to see in a possible post-LD.

Now I'm back from a family vacation and I'm eager to continue to play some of the LD39 entries (let me know if you want me to test your game =). I will also compile a Mac-version of Robot Power (although I suspect most people play the HTML5 version anyway).

Feel free to give the game a go :) Sneak preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vitlk5IHSYk Game page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/robot-power

I also had a request to break out a slower version of the Blender low-poly modeling and character rigging section from my timelapse so I'll try to do that and publish it on YouTube as well. I think I'll continue to combine the timelapse and narrated postmortem. I saw someone doing that a while back and I think that the concept works quite well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCYn3dQX_4

You can watch complete development footage of my game here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE4fGQXgx2n1lHj_ZwkOvSajUiEfPKtfe

I also played some games of yours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P4Q4Fg7HSA

Obligatory self-promotion, my game sits right here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/game-of-life

I went away for about ten days after LD, so I'm a bit behind on my rating xD

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/breathless-parks-running-out-of-power

I did it!!! :tada: :bacon: :bacon: :tada:

After 2 years of ludum-idleness following my made-in-24h musical LD 32 entry, I've finally been able to make a game again and take part in my 3rd Ludum Dare!

My game: RagooP!

I've made a few fixes (see link above). It came out a little too hard (but there's a cheat...). Can you beat it? :sunglasses:

Power is good. But if you don't use it, it'll consume you.

My game 'Runic Forest' has gotten a lot of positive feedback; 46 ratings so far! However, it would be AWESOME if we could get that number up to 50, or even 100!!

Come check it out! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/runic-forest

Hi everyone I have had some feedback that my game ran slow on some browsers (about 2% of players). I have made a windows version available for those that experience slow physics on the web version.

So please if you played my game and the physics seemed slow or the player's jump was floaty please retry / re-rate my game using the windows version. Thanks

Link: Zombie Power Station HTML5 and Windows

And while you are at it, if you have a HTML5 game that I haven't raited yet and you want me to play it on my live stream 8/16/2017 8pm PDT please leave me a link in the comments to this post.

THANKS!

I just want to say thank you to all of you that played my game. I appreciate all your suggestions and comments.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/led-adventure-running-out-of-power

I'm polishing Power-Q (called PoweRL in LD39) for a real iOS and Mac release. I made some endgame screens today:

you guys are amazing we manage to get to the 100 ratings in this week its amazing

but anyway if u still havent played it

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

Hello to all my fellow jammers playing and rating games this weekend!

Our entry "The Music Box" has gotten some great feedback so far!

You can play it at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-music-box

Here are some of my other favorites so far:

Charge! by @dragonxvi: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/charge

Last Shine by @fran-segura, @jaimuepe, and @alvatross: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/last-shine

OxenOut by @dragwa and @sporeczek: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/oxenout/

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-castle