Okay, I’m in. It’s my first LD and I’m going to be using Flash CS5 (wanted to try out the HTML5 route but haven’t had the time to prepare properly), Photoshop, probably bfxr and no idea what I’m doing for music. All the best to everyone taking part.

I’m in for my second LD and am looking forward to it. This time around I’ll be using the following:

– FlashDevelop (and AS3)

– GIMP 2.8

– bfxr (hopefully I’ll get time to do some simple sound effects)

Unfortunately I’m using a different computer to last time and CS5 won’t install on this one, as a result I’m going open source! I’ve used FlashDevelop before but never for a full project. It’s much better for coding than Flash CS5 but lacks the visual editor and I don’t have a level editor lined up which could end up stressing me out… so much for being prepared this time around.

Good luck everyone.

In addition to using FlashDevelop, GIMP and bfxr, I’ve decided to use the FlashPunk game engine. I’ve used it a little bit in the past to do some simple games and hopefully it’ll help me to get something reasonable done in the time limit. I was going to write a game from scratch in FlashDevelop but I realised that I’d have to do a lot of foundation code that is already present in engines such as FlashPunk and Flixel.

Bloody hell, I’d forgotten how hard this is. I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts about the first day’s progress. I’m in quite a similar position as I was after the first day of LD 24, i.e. I’ve been working hard all day and seem to have very little to show for it. Below is a screen shot from the current version of my game:

I’ve been working on a digital board game. This time I’ve been using FlashDevelop (with FlashPunk) and GIMP. The combination of FlashDevelop and FlashPunk have been great for coding, the only issue is that I’m not very familiar with FlashPunk and have wasted a fair bit of time just looking things up. However, that couldn’t really be helped as I didn’t realise I’d be using it until Flash CS5 failed to install on this crappy laptop.

The graphics work flow has been slower than last time too for a number of reasons: I’ve not been using my graphics tablet or even my mouse – only using the touchpad (due to a lack of space), I’m also not very familiar with GIMP (cue more looking up the basics) and finally, in Flash I could draw directly into the software which meant that the art-pipeline was much faster. In spite of all that, I think there is a lot of potential for my workflow between GIMP and FlashDevelop/FlashPunk, I just need more experience with the software.

Overall, it has been a hard day and I’m a long way from finishing but hopefully I’ll have something worthwhile by the end of tomorrow.

I’ve thrown in the towel, too much stress and misery working on my game and that’s not really what LD is all about for me. I’ve still submitted what I’ve done in all its unfinished glory, click to play.

I thought I’d reflect on the experience as a whole and write a post-mortem on what I managed to complete. I’ve learnt a lot, which is always a bonus, as a result I don’t really consider it a failure. The game wasn’t complete for a number of reasons: I bit off more that I could chew (simple mechanics != simple programming), was using unfamiliar software and an unfamiliar engine (due to reasons out of my control) and, amongst other things, I’ve not been very happy with my working environment.

What went wrong?

Working environment : I’ve been working on a laptop with a fairly low resolution screen, without a desk and therefore without second monitor, mouse or graphics tablet… first world problems. It is surprising how less efficient I’ve been working with much less screen space and trying to produce art assets using the touchpad of my laptop. I knew it would be a problem but I didn’t realise how much time it would take up. Other environment-related issues included not getting enough decent food in the house, I’ve been living off what little I could scrounge from the cupboards (cue takeaway). Being comfortable and having the right set up is important when trying to churn out a game in 48 hours.

 Art pipeline : Getting artwork from GIMP through to FlashPunk is a smooth process but not an immediate one, as it was when drawing directly into Flash. I’m also not familiar with GIMP, add that with trying to draw with the trackpad and the additional steps involved in getting an image (most with multiple frames) into the game, and it became quite a time sink. I did actually enjoy working with the GIMP (at least it installed… I’m looking at you Photoshop), I think there is a potentially good pipeline there but I need to make sure I’ve got the right tools for the job and just practice to become familiar with the software.

No level edtior and an unfamiliar engine : FlashPunk seems pretty great to be honest, it works well and is smooth. However, I spent a not insignificant amount of time looking stuff up yesterday. As I mentioned above and in a previous post, Flash CS5 (my tool of choice for making games… because I’ve used it to make games before) and Photoshop CS5 wouldn’t install on my laptop. I’d used FlashPunk and FlashDevelop to make a snake clone a few months back and they were both free, so I went for those as I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to take part. Coupled with that I made the board and positioned all of the game entities using code, I hadn’t had the time to get a level editor sorted nor develop the code to parse a level file.

What went right?

FlashDevelop and FlashPunk : Although I mentioned being unfamiliar with FlashPunk as an issue, the engine itself performed admirably. I initially thought about writing the game from scratch with just FlashDevelop but in spite of the problems I believe that using FlashPunk was a good idea and I achieved more than I would have otherwise (if I had just coded an engine from scratch in FlashDevelop). FlashDevelop is a considerably superior IDE than I’m used to as well. Overall, thanks to this combination, coding was much faster than usual. The main thing holding me back in this area was a lack of experience and a sloppy attitude towards structuring the code towards the end, both of which can be rectified.

Deriving mechanics from setting, story and theme : By far one of my weakest areas in designing games is working out the mechanics, what exactly the player is going to be doing. Pretty essential for creating a compelling experience. I’ve found that I have a hard time working from gameplay-to-setting and a much easier time when working from setting-to-gameplay. So in this case, once I knew who the player was inhabiting, where they were, what genre I wanted to work within etc… then it was much easier to start developing the gameplay. My biggest weakness this time around was not being specific enough and pinning down the core mechanics that I wanted, I left it all in my head and it was inevitably too vague and I floundered after getting tired and stressed.

Working on the interface as a whole : To develop the artwork for the game I (eventually) set up a new file in GIMP that was the same resolution as the game and began to work on drawing the interface as a whole (on different layers, grouping into layer folders etc…). I’d then cut out and extract the individual elements into their own files. Although hindered by the issues noted above I enjoyed the process, it helped to get the artwork done and resembles the way that I’d work in Flash (although that is much more immediate).

What would I do differently?

In an ideal world I’d try to implement the following suggestions but, of course, I didn’t implement the suggestions that I made last time…

• Design : I’d drill down from character and setting to game mechanics and be more specific about the gameplay that I want to implement. Once I have a list of the key gameplay features then I could use that as a to-do list and try to get something playable up much more quickly. In LD 24 I had a crude but playable game by the end of the first day which I could then refine, this time by 17:00 on Sunday I still didn’t have a game which could be won or even lost. A very simple example would be as follows: I know the player will be an out of luck goblin (setting), they want to control their local dungeon (goal), how will they control it? By hiring minions to fight for them (mechanic). From there I can get more specific, how will they hire minions? A trading system, giving gold and resources for creatures, where will they find minions? Collecting cards from dungeon lairs, traders or finding them scattered throughout the dungeon and so on. Although, this time I did have the setting and genre which helped, I left the gameplay too vague.
• Programming : The programming went well this time, it was messy in places but nothing compared to LD 24. Thinking in states right from the beginning helped immensely to structure the code (although breaking states down into sub-states would have helped as things became more complex). Creating display classes that managed numerous entities and just presented a simple interface outside of the class was also an effective technique. As was nagging myself about DRY. Two major issues were: ignoring feedback and transitions, and not separating the UI code out into a separate class (I just fudged it all into the main game class). If there is a next time then I’d like to: warm-up with the tools, get some base code (preloading, buttons, sounds, template classes for the main elements, level loading etc…), a config class (key variables were scattered in different classes making playtesting and refinement hard work) and base code to simplify adding in different transitions (pop-ups fading in and out or sliding around, delays and tweens) and more elegantly handling player feedback (buttons pressed, disabled interface elements, damage taken, stats changed etc..).
• Environment : Making sure I’ve got decent tools for the job, if I’m using a laptop again then an extra monitor is a boon, as are a proper mouse and my trusty graphics tablet. Being comfortable and prepared can only help, right?

Okay, so this wasn’t my best game development experience but I’ve learnt from it and that’s the most important thing. I hope the rest of you get on better and get your games completed, good luck! All the best.

Tags: post-mortem, postmortem

This post is a little late but I’m in for miniLD #48 , just about to get started. No idea what I’m doing, or even what I’m using (it’ll either be Flash CC or Construct 2, I’ll decide after I’ve had an idea). I’m using this as a motivation boost, trying to get my 2014 game development off to a good start. Best of luck to everyone involved!

I've finally got the chance to play and rate some games after a busy few days! I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has produced. I'm part of Second Dimension Games and as previously posted by my team mates @SecondDimension and @FailedStarfish, our entry is a little game called Star Traveller which you can play here. Check it out and see what you think.

This time I was in charge of developing and designing the game, normally @SecondDimension handles that during our Ludum Dare jams but he had multiple birthday parties to drive to and visit in one weekend. That left me in the developer seat, normally my role is environmental art (drawing dirt...and rocks) and UI art (drawing shiny buttons). I have been itching to do more design and development work as part of the team, so it was a great experience for me.

Although I have a fair bit of experience with coding (particularly ActionScript and JavaScript) I used Construct 2 to develop the game, as we normally do. For jams it is fast and very efficient, a great tool for putting together prototypes.