EFTToED – Post Mortem
A short Post-Mortem on my third try at a Ludum Dare compo. I made 3 level long adventure-puzzle game called “Escape From The Temple of Eternal Dooom”.
What went right:
- Preparation / Tools - I knew which tools (engine, media creation / generators) I wanted to use, and kept the weekend appointment-free.
- Theme – While not as instantly-inspiring as some other themes, it was a bonanza compared to the last theme. (‘Minimalism’)
- Sound - I am not a sound engineer, or even that musically inclined, but had good fun creating a simple but effective ‘dun dun duunnn’ background tune in SunVox, and recorded my first ever sound effects (footsteps and a whip sound). I did not have sound in my last LD game and that was a major flaw, so glad I improved there.
- Humor - I like to be funny (or pretend to be), and I had a lot of hooks in my game to reference silly things and have fun with the theme. (a pseudo Indiana Jonesy setting, with a snarky hero)
- Art - Inkscape has been a excellent tool for me in the past (drew fun detailed DnD location maps with it). It allows me to do a ‘simple but effective’ style that I can do a lot in with not much time. And scalable stuff rules!
- Concept - Loved my base mechanics and concept (you plan your hero moves, each move costs time, and you only have 10 seconds to reach the next door, or be reset), I could easily expand into whatever I wanted.
- Planning / Time Management - While not perfect, I stuck to my planning of having the ‘concept’ done on Saturday and polish on Sunday. ‘Polish’ here being ‘adding two levels’. But I did not spend too much time on unnecessary things, stopped trying to perfect ‘ok’ things, and moved on. Could still be improved, but hey, what can’t?
What went wrong:
- Difficulty – Allowing the player to discover and slowly get into the mechanics of the game would have been best. But I started off rough (you really had to ‘get it’ all for the first level), and it kept at that difficulty level while introducing new elements. I fear that not many got to the end. More hints, more playing, gentler curve.
- UI – Not necessarily the graphical part, but I was missing some functionality for the players. A ‘remove all actions’ button was oft-requested. Making it very clear that you can pause the game during move repeats would have been good too. Maybe add keyboard shortcuts.
- Physics Not Pausing – I used Unity’s physics engine to do collapsible floor tiles for room 2 of the game, but due to a short-sighted ‘oh they will get past that if they try a few times’, the physics kept running during pause. That breaks a game rule I set up in Room 1, and makes it more difficult to boot.
- Lighting - Not from my own experience, but people were complaining that it was too dark. I think it was an important part of the game to keep it really dark, and have light be a proper resource, but I fear that technically, the lighting might look different on peoples rigs. (environment, monitor, OS differences)
I really enjoyed making this LD entry, and I think the results are an improvement over my previous efforts. I am still quite enthusiastic about the premise and concept of the game, and am seriously considering turning it into a ‘real’ game project.
Tags: dooom, post-mortem
*yawn*
This LD weekend I do not have much time, but I am still going to try to get one day in. Considering that I made my ideas too big the last four times, a one day LD will be a supreme challenge!
Sooo, going to try to make a game in 14 hours, from now on end. Theme is good, no time to waste – wish me luck! 
In the last bunch of LDs, 
Semi-belated ‘I am in’ + ‘omg theme’ post:
