Ludum Dart: A Post Mortem
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Went into making this game with the idea of smallest scope possible. It turned out much better than I expected, especially towards the end as I started adding feedback such as sounds and score popups. The main thing I took away from this was perseverance is key. I could have given up at any point and scrapped the project, but I kept going and worked on making the main mechanic as enjoyable as possible.
How I used my time: Worked on two prototypes in the first few hours. Slept for 6 hours then woke up and chose a project to work on for the remainder of the competition. Polished the core gameplay mechanic (drew the hands, got the dartboard spinning, numbered the segments). Slept for 6 more hours. Worked on getting a menu, settings, and a highscore working. Polished up the game around the core mechanic. Made sure everything worked, then loaded the game onto my site to submit it!
Things that went right: I managed my time well. I'm proud of the game-feel or juice. The tutorial works well in my opinion, as the game rules aren't exactly straightforward. Also I was glad to get a menu and highscores in with the amount of time I had.
Things that went wrong: I would have like to sleep more; I only slept 12 hours during the 48 hour period. I'm still recovering from the sleep inertia. I also would have liked to include some actual music, but didn't have time to make any. Also, I'm getting a lot of feedback about not having a restart button.
Overall: I'm very happy with the game. Would have liked to add or change a few things here and there, and I may get around to that in a post-jam version. I had my friends try it, and now they are competing to get a highscore. My biggest takeaway was that a smaller scope helps tremendously when you're aiming for making something fun. Glad I got to participate, now I can't wait for LD41.
Well, good luck everyone! Remember to rate games, and good luck!
