It’s been a few days since the end of the competition, so I decided that it’d be a good time to write a post-mortem. This was my second ludum dare, and I think that I did an okay job this time around. The game ended up being a stealth-type game where you have a set amount of life, which constantly decreases. Killing an enemy slightly increases the time, and getting hit decreases it. In each level, you have to take out a marked target. If you want, play my game here: On Borrowed Time
What went well:
Graphics: Sure, they weren’t amazing, but I was able to make them in not too much time and they seem to be pretty well received. Also, I did the last LD in 2D, so 3D graphics were sort of a step up for me.
Sound: I thought that I did a decent job with the sound. The sfx were done pretty quickly, but I think they work. The music is pretty minimal, but I thought that that worked well in creating a theme.
Controls: This was one of the biggest complaints about my last LD entry. Of course, it’s easier to do controls for a top-down type game than for a platformer, but this was one of the areas that I wanted to improve in.
What didn’t go so well:
Time management: For a good third of the competition, I didn’t have anything remotely playable. Also, I ended up having to rush at the last part of the compo, which brings us to…
Levels: I was really disappointed with the amount of levels that I ended up with. Really, there were only 3 substantial levels. Plus, the biggest level was 16 x 16, when there was potential to make more expansive levels.
Those features that I wanted but couldn’t fit in: I had wanted to make more than 2 types of enemies, like one that stood still but rotated, and one that maybe shot a projectile at you. I also had this idea that after each level, you go to a sort of “black market,” where you could choose to keep the time you collected to help you out in later levels, or trade it in for upgrades or weapons.
That one bug: On the last day of the compo, I was trying to get the background music ( a .ogg file) to play, and it kept throwing an exception when I tried to load it. I spent a good hour trying to figure out what the heck was wrong. For some reason, it eventually started working, but I still have no idea what the problem was.
Distribution: Distribution can be tedious. Enough said.
So anyway, I thought this went well for the most part, and I plan to get a post-compo version up within a little bit.
