Well, before I get started, are Post-Mortems supposed to be when you’re done with a game, or just looking back at the weekend?
Anywhoozle, I made this thing in 48 hours, and, after about 30 minutes of deep, deep consideration, named it Hero Feed Co. and here it is: …in a thiserly direction… I think… yeah, here it is!
So, in this hectic-ish and horrifying place, you pop out of a little cage labeled “Snack”. Then the janitors start pouring in. Now that I have the story out of the way, the weekend went as such: Theme came out at nine ‘cuz I’m an Eastern-Coast… dweller, and then I started bouncing a few ideas off of some friends and doing some art for the game. Then, about an hour later, decided to turn in for the night. Next day was the usual semi-relaxed rush to build the basis of the game, and I had the game itself done by bedtime that night. On Sunday, the awe-inspiring day of rushing, I had the majority of a game done, and was able to focus on polish. I spent the morning and beginning of the afternoon doing cool and fancy stuff, like knockback, flashing-hurt-colors, and two new enemies. Of course, like a good little jammer, I left the music and sound until the end. I actually think I wasted quite a bit of time on the sound, as I scrapped what I had after an hour and reverted to BFXR. Music also wasted about 30 minutes, and I ended up with none at all. Deadline came and went, and it was quite a success in my opinion. And, feedback from the community has enlightened me on quite a few interesting details.
What I think went right:
Art- I had a ton of fun doing it, and have gotten a few comments on how much they liked the art style I used… which I don’t really know what I did differently from normal, so maybe they just like my art.
Concept- the statement of “Keep It Simple Stupid” is completely genius, and a must-have piece of advice to follow. Every time with Ludum Dare, I’ve gotten the comment “Nice idea, bad execution”, and now I’ve learned that time for polish is essential to limiting the number of these comments.
Sound… ish- I guess I could put a “what went okay”, but I’m actually kind of impressed with the sound this time. Watching that Magfest 48-hour game jam tip session-panel-thing taught me the tip of “When on BFXR, just hit the Randomize button a few times”. It worked a charm, with some really cool and somewhat-smoother-than-normal sound effects. Sound was a little incomplete though.
What I think went wrong:
Music- Not applicable, again. Nice job man.
Controls- Again with the “Nice idea, bad execution” thing. I went with a similar control scheme to Mobs inc. from LD 33, and by similar I mean VERY similar, and the execution was very easy to do, but ended up with a slight “icy-floor vibe”, as one comment put it.
Difficulty- Combined with the “icy-floor vibe”, and some cramped level design, quite a few people found the game too hard. I went with what was a comfortable difficulty, and ended up making it far too hard for anyone else to do very well. Which unfortunately also means that not everyone got to see some of the later content, like the all-powerful Death Pugs. They come in wave 4 for those of you who may want to see one. Good luck.
I really learned quite a bit from this LD, had a ton of fun, and can’t wait to see more of what you guys have made this LD, and try again in April.
If you want to try my game, it’s here: in this link.
Good luck seeing a Death-Pug.
