Alright, I managed to beat GM4Mac into submission and actually port my game, so now Comfort Zone can be played by my fellow Mac users. Hurrah! This means all of my Ludum Dare work is done. Now, to play as many of the other 774 entries as possible!
Comfort Zone Postmortem:
The bad:
I spent most of my first night messing with movement variables, trying to bring the central gimmick of my game to life in a way that both felt “true to the idea” and fun. I ended up with an overcomplicated mess of code that didn’t communicate anything when you played it. Then I overslept into Saturday, and woke up feeling disheartened. I wasted
most of the day searching for renewed inspiration.
The good:
During that search, I created a short song that really helped nail down the feel of the game for me. I simplified the movement code and the gimmick, so that the idea was communicated consisely and powerfully. During the last 12 hours (I didn’t sleep at all during night 2 😛 ) the game design finally started to click. When I was done, my head was a mess and the game felt like a jumble, but I’m pretty certain I managed to piece everything together. It’s short, it’s weird, but there’s something fun in there, and something interesting in there — and I consider that a success.
Sound effects:
Speaking of clicking, I did sound effects differently this time. Originally I planned to use Bfxr (Stephen “increpare” Lavelle’s upgraded version of Sfxr), in standard LD fashion. But then, when planning what sort of sounds were needed to communicate, I had the idea to use my laptop’s built-in microphone, instead. Like I did when I first created Game Maker games as a kid, I would record a short, low-quality clip of something hitting something else, or scraping, or my voice. Then I would use Sound Recorder’s basic tools to modify the clips into what I needed. I think the results were perfect, especially for this game!
Theme:
The theme is the most important part of Ludum Dare, to me. The time-management challenge is fun, but the game-design challenge of an unusual theme is fascinating to me. I always try to have my game mechanics inspired BY the theme, instead of creating a game and then “working the theme into it.” Ironically, I think this can result in a game where the theme is less obvious. This time, my thought process went thusly (minor spoilers): “Alone –> your character is alone –> aren’t game characters usually alone? –> your character ISN’T alone, but wants to be –> gameplay involves avoiding people so you can accomplish tasks”.
Graphics:
Well, I never found time to change my placeholder art into something more elaborate. So instead, I just ran with it, and tried to turn the style into something communicative. I think it worked out alright in the end. It’s usually pretty effective to use base colors to represent different themes.
Music:
Probably the most “polished” part of my game, you can download the 53-second song here if you’d like: http://www.host-a.net/u/Ditocoaf/alone.mp3
Thanks for reading!
