Hi, this is my first Ludum Dare.

Finally, I got some gameplay on the screen: http://cdietze.github.io/quads/

I wanted to do some sort of puzzler. Initially, something like match-3 or threes.

But it came out more like Sokoban. Now I added worm-like behavior for the player which I am quite content with right now.

Anyways, the tech I use:

PlayN (http://playn.io/) which is Java and also compiles to HTML.

No GFX-Tool or Audio Tool used yet 😉

The sprites are still just placeholders. There are buttons, doors, boulders you can push and the green circle is the goal. When you reach it nothing happens

I am quite happy so far. The remaining big tasks are improving the visuals and adding some interesting levels. I may skip SFX.

It’s playable here: http://cdietze.github.io/quads/

I just submitted my entry: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?uid=67399

I am quite happy how it went. I didn’t expect to get along with the time constraint so well. Using familiar tech is a huge time-saver.

A few more levels would have been nice. But I must say creating advanced puzzle game levels without a decent level editor is quite challenging!

Anyways, I enjoyed the competition. Cheers!

I eventually get to write down my post mortem to my Game: William’s Dilemma

What went right

• Simple, self-explaining controls (except that ESC button, see in what went wrong) really help.
• Teaching the rules through levels works well.
• Using a well-known framework really helped to progress quickly.
• For the first I added audio to a game. They are very limited, yet effective.
• Levels are selectable from the start. This is good for a number of reasons:
  • There is no save function. If you hit refresh, your progress is gone.
  • You might want to skip a level.
  • Pulling up a level you talk about is easy.

What went wrong

• I only realized how close to Sokoban this is when I added boxes to the game which seemed like a logical thing to add – goes well with the buttons 😉
  Not sure if I would have gone in a different direction, but realizing which games you mix early should help finding in which direction you want to go.
• People don’t find the menu which is opened using the ESC-key. Thus, they don’t know there is a retry button. There should a visible button for retry and/or the menu.
• First screenshot should contain something more recognizable. This one is used as a small thumbnail, so detailed stuff will become blurred.
• More animations / effects would help.
• Buttons and doors look quite similar and are not so easy to identify at first.

Overall I am very happy with the result.

The game is turn based. You control the cats which have to capture the mice.
Cats move like knights in chess.
Mice move forward if they can, otherwise rotate left.

It’s actually playable online: https://cdietze.github.io/ld37/

I am quite happy with the sprites for the cats and mice.

But I’m not sure the gameplay has enough to offer.
Current idea is to make mice spawn continually and you have to capture as many mice as possible in a fixed amount of moves.

Just submitted my entry to the compo: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?uid=67399

What went right

• Well-known tech stack. And some reference projects.
  I had a basic game running quite quickly.
  Adding a feature was mostly straight-forward.
• Graphics look nice by my standards.
  Using vectr.com worked out quite well.
  Using photos as templates worked well.
• I think the game shows some interesting mechanics.

What went wrong

• Was too much locked into the chess-move idea (you play cats that move like knights and catch mice).
  When I realized this idea wasn’t leading to sensible gameplay I was blocked for a couple of hours before coming up and switching to the vacuum-cleaner idea.
• The game itself is not super fun… There is no clear goal.
• I previewed the game in a quite high resolution. So, some images and strokes are too small / thin.
• I would have liked to add sounds and animations, but not enough time for that.

Overall I am happy with the result.

Maybe I should break from turn-based in the next LD – I tend to stick to the same patterns.