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Post-mortem of Alone in the Mansion
December 26th, 2011 5:59 amMy first thought when I read the theme was “exploring an old house alone, at night”. I played too much “Alone in the Dark” in my days… And I wanted a similar game, but in 2D. So I choosed the “survival horror” genre.
What went right:
- Programming tools: I had no problem with the usual write-build-compile-play-debug workflow
- Chronolapse was very good for the screen capture (see timelapse here)
- I was more focused than the last time
- It was really fun!
What went wrong:
- The game is maybe too easy to beat
- Jumps are a little innatural. By design the player should be able to jump a single zombie coming in his direction, and this works, but the feel is not right.
- Animations could be improved: for example, the legs in the player-walking animation
- Colors of the platforms: I wanted to represent a wooden floor at night, tried several colors, and at last settled on blue/purple, but I really don’t like it (it seems too shiny)
- I lost too much time thinking about the game (or, “thinking if the game was right”); I should think about the game before the start of the competition…
- The time ran out and I missed the sound effects and the music; with a theme like this they could really make the difference
I’m working now on a post-compo version, trying to fix the wrongs and adding some suggestion made by players. I hope to release it in a day or two. You can find the original entry here.
Tags: post-mortem, postmortem