First off, I think that you should all be congratulated for generally being awesome. Reasons for you being awesome include the fact that you just made a better game in 48 hours on your own, or in a team, than the entire Duke Nukem Forever team did in slightly over 14 years.

You’ve also once again managed to be really positive in most of the comments I’ve read on games, even when pointing out flaws. I’m still rather impressed that a community of people who suffer from severe sleep deprivation could do such a thing, but you all seem to pull it off again and again.

High fives for all! Let us share an e-beer! Or something like that!

Party on!

I WHIP MAH HAIR BACK N FORTH!

Anyway, all this aside, I would like to throw in a quick postmortem of what I think. This is mostly for m own good, so that when I write a proper one (after player feedback), I can see what difference feedback makes. Gain a little insight into… something or other.

Anyway:

The good:

• I finished the game. Given that before this LD, I was at 1/3 completions, I think I have a reason to be proud
• The art. I’m not expecting the #1 art prize. I’m not expecting top 500#. Heck, I don’t expect anything. I’m not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. But just like last the LD I completed, I seem to have somehow managed to pile effects and programming stuff onto each other and make something that by my own personal standards, is as good as it gets.
• The sound: I made some music within the short amount of time we had, and I thought it was good. Big deal, I did last time too. However, this time I nailed sound effects too. I created sounds that actually fit into the music! My mother would be proud…
• Kittehs: I included them in the story this time. This is a massive improvement over last year’s disappointing cat-free showing.
• Length: I managed to avoid just having 3 levels of the same thing this time round. 40 levels! Who’d have thought… Well, if anyone, me. I doubt anyone else really cares about the length of an unannounced, unknown game
• Player empowerment: I successfully followed a design philosophy of “Power to the player” I took up for this contest. I did this by making them able to skip levels if they so wished (after trying and failing a little). This was done in order to make the game feel less like a challenge you HAVE to overcome, and more like… well… a game. I also think my tutorial system was better than a help file, and not as patronising as many of the triple-A games around. Nice that I can beat those heavyweights in some way
• Game saving: It happens. It works. ‘Nuff said.

The bad:

• The theme… uuuuuuuuuggghhhhhhhh… Who’d have thought that little ol’ evolution would have escaped the theme pot victorious? So yeah, I was inadequately prepared for it, and therefore gave up on the theme. I decided “I’m here to make a game, so I shall make a game!” So I don’t mind if I get my ratings blasted for poor theme use. There are some clever games out there that deserve the victory.
• Some of the platforming (I’m looking at you, doublejump speed boost) was a little off, and by the time I decided to change this, I had done wwaaaaaaayyyy too much level design to be able to change the physics. So nevermind…
• The story: I checked on the timelapse. I somehow managed to spend four and a half hours at the end working on some light polish, but mostly the story. Which, if I may say so, is absolutely appalling… The oppening is fine, but the end…. Uugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

The ugly:

• The cloth physics based graphics in this game allowed for some… interesting moments…

And there was me thinking we all remembered the lessons taught by Marilyn Monroe…

I’m not a pervert, I swear… That sign is, though. Watch out for him…

Anyway, it’s been a great experience, looking forwards to playing your games!

Shameless advertising! Play my game! Now! Or else!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=4104

Tags: postmortem

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 at 2:36 pm and is filed under LD #24. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.