I learned a lot throughout this Ludum Dare.

Preparation is key. And I don’t mean by programming the game before the compo starts, but by knowing your tools inside out. I spent a lot of Saturday messing around because I didn’t practice enough with Slick2D. That was noticeable by the peaks and lows my FPS had. It went from as high as 3000 to as “low” as 200 FPS because of a few changes. I’m pretty sure that I won’t do that much better the next Ludum Dare, but I’m confident that eventually I’ll master resource management.

Clean code is good code. Yeah, screw that. I tried maintaining the cleanest code possible throughout Saturday and spent more time “cleaning code” than writing code. I stopped writing clean code on Sunday. I’m not saying “screw clean code entirely” but in a Ludum Dare situation it can get hectic and it’s better to output code fast instead of clean. It’s not like I’m maintaining this game after today.

Make it playable as fast as possible. I read some developers preaching this and to be honest, it’s cool and fun when your game is running and changes you made are instantly testable. I switched from a platformer to a topdown view during the course of Saturday. I felt platforming wouldn’t have been as fun and as smooth as topdown would have been. Know your limits applies.

One thing I didn’t do was participate that much in the community. That was a choice I made when I started. I wanted to focus on game-making entirely. I think I wouldn’t have finished my game if I was reading around and trying everyone else’s game. Not to speak of internet distractions…

All in all, my game isn’t that much fun. It entertains you for a minute, or two if you’re a slow player, but I’m glad I made it.

Special thanks to caranha for assistance and lols.

Entering for the first time.

• Java (Slick)
• Eclipse
• sfxr
• paint.net

We’ll see