Well, it’s time for me to write my own post-mortem about Never Alone Hotline in order to have more ratings share my experience.

You can also watch the boring timelapse :

Oujevipo#videoId=xn37yp

Oujevipo#videoId=xn381p

What went right/What helped

Hot Chocolate.

On Ludum Dare 21, I found my game idea drinking a hot chocolate outside in the heat of summer. On Ludum Dare 22, I sat in front of my computer for hours without any idea coming, so I decided to have a hot chocolate outside in the cold of winter, juste like last time, and it worked ! As soon as I sat at the café, the whole game idea came immedialty to me, in one second, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So I recommend hot chocolate, and I’ll order one for every other Ludum Dare.

Breaking up.

Me and my girlfriend broke up a week before the Ludum Dare…and I think it was quite useful (what a jerk!). I felt very sad this whole week (I still do, but that’s not relievant) and I suppose it helped me to come up with this idea of hotline for lonely people and to create this quite depressing atmosphere. Every clouds got a silver lining.

Adventure Game Studio.

AGS is the only software I know for making games, and god, I love it ! Even if it is normally a point & click software, you can use it to make plenty of stuff if you know it well, even puzzles or RPGs. I think it is a great software for beginners : easy to use, and very rich.

Knowing this software helped me to work quicly ans the Never Alone Hotline code is my less messy code ever !

Irc french chanel.

It was great to have people to talk with during this week end. I could complain to them I would never finish my game in time and finally be the first one to finish ^^. It’s a good thing to actually « feel » the community. So thanks to Bender, Meedoc, Gib, Alchymi, 01010101 and the other ones !

Pulsate.

I wanted to use Andre Michelle’s Pulsate even before knowing the theme. So I was quite happy the theme to be alone because this tool makes very lonely tunes. I think it adds a lot to Never Alone Hotline athmosphere ans I’m very happy with it.

Same old graphics.

I suck at graphics. So I used the same old character style I used in my previous game : Big pixels, not much exprissivity, flashing colors…The graphics were done in an hour or two so it allowed me to focus on the narration and coding.

What went wrong/What did not help

Audacity

I spent way too much time trying to record the Pulsate Sound from my own computer with a double-jack. Not only I didn’t know how to use Audacity, but I wasn’t also able to hear what I was recording (because of the double-jack). That was awful, I gave up thrice, then tryed again later. Finally, I managed to do it, but it would have been more clever to learn how to do it BEFORE.

The game title

I don’t like my game’s title. It is the first I came up with and then I did not change, but I think I should had. I don’t like when the Ludum Dare theme is in the title, it’s a serious lack of originality. But even now, I didn’t find any better title so…

Writing in english

I’m not a english native speaker : writing the dialogs in english was a pain in the ass. I wanted to tell much more, but couldn’t because I wasn’t fluent enough. Fortunately, Wordreference helped me, A LOT, and I think it saved the game.

In the end, a lot of things went right and very few went wrong. The game is exactly what I wanted it to be at the first place (drinking my hot chocolate) and I’m very happy with it. I consider it is my best game of all time (ok…I made three…), and I’m glad people seem to like it.

Thanks Ludum Dare !

I you haven’t played Forever Alone Hotline yet : It’s here !

Hi! And Merry Whatever!

In August we were plenty to cover the LD21 on L’Oujevipo. This time, I’ll try to do it alone.
It means I’ll post a new LD22 review everyday during the rating period (and maybe after). I don’t try to review the best games, but the most interesting to me (i.e the ones which deserve 5 stars in Innovation ^^). So if you want to read about games you missed or maybe about your game, why don’t you take a look ?
So far, I already reviewed Al-one, Craequ, I used to speak to the wall, Älone and Comfort Zone (This game is the GREATEST! You should totally play it!). Many more are to come.

Only problem…The reviews are in french…So maybe you should try Google Translate.

-French reviews

-Poorly translated reviews. (Sorry)

Eventually, feel free to rate and give feedback on my own game : Never Alone Hotline .

Just like the last time, I finished my game 6 hours before the deadline.

Finding the idea took me around 3 hours, the graphics 2-3 hours, same thing for the sounds effects, the rest was for coding and writing dialogs (especially writing the dialogs).

I would like to do a What went wrong, what went right thing, but according to me, everything went right. The game is what I wanted it to be, it’s my second one, and I’m pretty proud of myself.

Don’t know if the game is fun, funny or moody still, but it’s mine, and I love it.

Thank Ludum Dare for making this happen. I would have never thought I could actually make games.

(The game is here : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=1874)

Well…I suppose the “Never Alone Hotline” name is gonna stay now. I don’t like it very much but whatever : here comes the title screen!

Ta-Daaa

(Please tell me it looks a bit like a phone…)

Alone is a tough theme but I eventually found what I wanted to make. The game is called Never Alone Hotline (maybe it’ll change) and it’s about a girl, Severine, working voluntarily for a lonely people hotline.

Consequently, there will be a lot of dialogs…in fact dialogs are almost  everything in this game.

Here’s a screenshot of what it’s gonna look.

I’m in.

I made my very first game on LD21 and was pretty proud of myself, so let’s do it again.
I didn’t try to make any game since then so…maybe there won’t be any progress but whatever.

I’ll probably use Adventure Game Studio with GraphicsGale for the graphics.
If the theme fits, I might use an Andre Michelle’s tool for the audio ( http://lab.andre-michelle.com/ )