So, unity wont run properly on my laptop (will try again later for a jam entry perhaps) so I’m stuck with nothing to do.
Postmortem time!

What went wrong:

• Time allocation: Maybe going to a jam for saturday wasn’t a great idea in terms of getting a compo entry done. If I’d done something in Flixel then I would’ve been sorted (my 2D workflow is definitely fast enough, my AS3 knowledge is up to scratch, and I’ve used it for a bunch of LDs before). As it was, too many things went wrong for me to get any actual gameplay in
• Wrong end of the stick: Though I always do this, I should really code some stuff before drawing stuff. I continue with the design on paper and in my head while I’m creating assets but without a working prototype I end up with an art game that’s not even really a comment on anything.
• Really goddamn slow level creation workflow. My level creation workflow basically involved marching around the level first placing gameplay elements (~10min) and then placing graphical elements (~2.5hr). Hot damn I need to find a way to speed up the second step.
• Not familiar enough with unity. This really only mattered when I wasted an hour tracking down a bug which was caused by animation not playing if the animation calls are made from a different gameobject. Note to self, animation script on the thing with animation, anything else might get called at the wrong time. D:<
• Sound/Music: Every time I do this, I forget that sounds make everything more fun. Bugger.

During animation crisis hour: WHY ARE YOU STUCK IN A T STAND?!?!

What went right:

• Graphical Cheeriness: I’m fairly happy with how the graphical side of things came together given the short time I had to get anything done. There are definite holes in my 3D workflow but over the course of yesterday it certainly got faster
• World Design: The world came together mostly as I envisioned it, with a few key missing points: no dock (though I’ll be able to make one from the assets), no door on the house (???), no woodshed or seed shed.
• Gameplay Design: If I got the gameplay implemented it should’ve been pretty fun. Just got to finish a few assets and write a few scripts. Sadly, I didn’t have time (fingers crossed for postcompo).

Animation working, Planting stuff working, Ragdolling working, Scary cave not working, trees kinda working, no sheep, no wolves, final destination.

Bottom Line: Unity is quick for some stuff (making the planting mechanic work nicely took like 10min including messing around with prefabs). Should allocate more than 12 working hours to getting a 3D game done next time

Happy Ludumdare, hope to get a postcompo submission out in the next few days!

(When in doubt translate the idea to latin)

Click for full size (800×600)

Guess where most of the time has gone, haha. WIP naturally, and not all of them shown (including the shepherd herself, as she's not rigged yet) but needed to get lunch and figured a progress update was in order.

The game is going to be about caring for and defending the sheep of the world. I’ve mocked up the world space (its like 200mx100m with some curvy bits cutting into that) and thought quite a lot about how I want it to play. Lets see how the execution goes, haha.

Just got home from a refreshing jam with @leehsl (Harry Lee) and ended up making a game about capitalism (really vaguely) (also about being dicks to one another). Its not finished yet, he still has to code it. Here’s a turtle (related)

I am going to have to find time for this because it is significantly more awesome than whatever else i was planning on doing but damn, even though I’ve been watching the clock on and off its snuck up on me. Better get rating stuff then.

No way in hell am i going to have time for a practice game or two haha, likely to be working up to the starting themepost. (in IRC to not contribute to the mass F5 on the compo page)