So I saw the all the stats-posts and wanted to be cool too.
Here are the ratings of my games during the last 4 LDs, including some general stats.
What’s interesting to see is that the number of games has skyrocketed. 1 year ago there were only 352 games, now it’s 4 times that much.
As a result of this I believe a percentage-score becomes important. Ranking, say, 50th out of 300 is different to ranking 50th out of 1400.
Aside from that I can tell that I have significantly improved after my first LD. Audio has increased steadily and Theme hung around the top ~25 spots. The rest did improve generally, dut did fluctuate.
My worst grades were in Humor, yet even then they were in the top 40%. Cool.
I learn from this that POLISH MATTERS. I always made sure the game is as “complete” as possible, even getting my roommate to play it a few hours before the end to implement the input. The more “stable” and “complete” a game is, the less you may frustrate the player, which will result in a better mood towards your game and thus better ratings.
(Yes I know the coolness-rating has been calculated differently each time, I didn’t take that into account. But I did take extra care to look beyond the coolness-numbers and I did actually come out 1st every time. Does this make me eligible for a lifetime-coolness-award? )
So I created My Little Planetoid in 48 hours. Read on to find out what I thought afterwards (a post-mortem, if you will).
What went right
Genre/Setting
This is both a science-fiction and city-builder game. The combination itself is rather rare.
Building stuff
It just feels awesome. And I love the “Build now on moon”-gag, which I think is quite good game-design.
Timelapse
According to people this video is “intense”. It might be due to the orchestral music, but probably because my facial expressions during Ludum Dare varies between “frown” and “manic laughter”.
Soundtrack
I composed this over the course of the 24 hours. The first idea of the music I had immediately after I decided on the idea, and it grew from there. It has been quite well received, with many people saying they like it and find it relaxing.
Also, the idea of a space-banjo is just awesome.
Graphics
Having empty space as background meant I was able to concentrate more on the 3d-models in the foreground. And while they could be improved a lot, you’ll notice there’s a lot of detail to be found.
Mood
The combination of the somber soundtrack and the space-y visuals worked quite well, which people also remarked positively.
What went alright
Theme
This time I actually prepared. I made a list of ideas for every possible theme. Tiny World was the one where I didn’t have anything brilliant ready, so threw in an idea I already had before. After the announcement I developed more of them, but threw them out when I saw others made them first.
Scope in fiction
My Little Planetoid has a somewhat weird range of buildings. You start out with houses and farms, which could position this game anywhere in the past or future. Then you quickly advance to Science-Laboratories and advanced-space-stations. So while it is a progression through technology, I feel it could’ve been more focused.
Scope in design
In design-terms My Little Planetoid is huge. It has more unique features/elements than any of my previous games. It has multiple complex 3d-models. It has a somewhat extensive GUI. And, most importantly, a huge web of each other influencing resources and variables.
I was even glad when something emergent happened, but there was lot of potential for bugs and unforeseen combinations. Which led to…
Balancing & bug-testing
I literally coded in something 10 minutes before the deadline. There was no time left for dedicated balancing and bug-hunting, only what I noticed during test-plays myself. The resource-balancing now kinda works, but it does feel off sometimes.
In the end the basic resources become abundant, so you aren’t really thinking about them any longer.
Textures
I used a basic pixelated diffuse-map on all things. Sadly there was no time to take care of UV-maps, but it doesn’t really show unless you really look.
What went wrong
Failure to realize how bloody huge this project is
This led to a (frankly mental) development-speed in the last hours, and the incomplete balancing.
All in all
This was an awesome and fun gamejam. My Little Planetoid is right now one of the most-played games, and people really enjoy it. The general consensus is that this could be huge if further developed. And so I will
“Tiny World” was quite challenging, but I DID IT *fistpump*
I created My Little Planetoid, a city-building-game set on a small planetary body IN SPACE. You can build houses, factories, and launch satellites and rockets.
The compo is over, and while there are still some hours left in the jam, we can already begin voting on games. During my first Ludum Dare I was somewhat confused, so I’m detailing here how it works:
1 – List of suggested games. Your personal voting-site displays a set of games unique to you, so that if everyone plays the game on their lists, all games should get a good basic number of votes.
2 – List of games voted on by you – A screenshot and the name is displayed.
3 - The number of times the game has been voted on. It’s displayed in (brackets) after the name of the game.
4 – Your grades on said game for the compo. You can vote 1-5 stars in the categories overall, innovation, fun, adherence to theme, graphics, audio, humor and mood. Should you feel you can’t give a proper grade, you can also give a N/A.
5 – You grades for the jam. The same rules as above, but concerning games made during the jam. They do not compete directly with compo-games.
6 – A X appears should you have given a text-comment.
Sadly, it appears the coolness- and community-grades are not displayed. I don’t know whether they are permanently removed, or will be reinstated shortly.
Reddit
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