Link to Finished Entry

So, this is my first ever Ludum Dare. I had only jammed once before this! I wanted to wrap up my thoughts and how we pulled it off.

My role, for the most part, was programmer. I coded the majority of the mechanics and features in the game. I took on some design and level design as well, but I can't take credit for the majority of it. I also set up source control, helped plan, and other various things. When it is a short time limit, everyone does everything. lol

I guess the best way for me to break this up is by day and milestones.

Friday ~ Planning and Starting

Leading up to friday, we all voted and thought about what themes we would like to be picked. * We had to throw all of those ideas out the window. * The theme we * didn't * want got picked. We had no ideas at all for a game. We spent from 9PM to probably 10:30PM asking each other what we could do and what would be fun. Some of my favorite scrapped ideas (Some serious, some not):

• First Person Shooter x First Person Shooter
• FPS x Physics x Golf - Basically a game about using guns to shoot and bouncy ball into a hole
• Etc.

After that, someone said it and the genres were set - * Metroidvania x Racing(ExciteBike) *.

I started coding almost immediately. I got a character controller, pickups, and a few various classes done and working. I coded until probably 2:30 AM - 3 AM. The core mechanics of the game were here, more or less.

Saturday ~ Building, Breaking, and More

Saturday was co-work day! I drove down to one of our team member's house and we worked most of the day. The game gained a real structure then. We cemented the level design, characters, music, etc. This is when the game really got the * metroidvania * half. I covered their whiteboard in doodles and bad level layouts until we finally designed something that stuck and felt fun to play.

* _ Then we lost it. _ *

A source control error like I have never seen before happened and we lost the entire main level. After an hour of refactoring, fixing, and rebuilding , We ended up with something better. We got our level back and it turned out better the second time! I can honestly say that saturday is when the game took shape and our group was its strongest. Without that co-working experience, they game wouldn't have turned out as good.

Sunday ~ Polish, PlayTesting, and Publishing

On Sunday I spent most of the day playing and populating the level. I wanted to make sure there were fun puzzles based on the mechanics we had in place. I spent most of the day doing this. After that phase was over, I just polished.

Screen Shake, Particle Effects, Screen Fading, control tightening, etc. I spent a lot of time on this. I got to the point that I felt like the game played well and correctly represented the source material I was working with. I sent the game to a few people and let them play, and I got mostly positive feedback. I analyzed the negative, and made some adjustments to the game. Then we ended up with the final project. c:

Conclusion

I don't think there is anything I would change or do differently. It went smooth with a few minor hiccups. Of course there are things I'd like to have added, but the game we got was worth making the sacrifices. Quality over Quantity ;P

In the end, this went super smoothly and was one of the coolest experiences in my young gamedev career. I learned a lot and I think I can make the next one even better! Also, keep regular backups locally in case of git being mean. ;P

Give us a rating? :3