{"author_link":"\/users\/gamepopper","author_name":"gamepopper","author_uid":"gamepopper","comments":[],"epoch":1536001266,"event":"LD42","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":119090,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"121826","p_author":"gamepopper","p_authorkey":"1002636","p_urlkey":"337861","p_title":"Closing in on Pascal - A Postmortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD42","p_time":"1536001266","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1002636","us_name":"gamepopper","us_username":"gamepopper","event_start":"1533859200","event_key":"73","event_name":"LD 42"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD42","removed_author":false},"_superparent":97793,"_trust":10,"author":2636,"body":"With LDJAM coming to a close, I thought it'd be good to talk about how the submission [Closing in on Pascal](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal) came about and what I learned from it.\n\n## Plan\n\nLudum Dare 42 was particularly exciting for me, as it was the first LD in a long time that I had a completely free weekend. As such, I decided to plan the first day entirely for gameplay, with graphics and audio on the second day. That way I get a solid game and then plenty of time to work on making it look and sound nice, you'll find out why that plan isn't flawless as it sounds.\n\n## Theme\n\nWhen it came to the theme, I was already very pessimistic that it would be a theme I'd be happy with, it's been a common trend for people to vote on the theme that no one wants. I even voted against the theme \"Running Out of Space\" but when it turns out to be the chosen one, I thought it was pretty good.\n\n## Idea\n\nThe concept of running out of space I had was inspired by the cartoon trap of the walls closing in on someone in a temple. I figured a game where the player has to reach an exit before the room crushes them to death.\n\n## Gameplay\n\nFortunately, I have a bit of experience with platformers in my game engine from a previous jam, so the tilemap, jump physics and mechanics such as wall jumping I have previously implemented.\n\n![LD42-00000.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1a9f1.gif)\n\nThe jump animations itself was done because I remembered the indie platformer INK having good squash & stretch. To achieve it I modify the scale so that it squashes inwards when going up and stretches outward. If I had more abilities to adjust the individual vertices I could do more fun aspects of moving like skewing.\n\n![LD42-00001.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1a9fe.gif)\n\n## Art\n\nSince my idea was inspired by a temple film\/TV trope, I already had the visual theme in my mind. I also thought it would be good if I had a little cartoon character who'd look like Indiana Jones. It was fun working with pixel art and animation once again, but if I was to do this again I would have done a much simpler approach. The player character is way too small for the game screen, meaning that its animations are pretty much useless. I also had a bit of issue with making the colours stand out so it doesn't feel all yellow and brown.\n\n![LD42-00002.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1aa01.gif)\n\nIn the end, it took around 3 - 4 hours to work on the background environments and 5 hours to work on the player sprite and all the obstacles. If I went with a much simpler design or scrapped the temple theming and used the simple colours and shapes it would have been much clearer and easier to look at.\n\n![LD42-00009.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1aa02.gif)\n\n## Sound\n\nThis was achieved with LMMS and BFXR. I like making NES-like chiptune in there but I do notice it's restrictive in areas like tones and tempo, so I couldn't get the sounds I want. It also didn't help that thanks to the graphics, I had much less time to work on sound and music so it ended up rushed.\n\n## What could have been done better.\n\nThe post-jam has most of what I would have added or done better if I had time. Particle effects, using directional keys as well as the WASD buttons, and a better title logo. I would have also worked on more levels but seeing how many levels players are willing to go through, then maybe the existing levels should have been improved slightly.\n\n## Conclusion\n\nI'm a little worried about what the rankings will be for this one, I'm definitely glad I could take part but I feel as though I wasted too much time on the graphics when a simpler approach would have been effective. You can go check out [Closing in on Pascal](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal).","comments":0,"created":"2018-09-03T16:21:23Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":119090,"love":1,"love-timestamp":"2018-09-03T19:35:22Z","meta":[],"modified":"2018-09-03T19:35:22Z","name":"Closing in on Pascal - A Postmortem","node-timestamp":"2018-09-03T19:01:06Z","parent":103277,"parents":[1,5,9,97793,103277],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal\/closing-in-on-pascal-a-postmortem","published":"2018-09-03T19:01:06Z","scope":"public","slug":"closing-in-on-pascal-a-postmortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":356998},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"119090","n_urlkey":"337861","n_parent":"103277","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal\/closing-in-on-pascal-a-postmortem","n_slug":"closing-in-on-pascal-a-postmorte","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"2636","n_created":"1535991683","n_modified":"1536003322","n_version":"356998","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal\/closing-in-on-pascal-a-postmortem","text":"With LDJAM coming to a close, I thought it'd be good to talk about how the submission [Closing in on Pascal](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal) came about and what I learned from it.\n\n## Plan\n\nLudum Dare 42 was particularly exciting for me, as it was the first LD in a long time that I had a completely free weekend. As such, I decided to plan the first day entirely for gameplay, with graphics and audio on the second day. That way I get a solid game and then plenty of time to work on making it look and sound nice, you'll find out why that plan isn't flawless as it sounds.\n\n## Theme\n\nWhen it came to the theme, I was already very pessimistic that it would be a theme I'd be happy with, it's been a common trend for people to vote on the theme that no one wants. I even voted against the theme \"Running Out of Space\" but when it turns out to be the chosen one, I thought it was pretty good.\n\n## Idea\n\nThe concept of running out of space I had was inspired by the cartoon trap of the walls closing in on someone in a temple. I figured a game where the player has to reach an exit before the room crushes them to death.\n\n## Gameplay\n\nFortunately, I have a bit of experience with platformers in my game engine from a previous jam, so the tilemap, jump physics and mechanics such as wall jumping I have previously implemented.\n\n![LD42-00000.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1a9f1.gif)\n\nThe jump animations itself was done because I remembered the indie platformer INK having good squash & stretch. To achieve it I modify the scale so that it squashes inwards when going up and stretches outward. If I had more abilities to adjust the individual vertices I could do more fun aspects of moving like skewing.\n\n![LD42-00001.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1a9fe.gif)\n\n## Art\n\nSince my idea was inspired by a temple film\/TV trope, I already had the visual theme in my mind. I also thought it would be good if I had a little cartoon character who'd look like Indiana Jones. It was fun working with pixel art and animation once again, but if I was to do this again I would have done a much simpler approach. The player character is way too small for the game screen, meaning that its animations are pretty much useless. I also had a bit of issue with making the colours stand out so it doesn't feel all yellow and brown.\n\n![LD42-00002.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1aa01.gif)\n\nIn the end, it took around 3 - 4 hours to work on the background environments and 5 hours to work on the player sprite and all the obstacles. If I went with a much simpler design or scrapped the temple theming and used the simple colours and shapes it would have been much clearer and easier to look at.\n\n![LD42-00009.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/1aa02.gif)\n\n## Sound\n\nThis was achieved with LMMS and BFXR. I like making NES-like chiptune in there but I do notice it's restrictive in areas like tones and tempo, so I couldn't get the sounds I want. It also didn't help that thanks to the graphics, I had much less time to work on sound and music so it ended up rushed.\n\n## What could have been done better.\n\nThe post-jam has most of what I would have added or done better if I had time. Particle effects, using directional keys as well as the WASD buttons, and a better title logo. I would have also worked on more levels but seeing how many levels players are willing to go through, then maybe the existing levels should have been improved slightly.\n\n## Conclusion\n\nI'm a little worried about what the rankings will be for this one, I'm definitely glad I could take part but I feel as though I wasted too much time on the graphics when a simpler approach would have been effective. You can go check out [Closing in on Pascal](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/closing-in-on-pascal).","title":"Closing in on Pascal - A Postmortem","wayback_source":[]}