"Just Roll With it!" is obviously our entry for LD51. It's a fast-paced platformer where you steer a constantly moving character named Lina around on large platforms where your speed increases every 10 seconds. The player has to collect a certain number of Gems on the level to complete a stage. Here's an overview in terms of what I think we did right and wrong:

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⋆ ★☆ WHAT I THINK WE DID RIGHT ☆★⋆

-Presentation
    For starters, I think it was awesome that we were able to get a few different walking animations onto our character, that trigger after every other, other speed increase. I think it sells the fantasy of moving quickly. The HUD is a little big, the but menus make nice use of value/ color and have tweens attached to a bulk of the buttons and texts which makes it look pretty polished. The graphics are simple, but have multiple distinct backgrounds and tile colors which look nice I think.

-Overall Design
    Our goal for this was to build a game where the player would have to route a path through "diamond" shaped levels where more of the stage would open up as the player's speed increased. I think we achieved this, but not without qualification. The shape of the level is fattest near the back since the player will be at a faster speed at that point, Typically the end of each level will have a route that leads closer to the start of the level or at the very least above it.

-Soundtrack
    The soundtrack was once again done by CFY, whom you can find here: https://twitter.com/CFY98. Compared to previous releases, he added a bit of guitar to the tunes which adds a distinct "radical" flavor to the game and also suites the core fantasy of moving fast.

⋆ ★☆ PITFALLS AND FAILURES ☆★⋆

Now for the fun one, haha. 

    -Strict Gem requirements.
        I think the gem requirements for each stage probably could've been dropped by 5-10 on every stage. What we were going for was for the player to feel a bit of stress as the speed level ticked up that would hopefully convince the player to route their own optimized path through levels after a death or four, but having the gem counts be so tight over emphasized this aspect.

    -Rushed level segments
        I think for the most part our levels were pretty thought out, but certainly not perfect. One issue that comes to mind for me is that on some levels, going the opposite direction through a segment might not have a way to return the player to the elevation they came from if they drop down after a platforming sequence. These were due to a lack of testing.

    -Unpolished, quickly-implemented mechanics.
        Wouldn't be an action-focused jam entry without some of these. While the running and turning in our game works pretty well, there are a few interactions missing from it that make it somewhat less-ideal. As an example of something not-so-great, If you get caught on a corner, the character will keep running in that corner until you turn away from it, and if the corner is on a small platform, the exit speed can be difficult to respond to. Another example would be the grind rails, which are built to only work if the player is totally on top of them when they collide with them.

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Anyways, thanks for reading whether you read the whole thing or just looked at the pretty pictures I appreciate you checking this article out. I'd also appreciate it if you went ahead and check out the game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/just-roll-with-it