This has been my second entry in Ludum Dare, while my first entry was for the LD27. I’m going to do a compartison between the results of those two to analyze how I’ve improved. I think that it’s important to say that I only had one day to do this entry, while I used the two compo days for my first one. I also was very unexperienced in computer programming when I did the first one; I also used a different software that required less programming. (Adobe FlashPro in LD27 vs. Haxe+OpenFL in this LD)

Overall:

LD31: 2.78 (#958)
LD27: 2.75 (#850)
Well, it looks I’ve improved very slightly on this one! My original LD27 entry (of which I did a post-compo version, BTW) had gameplay flaws, such as having a very annoying level you had to repeat each time you failed and not explaining certain important things. This time, I think I’ve also had some mistakes: some people have said the game was very confusing, others said it did not feel like it was a game because it just had you waiting until you unlocked things… I still have many things to improve as a game designer.

Innovation:

LD31: 3.44 (#333)
LD27: 2.57 (#847)
The idea in my first LD was not very original: using different minigames in a succession with timing to do certain thing has already many games with it (WarioWare…). I think there were other games in LD that used the same mechanic, too.
In this occasion, I thought about taking the theme in a way that implied that the game depended on the screen, and not just the game being on the screen.

Fun:

LD31: 2.52 (#994)
LD27: 2.71 (#730)
…and althrough innovative, my idea wasn’t really fun (and I was almost out of the top 1000). Or at least it wasn’t well implemented: someone commented that the game lacked of interaction of the player and the waiting made it very boring.
My first LD entry was the opposite: the player had to react quickly and correctly in order to win. For the next LD, I’ll take into account the importance of player interaction.

Theme:

LD31: 3.8 (#311)
LD27: 3.46 (#281)
The theme category was the highest rated one of both games. As I already explained in the innovation part, in the other LD I took a literal interpretation of the theme while in this one I did something more original.

Also, I’m realizing that the ratings in general were lower in LD27, because even though the number of compo entries have been lower this LD, I’m getting a lower ranking for a higher score. Does that mean that the low ratings in my previous LD entry have more value than the high ones in this LD? I thought I had improved D:

Graphics:

LD31: 2.11 (#1111)
LD27: 1.79 (#1135)
If it’s not because everyone has decided to give higher ratings in this LD, I don’t understand how I got a superior score this time. This LD entry only has as “graphics” some badly-drawn screens with a simple background. The other one had… a curtain effect, some circles with colors, ehmmm… The graphics in both games are terrible, but I would say that I did better in my first LD. I think I’ll focus more on graphics on the next LD, this has been the lowest ranking category in both games (not counting coolness)

Audio:

LD31: 1.81 (#901)
LD27: 1.6 (#904)
Again, other category with a higher score that I don’t think it deserves. The audio in both games is extremely poor; my first entry had 2 sound effects (one for winning a level and other for losing it) and this one only has sound for static. Now that I look at my comments in my LD27 entry, someone linked to a music generator that could have been useful. Oh well, I’ll try to remember it for the next LD.

Humor:

LD31: 2.84 (#335)
LD27: 1.63 (#896)
I think the reason the score is significantly higher in this entry is because I mention kittens and pizza in a silly way… I wouldn’t consider that “humor”, but looking and how high it has ranked with a low score it seems like there’s not too many games to compete with in that category. BTW, the game had for a while in its description the word “leopard” instead of “keyboard”. That’s because I installed a extension that switches those two words and didn’t remember to turn it off when I wrote the game description…

Mood:

LD31: 2.59 (#846)
LD27: 1.44 (#1077)
I don’t really understand what this category is supposed to rate… I guess the LD27 got a low score because the first level was really frustrating and that put the players in a bad mood. But the game gave you tips on how to pass the level you were stuck in, isn’t that supposed to be good for mood? Well.

Coolness:

LD31: 100% (80th based on http://ludumdare.itch.io/#sort=coolness . Top 100 YAY!)
LD27: 39% (#1422)
The bad score in LD27 is partially because for a while I didn’t know that you had to save the ratings in order for them to count… But anyways, I’ve played many more games this LD and I’ve seen and rated really nice ones. I’m glad to have this coolness score, not because of the shiny medal but because I’ve seen more games. Apparently, for next LDs coolness will also account your comments and your community activity. I tend not to comment in games because my English is not quite fluid, but I think I should focus more on doing it because developers deserve feedback for the work they’ve done.

Average score:

LD31: 2.74

LD27: 2.24

I would like to think as this as a big improvement, but now I’m doubting if for some reason the expectations in LD27 were higher. Anyways, I still have many things to improve. Let’s see how I’ll do in the next LD. And if someone has read this, I hope it serves as some kind of help.