{"author_name":"peterthehe","cat":"LD #31","comments":[],"epoch":1418741040,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"21935","p_author":"peterthehe","p_authorkey":"46596","p_urlkey":"57298","p_title":"Coded Universe: Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #31","p_event":"LD31","p_time":"1418741040","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"46596","us_name":"peterthehe","us_username":"\/author\/peterthehe\/","event_start":"1417737600","event_key":"26","event_name":"LD31"},"text":"

\"LD31A\"<\/p>\n

Oh look! A game with programming, snow and hunting! Now here’s a somewhat truncated look at it.<\/p>\n

First of all, here’s a link to the game itself:\u00a0http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-31\/?action=preview&uid=46596<\/a>\u00a0Play it,\u00a0love (\/hate) it and rate it please :3<\/p>\n

I wasn’t able to get started on Saturday because I was busy; on Sunday I was desperately piecing together a draft for an English GCSE. Anyhow, I managed to start working on Coded Universe at 10ish. I\u00a0came up with a workaround the regular interpretation of the whole game being on “one screen” – those retro arcade games from the 80s – by shoving the entire game universe<\/em> onto a screen in-game , allowing the player to modify it. Having just walked home from school in the rain, I will spare you a very very very very long write-up of every little thought that popped into my head as I built the game and instead sum it up like this:<\/p>\n

WHAT WENT WELL:<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0The parser, which was supposed to take ages to write, took shorter to make than expected, letting me work on the graphics.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

– The graphics \ud83d\ude1b . They turned out better than I expected for 8 hours of jamming though some of the animal sprites sparked confusion among players.<\/p>\n

– It had music. I didn’t expect to get any music in but I did. THANK YOU FAMITRACKER<\/a> \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WHAT WENT EVER SO SLIGHTLY LESS WELL:<\/strong><\/p>\n

– \u00a0The general mechanic behind the game confused people. I didn’t have enough time to stick in a tutorial \":(\" \u00a0When the phone slowed time, people thought it was lag.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0The snow fell in a funny way, perhaps I could have randomized it further.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0The music didn’t fit the mood I wanted to create. Looking over the LD website, I came across ToneMatrix<\/a>, a wonderful little audio tool which would have been much closer to what I had intended. Nonetheless people seemed to like the mood :3<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SOME RANDOM COMMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"MotherSon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The mother’s idiolect was actually inspired by a transcript that I was using for my exam.<\/p>\n

\"Level\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is what the level looks like in Unity<\/p>\n

\"StickBalance\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This single balance took me about 5 minutes to\u00a0perfect D:<\/p>","time":"December 16th, 2014 9:44 am","title":"Coded Universe: Post-Mortem"}