{"author_name":"mactinite","cat":"LD #31","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"December 11, 2014 1:20 am","epoch":1418278800,"text":"Black cats rules!","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1418268660,"likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"22149","p_author":"mactinite","p_authorkey":"26320","p_urlkey":"57514","p_title":"Orion In A Winter Puzzle-Land Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #31","p_event":"LD31","p_time":"1418268660","p_likes":"4","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"26320","us_name":"mactinite","us_username":"\/author\/mactinite\/","event_start":"1417737600","event_key":"26","event_name":"LD31"},"text":"

First off, if you’ve yet to play my game and would like to you can do that here\u00a0http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-31\/?action=preview&uid=26320<\/a><\/p>\n

Alright, now into the post-mortem!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Orion<\/a><\/h1>\n

<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why did I make this game?<\/h1>\n

Well, you see, it was simple really. I wanted to learn how to design some puzzles and had never done anything like it before so I thought to myself, “Awh heck, why not”? More realistically, a top down game (3\/4 perspective) seemed like one I could fit onto one screen (with some trickery of course!). Anyways, I think I made a good choice, but I also think my lack of puzzle design shows in the amazing catalog of 9 levels.<\/p>\n

The Tools<\/h2>\n

To make this game I used a pretty standard set of tools; Unity was my engine of choice, along with Blender for the 3D jazz and I used cgMusic and LMMS to generate and prettify me some tunes. I also used Photoshop to do the textures and the (minimal) GUI. I’ve been using this suite of tools for awhile now, since before my first Ludum Dare game for the most part and I’m pretty familiar with them so I can generate a lot of junk in 48 Hours, which is good for this kind of thing, but I am learning other tools as I progress through my education and life.<\/p>\n

The Trickery<\/h2>\n

Earlier I mentioned some trickery; I used some visual trickery in Unity to fit my game into the theme. This trickery was that I would Tween every object on and back off of the screen between switching scenes, which personally I though was a pretty nifty trick and with iTween it was really easy to make it look “cute”. Now making the objects all fall onto the screen is the easy part, the hard part is taking them all off of the screen at the same time. While it may not\u00a0actually<\/em> be that hard, My method served another purpose as well. When all of my objects drop onto the scene they also “Check In” with a level manager and then I have cached references to all the objects in my scene! Pretty awesome I think.<\/p>\n

My Problems<\/h2>\n

LEVEL DESIGN LEVEL DESIGN LEVEL DESIGN.<\/p>\n

Level design is hard.<\/p>\n

I was able to make 9 levels, of varying difficulty and they do have an order and I tried to teach the player how to play the game through the gameplay rather than a tutorial. I’m not sure how I did, but I think in some regards I did okay. It’d be helpful if you let me know what you think<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

What I did right<\/h2>\n

(I think)<\/p>\n

The aesthetic. I think that I designed the different parts of my game in a way that is suited to my abilities and pleasing to the eyes. Some things could have been better of course but I think it fits my “cute” aesthetics. Also on a related note, I recently adopted a black kitten and he’s constantly getting into things he shouldn’t so I felt I should model my protagonist after him, heck they even share names! Here is Orion the (real) cat!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n