{"author_name":"kirbytails7","cat":"LD #30","comments":[],"epoch":1410117420,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"26260","p_author":"kirbytails7","p_authorkey":"4767","p_urlkey":"61685","p_title":"I\u2019ve Got a Post-Mortem on a String","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1410117420","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"4767","us_name":"kirbytails7","us_username":"kirbytails7","event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"text":"<p>I suppose a post-mortem is a bit overdue for my game, I&#8217;ve Got the World On a String. You can play it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=4767\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, if you want. It&#8217;s okay. Thanks in advance if you do play.<\/p>\n <p><img class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-381819\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Night2-300x221.png\" alt=\"WorldOnAString-3\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Night2-300x221.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Night2-550x406.png 550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n <p>My initial goals were pretty tame: Make a game jam game in Unity, and spend more than a few hours on the audio. Making a fun game was also a plus. As it turned out, I only met the Unity goal, since that one was pretty much a given just by deciding to do it. I did technically spend about five hours on audio, but I threw away the boss theme I had worked on because it was bad. Oh, and I don&#8217;t find the game terribly fun, though it might have some potential.<\/p>\n <p>Hits:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I&#8217;m pretty pleased with the music. It&#8217;s nothing spectacular, but for being churned out in under 2 hours, it&#8217;s not bad.<\/li>\n <li>The concept for the game was one that I tried (and failed) making a long time ago, and now I can check it off of my to-do list, as it were.<\/li>\n <li>I think the player ship sprites turned out pretty good. They read well, at least.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Misses:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I spent maybe 4 hours on the rope in the game, which is purely cosmetic, iterating through various physics-based approaches that failed in various ways before realizing I could just use a particle system. I also spent most of that time during the first night, and I know better than to focus on aesthetics before the core gameplay is in.<\/li>\n <li>I wanted to have more enemy types and more bosses, especially some bullet-hell-esque ones to really bring out that core concept of being a shmup with no shooting. This time was instead spent on a rope.<\/li>\n <li>Not using physics for the player ship really hurt later on (especially with the rope&#8230;), and I think the movement would be better if it had a bit of inertia to it. It would also be easier to line up the ship with the centers of planets, so scoring would be more reasonable.<\/li>\n <li>The mix of 2D sprites with 3D objects and particles muddles the visual style, which wasn&#8217;t very strong to begin with.<\/li>\n <li>Again, the rope. I was hoping it would feel like a rope in Scribblenauts, with basic physics doing most of the work, but I shouldn&#8217;t have spent so long trying to tune the various versions when they ultimately weren&#8217;t right.<\/li>\n <li>It doesn&#8217;t feel very fun&#8230;thought it&#8217;s had a few moments for me. Maybe it&#8217;s okay.<\/li>\n <\/ul>","time":"September 7th, 2014 2:17 pm","title":"I\u2019ve Got a Post-Mortem on a String"}