{"author_name":"riv_roy","cat":"LD #30","comments":[],"epoch":1409962980,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"26277","p_author":"riv_roy","p_authorkey":"35433","p_urlkey":"61702","p_title":"Star Fuel \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1409962980","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"35433","us_name":"riv_roy","us_username":"riv_roy","event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"text":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=35433\" target=\"_blank\">THIS<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 is our 2nd entry for Ludem Dare Jam and we decided to write a short post-mortem on our thoughts and experiences.<\/p>\n <p><b>Goals<\/b><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Complete a functional (<i>and fun<\/i>) prototype of a game adhering to LD30\u2019s theme.<\/li>\n <li>Create a Starfox-esque arena battle game<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><b>What went well<\/b><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The ship controls are fluid and intuitive.<\/li>\n <li>Atmosphere feels grand and otherworldly<\/li>\n <li>Music pairs well with the action<\/li>\n <li>Gameplay feels fair albeit unforgiving<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><b>What could have gone better<\/b><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>We would have liked to have more varied combat, flying enemies, different types of things for the player to zip and dodge around.<\/li>\n <li>The game is quite unforgiving. To balance it, we\u2019d want to implement a player health system, possibly checkpoints.<\/li>\n <li>Mouse isn\u2019t stuck to the game window, so there were reports of players accidentally clicking away from the game. While fullscreen mode would help solve this problem, we\u2019d need to change the way the cursor works in general to get rid of this issue altogether.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><b>Thoughts on this Ludem Dare Jam<\/b><\/p>\n <p><i>Tim<\/i><\/p>\n <p>This jam went really well! As this was my first experience with 3D modeling, I spent a good chunk of my time learning the tools, and fixing my silly mistakes. Luckily, now I know the tools (to an extent), and have a semi-solid workflow for creating basic models, and then texturing them.<\/p>\n <p>Audio was very functional, but nothing special. If we decide to iterate on the prototype to make a full game, I\u2019d want to create more obvious and unique cues for enemy fire, goal completion, and improve on the player ship\u2019s thrusters.<\/p>\n <p><i>Mark<\/i><\/p>\n <p>I had fun participating this Ludem Dare, I feel like my teamwork with Tim has improved greatly since the last LD<\/p>\n <p>In the game itself we had to shrink down the player ship A LOT, when next \u00a0to the terrain or buildings you\u2019re like an ant in comparison. \u00a0This was done to create a massive world feeling and had the effect of appearing to travel fast and long distance while only moving a tiny amount.<\/p>\n <p>The ship controls and movement \u00a0is actually fairly simple and was a quick way to imitate a rail shooter. It consists of a camera acting as the main movement piece and following a long combination of the ship, targeting reticules, and a giant plane mesh collider which was used for steering. The collection of objects always pointed towards the mouses world position projected on a plane and \u00a0the camera simply moved forward and rotated \u00a0towards where the collection was pointing in world space. The issue with using this is I didn\u2019t have time to make a system to keep the mouse in screen on the web build. Overall though I&#8217;m happy with the result and I hope to participate in the next LD.<\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><strong>Our Game<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>If you want to check out our LD30 page you can find it <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-30\/?action=preview&amp;uid=35433\">HERE<\/a><\/strong> , and a direct link to our game over <a href=\"https:\/\/749284112819ef558d88f42fccd23ccf72436b23.googledrive.com\/host\/0B4gGvXQE2bcJUGEwaXdHbERGUEk\/0.3v.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>HERE<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n <p>Any comments or feedback are appreciated greatly and we hope you enjoy playing it!<\/p>\n <p><b>Who we are<\/b><\/p>\n <p><em>Mark Swick<\/em> &#8211; \u00a0Programmer who began as a hobbyist and started pursuing it as a career. Currently working on unannounced titles while a college student.<\/p>\n <p><em>Tim Rurkowski<\/em> &#8211; Composer\/sound designer with 3 years of experience who has previously worked on titles such as Six Sided Sanctuary, 10 Second Ninja, Dudeski, and Two Epic Tortoises. He dabbles in game design, tortoises, and art on the side.<\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><b>Tools used<\/b><\/p>\n <p>Unity3d &#8211; Engine<br \/>\n Blender &#8211; 3D modeling<br \/>\n GIMP &#8211; Texture editing<br \/>\n Logic Pro 9 &#8211; Music Composition\/Sound Design<br \/>\n ProTools 11 &#8211; Sound Design<\/p>","time":"September 5th, 2014 7:23 pm","title":"Star Fuel \u2013 Post Mortem"}