{"author_name":"bendmorris","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1400436540,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"29821","p_author":"bendmorris","p_authorkey":"36156","p_urlkey":"65287","p_title":"Hide-n-Stab: post mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1400436540","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"36156","us_name":"bendmorris","us_username":"bendmorris","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"<p>Judging will be over in just over 24 hours. I had a blast with this competition, and\u00a0I thought I&#8217;d sum up what I learned, what went well, and what didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n <p>Hide-n-Stab is a multiplayer stealth game &#8211; player characters and NPCs are identical cloaked figures, and your goal is to stab other players in the back. Attacking will reveal you to everyone around as a human, so you have to be careful and wait for the right chance to strike.<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screenshot-04272014-033213-PM.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-363296\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screenshot-04272014-033213-PM-300x225.png\" alt=\"Screenshot - 04272014 - 03:32:13 PM\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screenshot-04272014-033213-PM-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screenshot-04272014-033213-PM-550x412.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screenshot-04272014-033213-PM.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>This was my first Ludum Dare and only my second game jam ever &#8211; I previously entered the Game Boy Jam, which gave 10 days. 48 hours was a very different experience. I wasn&#8217;t even planning on entering this time, and was out at dinner when the theme was announced. I checked Twitter, saw the theme, and immediately came up with the idea for Hide-n-Stab, and I knew that I had to give it a shot.<\/p>\n <p>Anyway, here&#8217;s what happened:<\/p>\n <p><strong>What went well<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I used a fantastic technology stack. The game was written in Haxe,\u00a0with a Flash game client and a Neko server. I used OpenFL with the HaxePunk game engine, which I&#8217;m a contributor to. I&#8217;ve been using this stack for a long time so I was able to get right to work and build something quickly, and\u00a0the server and client\u00a0were able to share a large amount of code.<\/li>\n <li>I had my asset production pipeline down solid\u00a0as well. Graphics were drawn in Inkscape with individual body parts as separate layers; I used the Inkscape command line tool to split each layer into a separate image and used Spine to do skeletal animation. I had the fully animated character finished, in its more-or-less final form, the on first night, only a few hours after hearing the theme.<\/li>\n <li>I serendipitously came up an idea that fit the theme well from the start. This let me tailor gameplay to fit the theme as closely as possible throughout the entire process.<\/li>\n <li>I had just moved to a new apartment and was starting a new job on Monday after the competition ended, so I had focus and free time to devote to the competition. Also, my very patient wife kept our 3-year-old occupied so I could keep working.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>What didn&#8217;t<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Developing an online game in 48 hours is insane. I spent probably half of my time debugging esoteric networking bugs.\u00a0Some of the more elusive had to be solved after the competition was over.<\/li>\n <li>I posted Hide-n-Stab to Hacker News and did not anticipate the outcome &#8211; it was on the front page for an entire Saturday.\u00a0The server was instantly filled with players and remained so for several days. I was completely unprepared &#8211; the server had never been load tested, it wasn&#8217;t running on the most robust VM, and it didn&#8217;t even have a limit on the number of concurrent players! I spent the weekend running around with my hair on fire,\u00a0migrating to a better server and trying to tweak things to accomodate the huge influx of players, eventually opening a second overflow server. To be clear\u00a0&#8211; I&#8217;m very glad to all the people who played from Hacker News, and it was a great chance to test the game, fix bugs, and get feedback. The reason this is a negative is that I wasn&#8217;t completely ready for it.<\/li>\n <li>I didn&#8217;t have enough time allotted to fix bugs. As a result, the final version was playable, but had some intermittent breaking bugs.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><strong>Next time<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I&#8217;ll definitely try to use HaxePunk again. Great experience, can&#8217;t recommend enough.<\/li>\n <li>I will almost certainly not attempt another MMO-style game in such a short time period.<\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;ll plan to enter the competition from the beginning and brainstorm theme ideas instead of waiting around and deciding to enter after it&#8217;s already underway.<\/li>\n <li>Allocate enough time to thoroughly test the game before release, and aim to put out a fully functional version.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/icon-256.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-363297\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/icon-256.png\" alt=\"icon-256\" width=\"256\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/icon-256-150x150.png 150w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/icon-256.png 256w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>Thanks to everyone who played and\/or voted! I played some fantastic games this round so the competition is fierce. Good luck to everyone!<\/p>\n <p>Also, if you enjoyed the game,\u00a0tune in to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hide-n-stab.com\">www.hide-n-stab.com<\/a> &#8211; I&#8217;m working on a post-competition version of the game, with browser,\u00a0desktop, and mobile versions. It&#8217;ll have new features and unlockable\u00a0cosmetic upgrades. You can also follow me on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/monsterfacegame\">@monsterfacegame<\/a>) to hear about progress.<\/p>","time":"May 18th, 2014 1:09 pm","title":"Hide-n-Stab: post mortem"}