{"author_name":"klianc09","cat":"LD #29","comments":[],"epoch":1400436000,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"29822","p_author":"klianc09","p_authorkey":"20290","p_urlkey":"65288","p_title":"Below Earth \u2013 Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1400436000","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"20290","us_name":"klianc09","us_username":"\/author\/klianc09\/","event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"text":"<p>Here is a short post-mortem of my third Ludum Dare Entry (Jam): <a title=\"Below Earth - LD29 Entry\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=20290\" target=\"_blank\">Below Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n <p>In it you play an adventurer (bomb throwing maniac) that is exploring an underground cave only to find a rather hostile environment.<\/p>\n <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=20290\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-363325 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_title1-550x328.png\" alt=\"Play Below Earth\" width=\"550\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_title1-300x179.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_title1-550x328.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_title1.png 799w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <p>This time I also tried out some new tools like IntelliJ (IDE) and Aseprite (Pixelart) and I have to say I like them.<\/p>\n <p><em><strong>The somewhat good things:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Brainstormed the idea long enough and then sticked with it.<\/li>\n <li>Prototyped graphics really quickly.<\/li>\n <li>The game is actually fun to play.<\/li>\n <li>I successfully drew my own pixelart with aseprite.<\/li>\n <li>I didn&#8217;t neglect my personal duties during the weekend.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_363203\" style=\"width: 381px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img class=\"wp-image-363203 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/LD29_animation_2.gif\" alt=\"Don't mess with the local wild life.\" width=\"371\" height=\"283\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don&#8217;t mess with the local wild life.<\/p><\/div>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p><em><strong>The rather bad things:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I originally intended to procedurally generate levels, but then I realized, that I have absolutely no experience with procedural level generation. I ended up with uninteresting and lazy &#8220;random&#8221; levels. So I later created a level parser to read text-files and made some quick levels, but I also left some of the generated levels in it.<\/li>\n <li>It&#8217;s too hard. I slowly start to see a pattern with my Ludum Dare games. I always balance it in a way, so that I still have a challenge, but that might not be an acceptable difficulty for others. Having difficult levels itself isn&#8217;t the problem, but having a too steep difficulty curve is a problem. I should learn to slowly(!) ramp up the difficulty of the game. Giving the game to playtesters often and early can really help with this.<\/li>\n <li>Hiding content in later levels. Because of it&#8217;s difficulty, some players never got to see every enemy that the game has to offer. This might be something not true for game-design in general, but it holds true for Ludum Dare, where most people probably don&#8217;t have the time to try and master your game. This means all the main game features should be available within the &#8220;easy&#8221; levels, and only combine them and challenge the player after those levels.<\/li>\n <li>This is another entry without music. Music is important for a game, but before I hastily make some annoying 10 second loop I rather leave the game without music. This might be a personal goal for my next LD to focus on music and create some for my game. I just have to find a program I can make some with and learn to use it&#8230;.<\/li>\n <li>I created pixelart. It&#8217;s not good, but it&#8217;s better than anything I&#8217;ve created yet. Still it took far longer than it should have.<\/li>\n <li>No Web version. I really tried to get that GWT build to work, but there are so many things that go wrong when they somehow possibly can&#8230;<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p><em><strong>Time spent (aka everybody loves statistics)<br \/>\n <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <p>During the whole weekend (Saturday to Monday because it&#8217;s a Jam Entry) I recorded my development time with toggl.com, which is really useful for such things. I ended up spending more time on graphics than I thought I would. Programming seems to be so big, because I was always testing my game inbetween bigger changes and played it over and over again. I also spent a whole hour setting up the project because I was using Libgdx without eclipse. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_363272\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img class=\"wp-image-363272 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_statistics-550x268.png\" alt=\"That's how I spent my weekend.\" width=\"550\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_statistics-300x146.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_statistics-550x268.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ld29_statistics.png 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">That&#8217;s how I spent my weekend.<\/p><\/div>\n <p><em><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <p>Every Ludum Dare helps me in some way to become a better developer and even a better person. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n <p>I found some new nice tools with which I will continue to work.<\/p>\n <p>I also should try to make my future games not too difficult for the average player.<\/p>\n <p>I already started and will continue to develop a post-compo version of this game, because this is one of my first games where I feel like polishing it is worthwile.<\/p>\n <p><a title=\"Below Earth - LD29 Entry\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-29\/?action=preview&amp;uid=20290\" target=\"_blank\">If you want to play or rate or try out the post-compo version, you can do this here.<\/a><\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/ld29\/\" rel=\"tag\">ld29<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a><\/p>","time":"May 18th, 2014 1:00 pm","title":"Below Earth \u2013 Post-Mortem"}