The Flight of Daedalus

When the theme was chosen, I was fairly disappointed with the theme. I think a lot of other people were too which makes me wonder who voted for it. I noticed after viewing a lot of posts and entries that many seemed to cling to their preferred theme instead of the theme chosen. Regardless, I stuck with the theme and kind of just went with the first thing to pop in to my head. I had watched a Greek mythology series in the past few months so Daedalus was in my mind. I decided I would do a bit of research on him and come up with some story for it.

I easily found the story of Daedalus and Icarus’ escape from King Minos which ends with the well known flying too high for Icarus and the ego of Daedalus costing him his son. I had an idea to make an action platformer that tells this tale.

The Good

I learned a few techniques during this LD that taught me more about pixel art in Unity and how to arrange them to prevent bleeding edges. I used a lot of the same code logic as I did for my past game controllers and that helped me avoid some easy time wasting bugs or research. I actually felt fairly confident through out the whole 48 hours that I would finish with at least something. I was definitely taxing myself trying to do everything I planned and also doing it well, but with so many great entries next to mine in the past I knew I had to try even harder.

The biggest win for me this LD is that I learned more about Tiled and Tiled2Unity. Being able to build a level and import it into Unity was something I struggled with in the past and having that tool open to me now I was able to make multiple levels instead of just 1. I also branched off from doing a repetitive arcade game, which honestly might be a worse choice for a short compo, but it is my own way of challenging myself in these compos. I don’t think I’ve done the same thing twice yet.

The Meh

I spent a super long time making sprites, then reworking the spritesheet, then reworking it again, and again, and again. I lost so much time fixing some of my prior mistakes that I had to cut out a lot of the features I had planned and many of them kind of important. I added in a health system that works similar to some old games where an item, like a heart, represents your health. But of course the enemy in my game wasn’t done being coded so it just stands there. I also managed to get a weapon coded but it’s just used for comedy or getting rid of bees, which do hurt you if you walk in to them. So, I mean if you die in my game it might come as a shock.

The Bad

I lost a lot of spirit towards the final hours of the compo. Instead of wanting to make a fun game, I just wanted to be done with it. I don’t plan on making any updates or fixes to the issues in my current submission. While I feel this ludum dare helped me grasp a few useful concepts and tools, I lost a bit of my motivation.

There are a couple bugs that I am aware of that involve the sound, and that is if you never go in to the sound menu the sound default never gets set. Meaning that I get comments telling me it would be better with sound, when in fact I made a track for each level. The game is technically “finished” but so much had to be cut that it’s kind of a shell. I had planned to add dialogue when you interact with something or reach key points in the game. I also planned on you killing birds to get the feathers you need to make your wings, robbing hives for their honey and wax, and sneaking into the storehouse using a guard’s key to get the rope you needed. Then once you made your wings you were to escape from the tower using the wings and avoid arrows and catapult boulders. I know I am capable of making that game a reality but I needed either more time or more hands.

If I decide to compete in the next ludum dare I think I will try to keep it simple again. One core mechanic, replayability, with a splash of humor. I did not have the active knowledge to build what I wanted in 48 hours, and so I was disheartened with the result.