I just completed my second Ludum Dare Compo, and wow, it is a great relief to be done with it. There were certainly some times when I doubted the integrity of my usually-solid Lenovo keyboard, but luckily it kept on clicking. There were things I’d do again, and things I’d change.

Let’s start off with the good. Using C++ as my language added a level of familiarity that I simply lost from Java after all this time of not using it. On the contrary, though, using C++ means that I can’t access OS X at all and Linux would require additional debugging that I’m simply not prepared to do.

For graphics, I think I was able to minimize it as well as possible. I used very few textures: some letters, a weapon, and a few humans. For code, it was anything but. As I started up this morning, I realized I simply did not have the experience or techniques needed to make the system work like I needed to. I switched to a grid system (which I should have done from the beginning) and was able to make a “good enough” approximation. Believe me, there were many times when I stared at the screen  wondering if I would even have a remotely functional game tonight.

In order to get function, some other things important to games were left out. Specifically, plot development and, well, levels. I squeezed out two levels, painstakingly coded by hand because I didn’t want to spend too much time on an editor (I did write one, but it wasn’t functional before and may be even less functional now.) Levels were actually designed inside Minecraft using wool blocks.

Overall, it was an improvement over my LD24 entry (Anything would be better than that) but there is still a ton of room for improvement. So I’ll just say that it was my first try for LD8 (as opposed to LD48) and be satisfied with it. The fact that I was able to pull myself from total failure to just a bad success in such a quick amount of time most certainly is not a failure.