UNLEASHED – Son of Kracken title screen.

Play the game here: UNLEASHED – Son of Kracken

So it is with a bang and not a whimper that I end my second Ludum Dare competition entry!  I always like to wait a few days before I do a post-mortem like this.  I need the time off, need to rest my eyes and my ass (sitting in my crap computer chair really wears me out), and take my mind off it for a while.  Now, I feel like I have a good grasp of what I was doing, what I hope to accomplish, and what I could have done differently.

You are free to take a look at my previous entry if you want to get a glimpse of a project done wrong.  I was determined to not make the same mistakes as before.  I knew first-hand that I needed to do a lot more planning, even if it was only a simple design document with some concepts and strategies lined out.  I also knew that I wanted to use a pre-existing engine for my development.  I tried rolling my own the first time and it added a dozen layers of complications – unnecessary complications.  I was also determined to finish the damn thing – have a start, a finish.  Have some sounds and understandable art assets.  I think I did just fine this time around.

The entry I give you this year is called Unleashed – Son of Kracken.  It was Friday night, and I was halfway through the Hobbit when I remembered that the voting should be in.  I checked my phone, and was sad at first.  You are the Villain?  Not the theme I was hoping for, but whatever.  I sat for the rest of The Hobbit and thought hard about a game.  Nothing came to me during the movie – but the breakthrough came during the drive home.  I was listening to the XM radio in my car, and the word ‘Sea’ was in the title of the song.  That got the juices flowing – the sea…pirates!  Sea monsters!  The Flying Dutchman!  I started on an idea dealing with the Flying Dutchman, but then came around to being a sea monster terrorizing the ocean deeps.  The Kracken myth soon followed – and the popular line ‘Release the Kracken!’ right on its heels.  So if your father is ‘Released’, what does that make you? UNLEASHED!

ULEASHED – Son of Kracken Instructions Screen

Once I had the idea, much more started falling into place.  I had the skeleton of an idea, so I started writing.  I thought about sending ships to different ports, having a large world for you to explore, and having pirates to fight.  Some ideas I originally had were five or so types of boats of varying strength based on the island you were near.  This idea was abandoned in favor of all islands being relatively equal in the beginning.  I documented all this in a one-page document – the most crucial part of the process.  I am a ‘learn by doing’, so when I type something it gets wedged in my mind much more firmly than just remembering it.  Documenting the process was the best decision I made.

Once the concept was in place, ImpactJS took over.  Before, when I rolled my own engine, I had to deal with collisions, drawing, levels – all the sticky stuff.  Not this time around.  ImpactJS is an EXCELLENT engine for javascript/html5 development and I’d recommend it to anyone.  Well worth the $100 license fee.  I was able to get a prototype up within an hour, with a simple sea creature roaming an ocean with nothing in it.  With the built-in level editor I was able to get the islands and spawners in place quickly as well.  In fact, because of the power of the engine, I was able to spend the vast majority of the time on game balance, art, sounds, and other aspects.  With my first go (LD 24) I spent so much time on an engine that I didn’t have much time to work on an actual enjoyable game experience.  Using a pre-existing engine, and a robust one like ImpactJS, really accelerated the process and allowed me to focus on the game mechanics.

UNLEASHED – Son of Kracken Gameplay

Mechanically speaking, the game is a little bit too easy.  Cannon balls don’t do a lot of damage, the spears are relatively simple to deal with, and the Merchant Marine that you face doesn’t cause much trouble.  The ship difficulty curve is also kind of wonky – when a ship leaves the map, its spawner gains a level and allows more powerful ships to spawn.  The ships also have a tendency to get stuck on islands (as do cannon balls and your acid spit).  On a much more positive side, mechanically the game is quite sound.  Attacking and being hit feel good (to me), and movement has a definite ramp-up feel to it.  You start quite slow but within a few minutes you can overtake anything on the sea.  I like using the ‘Dive’ ability to dodge cannonballs, and using the ‘Acid Spit’ ability to fire back.  The ‘Vortex’ is crazy powerful.  The game does technically have an end goal – once you kill 100 ships, the Hovering Dutchman emerges and challenges you.  When you defeat him, you have ‘won’ the game – but with the power of the HTML5 spec (LocalStorage!) I am able to give you a persistent character.  Even if you die, your stats remain the same so when you start over you have your same character as before.

UNLEASHED – Son of Kracken Gameplay Screen 2

What would I do different if I could do it all again?  To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what I would change.  I documented my game before I started, giving me a good road map of where to go.  I used an existing engine to make my life easier, and make the game better.  I have little to no artistic talent (as far as drawing/pixel art is concerned), so I am happy with the sprites I was able to produce.  I really like how I used my voice for a lot of the effects, and am also happy with how that turned out.  If I were more talented or a better Google-r I could have provided some pirate-y or naval music.  I also would like some more decoration in the islands building, and the sea.  Additionally, more ships, some sea life, and more stuff going on in-game would improve the experience.  All of those things were clamped by time (and my sanity – I needed sleep!).

What does the future hold for Unleashed – Son of Kracken (if any)?  I really like the concept of the game and how it plays.  It doesn’t take a might stretch of thought to see it implemented on mobile platforms (using AppMobi’s Direct Canvas acceleration).  The game also lends itself to simple mobile controls (especially touch).  With some time I could also improve the assets.  It’s always been a dream of mine to see a game of mine in the app stores, and seeing people playing and enjoying my game.  I might see if I can’t take this a little further, polish it up a whole lot, and try it out!

Thanks for all your reviews and comments!