{"author_name":"JaJ","cat":"LD #24","comments":[],"epoch":1346147040,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"51723","p_author":"JaJ","p_authorkey":"5496","p_urlkey":"87418","p_title":"The ducks are taking over!! \u2013 Post mortem","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1346147040","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5496","us_name":"JaJ","us_username":"jaj","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"

Globally it comes down to this: The game isn’t as polished, long or varied as last time’s entry, however, if I do decide to continue working on it (and I can tell you that I will,) it has the potential to kick a lot more ass.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Since every upside has a downside, I find it hard to devide everything in “what went right” and “what went wrong” so I’m putting them together.<\/p>\n

Programming:\u00a0<\/strong>I have to say the platform physics turned out pretty great. The friction might be a bit low for the terrain you walk on (dirt), but it actually plays well, so I don’t really care about that. What can’t be seen in the final product is that the programming allowed for slopes and other things, but that does make adding on to it a lot easier later, which is of course a good thing.<\/p>\n

The programming of the enemy behaviour and evolution is what I had to spend the most time on, it got more complicated than I had hoped, and in the end there was little time left for level design. This is what I am getting the most criticism on: that the game isn’t long\/ varied enough. I don’t think the problem is that I spent all this time on enemy behaviour though, since the evolution of the enemies is at the core of the concept. What is\u00a0<\/em>a problem, is that it was done too subtly. A lot of people seem to miss the whole concept altogether, and think the enemies just evolve randomly, if at all. In truth, enemy evolution actually depends on your interaction with them. If you miss this, the game appears to be a lot more simple than it actually is. I just know this will cost me points, especially in the “theme’ category.<\/p>\n

Visuals: T<\/strong>his turned out pretty nicely. I’ve worked with the NES palette and colour limitations before,\u00a0but I don’t think\u00a0I \u00a0ever made a game that actually\u00a0felt\u00a0<\/em>this old. And I love that. It gives me all the appropriate nostalgic feelings. I’ve looked at a lot of NES games for reference, and games like kirby’s adventure and later megaman games do look a lot better than this, but somehow I like it that my game doesn’t look that good. Those games don’t really look like NES games anymore anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n The palette I used. As you can see I even had one color left at only 15 in total.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Audio:\u00a0<\/strong>Making a retro game, I used SFXR for the sound effects of course, so that didn’t take too much time. The music was made using 8bitone\u00a0<\/a>. The composing process was really fun, but export options are extremely limited, and this cost me some time trying to get the end result on my computer. I havn’t gotten any complaints about repetitiveness of the music yet, but having listened to it over and over again for two days, the music is starting to get on\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>nerves at least.<\/p>\n

\n

Design:\u00a0<\/strong>I still like the idea, but in the end, there just wasn’t a lot of time for designing levels. I didn’t have as much time as previous LD’s, and I was very tired before this LD even started, so I guess it just can’t be helped. I am really looking forward to making this my next big project though. I think I will make it another metroidvania type game. The evolving enemy concept certainly allows for it, making backtracking less of a chore. There isn’t much, but what is there just feels like a good basis. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the main complaint is that people want more.<\/p>\n