{"author_name":"Fenmar","cat":"LD #23","comments":[],"epoch":1335198240,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"56225","p_author":"Fenmar","p_authorkey":"3866","p_urlkey":"91955","p_title":"Lessons learned","p_cat":"LD #23","p_event":"LD23","p_time":"1335198240","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"3866","us_name":"Fenmar","us_username":"fenmar","event_start":"1334880000","event_key":"10","event_name":"LD23"},"text":"<p>So this was LD 23. You can play my entry here: <a title=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-23\/?action=preview&amp;uid=3866\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-23\/?action=preview&amp;uid=3866\" target=\"_blank\">The Island of Dare<\/a><\/p>\n <p>It&#8217;s the fourth time I participated so I can compare my performance to my previous ones. Overall I&#8217;m happy with my progress. Here are my experiences:<\/p>\n <p><strong>What went well:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>motivation:<\/strong> I really wanted to get something done this weekend to push my motivation for other projects. So I was really excited when the competition started.<\/li>\n <li><strong>technology check:<\/strong> My game has only characters on colored background for visuals. At first I wanted to do this via DOM (so every character is one DOM node), but I did a performance check on this appoach and got only 3 FPS. So I decided to do it with canvas instead.<\/li>\n <li><strong>time for bug fixing:<\/strong> Like last time, I sat down and took time to play my game over and over again. So I could find most of the bugs and fix them.<\/li>\n <li><strong>story:<\/strong> I wrote a story this time \ud83d\ude00 It&#8217;s not overly complex or innovative but hey &#8211; STORY!<\/li>\n <li><strong>sound:<\/strong> It&#8217;s my first game which has some kind of a soundtrack.<\/li>\n <li><strong>learning new things:<\/strong> I never did procedural content generation before so it was a completly new field for me. I was a bit scared and my motivation dropped when I didn&#8217;t understand everything completely, but it was worth going through. PCG is awesome!<\/li>\n <li><strong>timelapse:<\/strong> After two failed tries to produce a timelapse, it worked. It feels so productive when you see the work of 48 hours in four minutes. Find my timelapse here: <a title=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wA7E7KSc-98\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wA7E7KSc-98\" target=\"_blank\">Timelapse<\/a><\/li>\n <li><strong>version control:<\/strong> 93 commits in my GIT repository. It&#8217;s good to know you can always go back when trying wierd things (like SVG rendering).<\/li>\n <li><strong>follow the flow:<\/strong> Playing the game is the key. If I missed something, I added it. Planning everything is not a good idea to my mind.<\/li>\n <li><strong>twitter:<\/strong> I always want to tweet more, but this time I really did it. Yay \ud83d\ude00<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n <strong>What I should do better:<\/strong><\/p>\n <ul>\n <li><strong>user testing:<\/strong> I did a user testing, but it was like four hours before the deadline. I felt tired and decided not to do add features which were clearly missing. I should do usertesting earlier.<\/li>\n <li><strong>theme:<\/strong> I still have a hard time coming up with a good idea for a given theme. I don&#8217;t know why&#8230;<\/li>\n <li><strong>underestimation:<\/strong> I think I could have managed a more complex game&#8230; But well, I guess I was too cowardly.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n <p>So &#8211; and now I&#8217;m going to play your games.<\/p>","time":"April 23rd, 2012 11:24 am","title":"Lessons learned"}