{"author_name":"Henry McLaughlin","cat":"LD #22","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"December 20, 2011 7:31 pm","epoch":1324427460,"text":"Always submit what you have. It should be a rule.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1324427340,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"60132","p_author":"Henry McLaughlin","p_authorkey":"979","p_urlkey":"95885","p_title":"Desolate \u2013 Postmortem of the Game that Wasn\u2019t","p_cat":"LD #22","p_event":"LD22","p_time":"1324427340","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"979","us_name":"Henry Mclaughlin","us_username":"pycron","event_start":"1323993600","event_key":"8","event_name":"LD22"},"text":"

So here we are. Ludum Dare 22 is over.<\/p>\n

I didn’t finish.<\/p>\n

I’m going to try to stay positive.<\/p>\n

What Went Well<\/h2>\n

I was reasonably familiar with the processes behind making the art; I have made pixel art before, even though it’s not usually my style.<\/p>\n

I had a pretty solid idea, as well.<\/p>\n

What Didn’t Go Well<\/h2>\n

I was too ambitious for the time. I didn’t have basecode. I chose something that required too much art. I changed platforms halfway through. I did a lot<\/em>\u00a0of things wrong, okay?<\/p>\n

Seriously, though, most of what could have gone wrong went wrong. I don’t want to talk about it in detail. \":(\"<\/p>\n

What I’ve Learned<\/h2>\n

So… here’s the part that isn’t so negative.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that my ideas are often too ambitious for my time and resources. I try to do two weeks’ work in a weekend and I suffer for it.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that I need to choose whether I want to make lots of art or<\/em>\u00a0write my own basecode. I can’t do both, which is what I tried to do. I’m going to make that choice from now on, at least in Ludum Dare.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned to prepare. I had the warmup weekend, but I didn’t do it the way I should have. I could’ve avoided these mistakes.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that I should be ready to surrender an idea if it isn’t working out. The main reason that I didn’t finish was that I wouldn’t give up my original idea (even when I said that I would) and wound up losing hope at around 8h before the jam deadline, getting distracted, and not finishing.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that I need to stick to a d*mn platform<\/em>. I failed partly because I derped and decided to switch to a completely different<\/em>\u00a0platform. I switched to C++ and SDL, which was a big part of why I failed.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that I don’t enjoy these big projects that much. When the deadline came, I looked at what I had, flopped back into my bed and thought “Thank Sekhmet that’s over with, now I can let that thing go!” I didn’t want to continue with the game that I was working on, and I still don’t.<\/p>\n

Where to Go From here<\/h2>\n

I’m going to move away from these huge projects. It’s really killing me to work on these things and not get anywhere.<\/p>\n

I’m considering moving to app development. I can develop a simple game in less than a month, be finished with it, and move on. With publishers like the Chrome App Store and eventually Android and iOS, I stand to make a little bit of money from my work instead of laboring for years on one big thing and not getting anywhere.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, developing smaller games will be more fun for me.<\/p>\n

People in IRC can expect me to ask them to playtest some of these games, certainly. It’ll be great fun, I think.<\/p>\n

Peace, love, and nowhere to go but up,<\/p>\n

– Henry<\/p>","time":"December 20th, 2011 7:29 pm","title":"Desolate \u2013 Postmortem of the Game that Wasn\u2019t"}