{"author_name":"JaJ","cat":"LD #22","comments":[],"epoch":1324299120,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"60335","p_author":"JaJ","p_authorkey":"5496","p_urlkey":"96088","p_title":"Post-mortem: Alone in a cave","p_cat":"LD #22","p_event":"LD22","p_time":"1324299120","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5496","us_name":"JaJ","us_username":"jaj","event_start":"1323993600","event_key":"8","event_name":"LD22"},"text":"

Since most things that went wrong happened in the first 6 hours, I’m going to start with what went wrong.<\/p>\n

What went wrong:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn’t really love the theme. Not because I couldn’t come up with anything, but because it was so obvious what to make: An atmospheric metroidvania\/ zelda clone. The problem was that that sums up pretty much 50% of all the games I have ever made, including the game I made for the last Ludum Dare, and I was hoping that the theme would force me to make something different.<\/p>\n

So now I had to do that myself, and that wasn’t easy. Most ideas I had required too much animation talent to tell the story. I’ve played around in unity to come up with ideas for a 3D game, played games to come up with ideas. It didn’t help. 6 hours into the competition I decided that there was nothing left to do but make an atmospheric zelda clone, and I made some music and tiles to capture the right mood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Music<\/a><\/p>\n

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What went right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then I decided that I really didn’t want to make another zelda clone. So I went through all the gamegenres to find a genre that I didn’t make any game in yet and I got excited when I realised I had never made a turn based stratigy game before. I knew from the start that I wouldn’t be able to make that within the 48 hours, so I decided to simplify it. It was going to be turn based, but I was making a puzzle game instead. I also still wanted to keep the atmosphere I created before. A concept was born. I was going to make a puzzle game with exploration elements.<\/p>\n

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After that it was programming with the usual problems, making programmer art, realising some of the programmer art was going to be final, level design, adding extra’s, adding endings, hiding a kitten somewhere etc. The game was finished 10 minutes before the (first) deadline.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When stuck: Don’t think, just make! Ideas will come later.<\/p>\n

When stuck and tired: sleep.<\/p>\n

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The game:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-22\/?action=rate&uid=5496<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>","time":"December 19th, 2011 7:52 am","title":"Post-mortem: Alone in a cave"}