{"author_name":"Casey Jordan","cat":"LD #35","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"April 19, 2016 3:22 pm","epoch":1461097320,"text":"Fun to see someone else playing on a three-level cycle of metamorphosis (our game did it with tadpole to frog) for this theme! Will play this in the upcoming days as soon as I’ve regained energy from the exhaustion of this jam! c:","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1461096780,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"6117","p_author":"Casey Jordan","p_authorkey":"87952","p_urlkey":"41557","p_title":"Pillars of Life \u2013 Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #35","p_event":"LD35","p_time":"1461096780","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"87952","us_name":"Casey Jordan","us_username":"cat5casey","event_start":"1460678400","event_key":"33","event_name":"LD35"},"text":"

I still haven’t put together a time lapse; I’ve been busy playing and rating. But I still want to write a post mortem to elaborate on my goals and express what I feel I accomplished.<\/p>\n

Topic is Shapeshift – 48 hours to go<\/h4>\n

Within an hour and a half of the beginning of the compo, I settled on the “caterpillar lifecycle” concept:
\n \"game<\/p>\n

The goal was to create experientially different moments of play during the different phases of your caterpillar life. As the design sheet above depicts, an important early thought was creating a sense of freedom and openness when the player emerges as a butterfly. This was accomplished by providing wildly different controls after the player emerges from a cocoon.<\/p>\n

(The player is immobile as a cocoon, but has the freedom to move the camera — something they couldn’t do as a Pillar. Being given a brief opportunity to scout the map is useful, and it serves as a cue for the player to make the control shift more intuitive.)<\/p>\n

The\u00a0loop was complete, and\u00a0roughly balanced so that total population was\u00a0dependent on player actions. Neat.<\/p>\n

I hang out in the IRC chat for a few before some kind soul yells at me, “SLEEP!”<\/span><\/p>\n

I wake up early and\u00a0tweak a few things, then get to planning the next sprint.<\/p>\n

More Morphs\u00a0Please<\/h4>\n

This basic life-cycle was SO successful in providing experientially unique moments of play, that I implemented alternate forms in the next sprint:
\n \"PillarOfHateDD2\"<\/p>\n

I didn’t know exactly what these other forms would do yet. I just gave them names and drew them to help spur creative thought. During implementation,\u00a0they changed a million\u00a0times before I settled\u00a0on these three:<\/p>\n

Agrobug:<\/strong> eats other bugs, leaves a trail of food behind it when moving quickly (clicking). Emergently attracts other bugs, creating food (eggs, cocoons, etc) for itself. Playing the agrobug feels pragmatic. You’re constantly moving forward, but turning requires you to click (and drop food). Spamming his movement causes him to revert to a cocoon, so motion is deliberate and calculate.<\/p>\n

Fastbug (Zipper):<\/strong> fast-moving egg-collector that can morph at will. Useful for when there is a bunch of food around, but also a large number of competing insects. Like the Butters, he is fast, but his controls aren’t very friendly unless you remain in constant motion. Controlling the Fastbug feels restless. Almost agitating.<\/p>\n

Fatbug:<\/strong> An inedible, egg layer. He’s ridiculously slow and his controls are unwieldy, making him a pain to play, but that’s okay! This discourages players from using him prematurely, as his only real system utility is saving the player from loss conditions (no mates, about to be eaten, etc…).<\/p>\n

It’s about this point that I really started to feel the theme. Morphing completely changes the “feel” of the game, despite the fact that the underlying ecosystem remains the same. Player actions affect the distribution of bug populations.<\/p>\n

It’s getting complex.<\/p>\n

Before taking a fairly long break,\u00a0I time-block the last day of development with three major goals in mind:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. create “levels” to introduce the complex game mechanics,<\/li>\n
  2. provide a sense of progression in the existing “endless”\u00a0mode,<\/li>\n
  3. improve art and add sound.<\/li>\n <\/ol>\n

    Aaaaand…go!<\/p>\n

    the Birth of Story Mode (More Feels Please)<\/h4>\n

    I wrote up a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish (“Become a buttefly”, “Last 3 generations”, etc) and started writing level controllers like a madman. I made a simple helper message to provide context for the player: “You want to be butterfly.”<\/p>\n

    Then something beautiful happened.<\/p>\n

    In the minimalist environment of the game,\u00a0with few other cues, this simple message was hauntingly engaging. I trusted it. It told me how I felt. Why should I question it?<\/p>\n

    A large part\u00a0of my motivation so far had been attempting to control the player’s emotional\u00a0response to mechanical changes. This form of exposition\u00a0had unbelievable synergy, and I\u00a0ran with this for hours. Helper messages got simpler, more bug-like in perception.\u00a0Simultaneously simple and open ended, they spurred thought.\u00a0Mood became everything, and story mode emerged.<\/p>\n

    But there’s still time for more!<\/p>\n

    Mutation Mode (Progression via\u00a0Adaptations)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    4 hours left. No time to think. I know what I want to accomplish. I don’t have time to question\u00a0plans.\u00a0I create a data object to hold names and descriptions of\u00a0various mutations and\u00a0begin writing what\u00a0they do before lifting a finger\u00a0to actually implement them. I’m sure this will be my downfall.<\/p>\n

    3 mutations to unlock the alternative morphs, 3 cool down reduction mutations, 5 speed boost mutations, and 10 “unique” mutations (2 for each bug). Here’s a sample of some of the\u00a0ambitious mutations I chose to throw at myself:<\/p>\n

    – “Grabbing Claws — grab eggs [as the Butter] and carry them while holding the LMB!”
    \n – “Explosion Pouch — when the fatbug dies, it blows anything nearby into tasty bits!”<\/p>\n

    Believe it or not, I managed to implement all of these (and visualize the mutation when hovering over an heir)\u00a0with an hour to spare.\u00a0My old friend crunch, he’s\u00a0good to me.<\/p>\n

    Graphics and Audio<\/h4>\n

    Alas,\u00a0I’m behind schedule. I anticipated having 4 hours to spare at the end to\u00a0polish graphics and add audio, but there’s only an hour left. I open up illustrator and begin frantically replacing all of the art assets — all\u00a07 sprites. \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n