{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/caranha\/","author_name":"caranha","cat":"LD #26","categories":["LD #26"],"comments":[],"epoch":1367712000,"event":"LD26","likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"79271","p_author":"caranha","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"288281","p_title":"The Fair King, Post Mortem and Time Lapse","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367712000","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"source_url":"2013\/05\/05\/the-fair-king-post-mortem-and-time-lapse\/","text":"<p>I have finally uploaded a time lapse video for my LD26 entry, \u201cThe Fair King\u201d. Feel free to watch it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ki1CHquYlYA\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" id=\"attachment_243618\" style=\"width: 560px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/28\/its-playable-now-time-to-polish\/success-8\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-243618\"><img alt=\"Fair King game screen\" class=\"size-large wp-image-243618\" height=\"365\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/success-550x365.png\" width=\"550\"\/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clear the stage by dividing the colors by as close as 50% as possible<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For me, Ludum Dare is a chance for me to try something that is out of my usual reality. Game making, art creating, very short deadlines. In keeping with this spirit, I decided that I should move myself outside of my comfort zone, and try a brand new game engine, and a brand new platform. I decided to use libGDX for the first time, and make a game aimed towards the Android platform.<\/p>\n<p>I know that it is not best practice to try out new libraries in the 48 hours alloted by LD, but I wanted this to be a learning experience, so I went ahead with it anyway. Here is the usual \u201cwhat went well\u201d and \u201cwhat went poorly\u201d breakdown:<\/p>\n<h3>What went well:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Think 5 ideas, pick the 6th:<\/b> My game idea became simpler each iteration, until I had an idea simple enough that I could implement in a day.\n<li><b>Porting to android:<\/b> LibGDX made porting to android really simple, and it motivates you having your game on a mobile platform\n<li><b>Image levels:<\/b> Levels in my game can be stored as images. I used <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.nullium.isopix&amp;hl=en\">Isopix<\/a> to work on puzzle levels while I was in the train.\n<li><b>Version management with Git:<\/b> I had to rollback the game a few times when I tried to add some functionalities, and Git made it really simple.\n<\/li><\/li><\/li><\/li><\/ul>\n<h3>What went poorly:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><b>LibGDX is quirky:<\/b> You have to use power of 2 textures for portability, the font class is a mess, and different drawing models use y-positive or y-negative axis.\n<li><b>I\u2019m tired of autotracker:<\/b> but I haven\u2019t yet learned to properly use any sequencing software for linux. I want to fix this by next LD.\n<li><b>No playtesting:<\/b> means that I missed some pretty obvious interface mistakes. For example, I should throw away invalid moves, instead of showing an obvious \u201close\u201d screen for these, also it is not obvious where you should begin the line from.\n<\/li><\/li><\/li><\/ul>\n<p>It was fun, and I\u2019m happy with the result. Please give me your opinions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-26\/?action=preview&amp;uid=7847\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/android\/\" rel=\"tag\">android<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/interface\/\" rel=\"tag\">interface<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/java\/\" rel=\"tag\">java<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/libgdx\/\" rel=\"tag\">libgdx<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/postmortem\/\" rel=\"tag\">postmortem<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/puzzle\/\" rel=\"tag\">puzzle<\/a><\/p>","time":"May 5th, 2013 12:00 am","title":"The Fair King, Post Mortem and Time Lapse","title_was_empty":false}