Ok, this is a bit embarassing… It’s been almost 2 months and I still haven’t posted my post mortem for LD29. I actually had some rough thoughts written down right after the compo but have been postponing writing a proper post because of school and such… I know, excuses, excuses… So anyway, here goes:

The bad

• Idea was not very coherent – This time around I spent less time thinking up an idea and started a little quicker. The problem was that I had a few loose ideas which seemed nice at first, but later I had a hard time getting them to fit together.
• Panic – Because of the above, some time around the middle of the compo I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish anything playable and was starting to think about quitting.
• Not enough polish – Some parts of the game were a little rushed, like the level design (same problem as in my last compo, will I ever learn? :P). Other things that could use some more love: the graphics, the HUD and I’m also not 100% happy with the “physics”.

The good

• Kind of fun movement mechanics – This was what prevented me from giving up on the game. I wasn’t sure if my overall gameplay ideas made any sense but in my moment of weakness I just sat and played around with the small prototype that I had so far. I noticed that the movement mechanics, though kind of wonky, were pretty fun and I decided to keep going, thinking that at the very least I’d have a boring game with fun character movement.
• Ideas somehow fit together in the end – I threw in most of the elements I wanted to include and to my surprise something more or less playable came out…

Other observations

• Even simple platformer physics take time to code (compared to simple top-down movement).
• Pixel-based maps are fun and easy to edit.

Next time

• Spend more time on graphics to get a nice art style?
• Don’t worry so much about finishing.
• Get something playable on day 1 (and later polish).
• Maybe finally make some music…
• Start playing with level design early (having an interesting map helps to come up with game mechanics).