{"assets":[{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/375043\/21428-shot0.PNG","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/08\/abb66425233b0fd43c61e8161e667c29.png"},{"original":"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/375043\/21428-shot2.PNG","local":"\/data\/posts\/2014\/08\/c0538a2f898509534b039fb8651bb16f.png"}],"author_link":"author\/jackyjjc\/","author_name":"jackyjjc","cat":"LD #30","categories":["LD #30"],"comments":[],"epoch":1409179800,"event":"LD30","likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"82634","p_author":"jackyjjc","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"293366","p_title":"Milkyway Tycoon Post Mortem","p_cat":"LD #30","p_event":"LD30","p_time":"1409179800","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1408665600","event_key":"24","event_name":"LD30"},"source_url":"2014\/08\/27\/milkyway-tycoon-post-mortem\/","text":"

You can\u00a0play and rate my game here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Back in LD#26 , I made a crappy puzzle game<\/a> that was neither finished nor fun. In LD#27, I finally made a finished game called \u201c10 second roguelike\u201d<\/a>. Although it only ranked #450, I received a lot of comments that were both helpful and inspiring. It was nice to hear others enjoyed your game especially when you are not a professional game developer. It was also really satisfying to see other people played my game. Therefore, I decided to join this Ludum Dare again to have some fun and yea it was definitely a hell lot of fun.<\/p>\n

I decided that I would make a strategy or tycoon game this time around since I\u2019ve never made one and I love strategy games. I was hoping the theme would be Alchemy or Fortress but it turns out Connected Worlds is a also great theme for making a strategy game (as you can see from so many entries being a tycoon game). My game was inspired by a super old KOEI game call Aerobiz Supersonic<\/a>\u00a0(yes, I love old KOEI games as you can see from my attempted to remake\u00a0Uncharted Horizon\u00a02<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s now talk about what went well and what went wrong in this LD.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

=== Things that went well ===<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2013 Using an\u00a0iterative approach<\/strong> was good because it turns out I have to throw away A LOT of the original design due to time limit<\/p>\n

\u2013 Try out new things.<\/strong>\u00a0 I used Java + Libgdx which I was familiar with but I had never made a tycoon game nor that I know how to use scene2D to create GUI and I learned a lot.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Play testing is important. <\/b>I finished early\u00a0as a jam entry because I was aiming to get into the compo, but it turned out to be good because the first comment pointed out I had some game crushing bugs. It also let me have time to play test it myself which enables me finding out my original version was way too simple.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Music is important.<\/strong>\u00a0It made my game feel much better after I added background music.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Getting into flow.<\/strong>\u00a0At some point I lost track of time and it felt great to keep on coding. I was amazed by how much I had done when I finished. I also need to thank my girlfriend for her support \":)\"<\/p>\n

\u2013 Separating the data with the game logic <\/strong>simplified my play testing because I only need to run the game again to see the changes I made.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

=== Things that did not went well ===<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2013 Time Management. <\/strong>I was aiming to get into the compo but I ran out of time to\u00a0replace the place holder arts I found on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Poor Tutorial.<\/strong>\u00a0I thought it should be easy for people to learn the game because I included in-game help info. It turned out I did a poor job and everyone complained about the game having a really steep learning curve at the start.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No test run before start.<\/strong> Libgdx changed a bit since last time I used it and the documentation wasn\u2019t kept up to date. I spent quite some time fiddling with the code to get some of the GUI element right.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Forgot to buy groceries before the compo.<\/strong>\u00a0I ran out of food to cook during the day and I had to go out and buy stuff which made me lose an hour of coding.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Need more play testing when making a strategy game.\u00a0<\/strong>I still feel my game is too easy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, I had a great time last weekend and I will definitely come back for the next ludum dare!<\/p>","time":"August 27th, 2014 10:50 pm","title":"Milkyway Tycoon Post Mortem","title_was_empty":false}