LD38 was my first Ludum Dare and my first game jam, and I wasn’t sure exactly how far I would get or what to expect, but I’m really satisfied with my final product. I entered the Compo, programmed in Python, and made all the art, animation, and music in the 48-hour time period.

My game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/seven-pillars

What went wrong:

Ideation:

This theme was not particularly inspiring to me, and I had a hard time thinking of anything beyond “doing x activity on a tiny planet.” It took me several hours before I came up with a solid game idea.

Animation scope:

At first, I was going to create around eleven animation sequences for the main character (eight attacks for each direction!), plus a crumbling pillar animation and a dynamic background. I quickly discovered that this was WAY outside the scope of what I could do in 48-hours, so I backtracked, made one attacking animation, and reversed the “jump right” animation for jumping left.

Distribution:

I didn’t have a good idea of how Python is packaged and compiled, and was unfamiliar with tools for this like pyinstaller and py2exe. Once the Compo ended, I figured that my game was essentially unplayable because it would require Linux, python, pygame, and git to install (whoops). A few days later, after a few hours, I finally figured out how to create a Windows executable. In the future, I’ll probably use an engine like Unity for easier distribution.

Sleep:

Jesus Christ. I need to learn to take care of myself.

What went right:

Visuals:

I really like how my game looks. The animation is smoother than I anticipated (I haven’t done animation since the DSi and Flipnote), and the overall theme and style is nice. I originally was going to make it darker, with a more serious, ninja-like character; however, I’m glad that I pivoted because the sword cat was more fun to animate.

Music:

I totally expected complete writer’s block for the music, but I managed to sit down with Sibelius and make the tune in an hour or two. It’s pretty brief, but it loops well and has some depth to it.

Fun:

I had an incredible time making this, and I’m planning on doing Ludum Dare a lot in the future. The community is great, problematic website aside, and I had a great time making this little game and sharing it with the world.