{"author_link":"\/users\/scriptorum","author_name":"Scriptorum","author_uid":"scriptorum","comments":[],"epoch":1494808938,"event":"LD38","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":31138,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"93560","p_author":"Scriptorum","p_authorkey":"1000532","p_urlkey":"306478","p_title":"The \"Your Planet: Too Big\" Compo Postmortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD38","p_time":"1494808938","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1000532","us_name":"Scriptorum","us_username":"scriptorum","event_start":"1492732800","event_key":"69","event_name":"LD 38"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD38","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9405,"_trust":2,"author":532,"body":"![toobig-anim-sm.gif](\/\/\/raw\/412\/z\/29e2.gif)\n\n[Your Planet: Too Big](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big) is a series of puzzles where you're tasked with making a big world smaller. You do this by dropping a finite number of bombs, where each bomb can remove a contiguous set of matching terrain.\n> I have to say this was an incredibly simple yet fun idea, I just lost almost an hour on this - @agee1981\n\n###  :sunglasses: Vicious Brainstorming\nThe compo starts at 9PM for me, so I usually draft out a few terrible ideas and go to bed. Then in the morning, I choose the one that, upon reflection, seems least *ridiculous* to attempt given the constraints of the compo. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: This time my game ideas seemed extra terrible, so I just kept writing down these awful, awful bad ideas, until I popped out a few that were actually interesting. Thanks to @McFunkyPants for that advice.\n > Really good game, and one of the best use of the theme I\u2019ve seen so far! - @david-cookie\n\n### :poop: Predictable Physics Are Hard to Predict\nUsing a continuous physics system to control terrain movements meant that it could be hard to accurately predict what would happen when you made a move. If you didn't wait until everything \"settled\" before making a move, you might even get different results from play to play. I think moving to a deterministic system isn't the solution - instead I should have tried different types of gameplay. An endless\/waves mode might be more forgiving.\n >  Sometimes it was a bit difficult to figure out how my change was going to effect the shape of the planet overall\u2026 - @spaceman\n \n### :sunglasses: Sound Effects\nI recently got a [Tascam DR-40](http:\/\/tascam.com\/product\/dr-40\/) handheld recorder, because a) new gadgets are fun, and b) I wanted better sound effects. I made a list of sounds that I needed and ran off into the backyard to start crunching and dropping and touching stuff. Unfortunately it was a windy day, and I\u2019m still lacking a windmuff (which I now know is a thing), so I moved into the garage. And surprise - there\u2019s a lot of fun stuff to bang, scrape, and clang in my garage. Foley is fun. I liked making native sounds much more over a traditional retro sfx generator. Dumbells against dumbells make some awesome clanking.\n\n > The sounds are pretty good! With a little polish this could easily turn into a full game. - @flaterectomy\n\n### :poop:  Music\nI only had enough time for one song, and I shoved it into the main menu because, you know, it kind of sucked. I really should have set aside more time for music. Its absence in-game was particularly felt by many of the players. Part of the blame was simply I'm out of practice; I should have written a few songs beforehand to shake off the rust. But also I just didn't leave enough time in the schedule for it.\n > However why is there only music on the title-screen? Imo the game would\u2019ve greatly benefited from music during the gameplay elements. -@elzach\n\n### :sunglasses: Day One Prototype\nThe idea I chose had a risk associated with it, which was what if the central mechanic wasn't fun? I settled on a theme and rolled out a working proof of concept on Friday night. That was a first, and it felt great! Especially because the concept worked and was interesting, that's a great motivator to continue.\n > Interesting game mechanics. -@arcticmattekar\n\n### :poop: Fell Into Some Rabbitholes\nI spent four hours chasing down a bug that turned out to be a known Unity issue, spent a few hours on another bug that was of my own making, and realized after banging my head for a couple more hours that I used an older Unity Download Assistant and was not even on the latest 5.6 build. After such a great first day I was optimistic I'd have a submittable game by day two, and then could spend day three polishing and adding juice. But I failed to follow @McFunkyPants \"three strikes and cut it\" rule, so I was coding right down to the wire again.\n > The colors of the planet are a tad dull. I could imagine a more comical look for the game, alien portratis while chatting, for example. And more detailed landscapes with structures like houses (landmarks), boats, tractors, animals. I would suggest to use a \u201cfantasy\u201d weapon like a big laser instead of bombs in this case. - @zorg\n\nI look forward to the next compo!\n\nPlay [Your Planet: Too Big](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big) here!","comments":0,"created":"2017-05-14T21:03:11Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":31138,"love":3,"love-timestamp":"2017-05-15T16:49:34Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-05-15T16:49:34Z","name":"The \"Your Planet: Too Big\" Compo Postmortem","node-timestamp":"2017-05-15T00:42:18Z","parent":15182,"parents":[1,5,9,9405,15182],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big\/the-your-planet-too-big-compo-postmortem","published":"2017-05-15T00:42:18Z","scope":"public","slug":"the-your-planet-too-big-compo-postmortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":83197},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"31138","n_urlkey":"306478","n_parent":"15182","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big\/the-your-planet-too-big-compo-postmortem","n_slug":"the-your-planet-too-big-compo-po","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"532","n_created":"1494795791","n_modified":"1494866974","n_version":"83197","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big\/the-your-planet-too-big-compo-postmortem","text":"![toobig-anim-sm.gif](\/\/\/raw\/412\/z\/29e2.gif)\n\n[Your Planet: Too Big](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big) is a series of puzzles where you're tasked with making a big world smaller. You do this by dropping a finite number of bombs, where each bomb can remove a contiguous set of matching terrain.\n> I have to say this was an incredibly simple yet fun idea, I just lost almost an hour on this - @agee1981\n\n###  :sunglasses: Vicious Brainstorming\nThe compo starts at 9PM for me, so I usually draft out a few terrible ideas and go to bed. Then in the morning, I choose the one that, upon reflection, seems least *ridiculous* to attempt given the constraints of the compo. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: This time my game ideas seemed extra terrible, so I just kept writing down these awful, awful bad ideas, until I popped out a few that were actually interesting. Thanks to @McFunkyPants for that advice.\n > Really good game, and one of the best use of the theme I\u2019ve seen so far! - @david-cookie\n\n### :poop: Predictable Physics Are Hard to Predict\nUsing a continuous physics system to control terrain movements meant that it could be hard to accurately predict what would happen when you made a move. If you didn't wait until everything \"settled\" before making a move, you might even get different results from play to play. I think moving to a deterministic system isn't the solution - instead I should have tried different types of gameplay. An endless\/waves mode might be more forgiving.\n >  Sometimes it was a bit difficult to figure out how my change was going to effect the shape of the planet overall\u2026 - @spaceman\n \n### :sunglasses: Sound Effects\nI recently got a [Tascam DR-40](http:\/\/tascam.com\/product\/dr-40\/) handheld recorder, because a) new gadgets are fun, and b) I wanted better sound effects. I made a list of sounds that I needed and ran off into the backyard to start crunching and dropping and touching stuff. Unfortunately it was a windy day, and I\u2019m still lacking a windmuff (which I now know is a thing), so I moved into the garage. And surprise - there\u2019s a lot of fun stuff to bang, scrape, and clang in my garage. Foley is fun. I liked making native sounds much more over a traditional retro sfx generator. Dumbells against dumbells make some awesome clanking.\n\n > The sounds are pretty good! With a little polish this could easily turn into a full game. - @flaterectomy\n\n### :poop:  Music\nI only had enough time for one song, and I shoved it into the main menu because, you know, it kind of sucked. I really should have set aside more time for music. Its absence in-game was particularly felt by many of the players. Part of the blame was simply I'm out of practice; I should have written a few songs beforehand to shake off the rust. But also I just didn't leave enough time in the schedule for it.\n > However why is there only music on the title-screen? Imo the game would\u2019ve greatly benefited from music during the gameplay elements. -@elzach\n\n### :sunglasses: Day One Prototype\nThe idea I chose had a risk associated with it, which was what if the central mechanic wasn't fun? I settled on a theme and rolled out a working proof of concept on Friday night. That was a first, and it felt great! Especially because the concept worked and was interesting, that's a great motivator to continue.\n > Interesting game mechanics. -@arcticmattekar\n\n### :poop: Fell Into Some Rabbitholes\nI spent four hours chasing down a bug that turned out to be a known Unity issue, spent a few hours on another bug that was of my own making, and realized after banging my head for a couple more hours that I used an older Unity Download Assistant and was not even on the latest 5.6 build. After such a great first day I was optimistic I'd have a submittable game by day two, and then could spend day three polishing and adding juice. But I failed to follow @McFunkyPants \"three strikes and cut it\" rule, so I was coding right down to the wire again.\n > The colors of the planet are a tad dull. I could imagine a more comical look for the game, alien portratis while chatting, for example. And more detailed landscapes with structures like houses (landmarks), boats, tractors, animals. I would suggest to use a \u201cfantasy\u201d weapon like a big laser instead of bombs in this case. - @zorg\n\nI look forward to the next compo!\n\nPlay [Your Planet: Too Big](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/your-planet-too-big) here!","title":"The \"Your Planet: Too Big\" Compo Postmortem","wayback_source":[]}