Litterlings Recap
I will write a making of entry later on, but for now I want to recapitulate how this Ludum Dare went for me.
Overall I’m content with the process and result, but there’s still room for improvement.
I believe that my initial idea and the base mechanic of Litterlings (creating and destroying terrain in a point gravity setup, with creatures living on that terrain) has great potential for interesting games. And even though I like the way the game turned out, I don’t feel that it really exploits the possibilities I created with this basic setup.
What went well:
+ I didn’t take on too much with my goals, therefore I got to do sound, particle effects and polishing, which adds a lot to the experience.
+ Probably my best entry so far regarding fun and completeness.
+ A lot of fun in the development process and also a great learning experience (especially the pixel based terrain and collision).
+ I created a nice base system to further experiment on in the future.
Where I see room for improvement:
– I don’t feel like Litterlings makes the most out of the promising start concept.
– I got too little sleep (~6 hours) and completely wrecked my sleep schedule. Also I ate as unhealthy as possible. Felt kind of sick afterwards.
– I didn’t flesh out my concept, resulting in a second brainstorming and ideation phase halfway through the development.
What I plan for the future of Litterlings:
– add a lose condition (dropping your Litterling count to < 20% of the highest score)
– create an android version with start menu, highscore table and optimized layout
– add the possibility to zoom in to and follow your spaceship with the camera, important especially in the later stages of the game
– more polishing, balancing and tweaking
– experiment with the base setups and different objectives, like an approach of combat and destruction or a strategy game
