A Change in Pace
The game I submitted to LD45 was a departure from what I had developed for previous jams. I decided to focus on puzzle-y mechanics and an unobstructive story over action. I wanted to elicit a similar kind of feeling that other 'adventure' games have given me, most being point and clicks. I also went in a more abstract direction in terms of art style, at least for the opening, as well as the story as a whole. Most of my work however can be classified as abstract though not often by intention.
I also changed how I worked on the game and focused on core movement feel and basic mechanics initially for a prototyping sequence that is more accurate to larger game development. I managed to not take too much time with modeling even though UV mapping is something that I had little to no real experience with beforehand. I think most of my lost time came from bugs and red herrings that stem from not having experience with Unity in 3D.
Stumbles Along the Way
In my eyes, given the time frame I am pleased with the result. Putting myself in the shoes of someone who didn't make the game I can feel some faint sense of discovering a new world and intrigue from piecing together a story. Obviously my imitation of a new player is not perfect and the game has many problems that get in the way. The abstract style also may be doing the game more harm than good. Intimately knowing the world and the message makes it very difficult to see them objectively.
I greatly underestimated the need of a tutorial. When I approach low-quality indie games such as my own, I must be in the habit of trying all keys/buttons and approaching it from a sort of QA-style exhaustive view when things aren't coming together. The beginning of the game is intentionally opaque, but the lack of an in-game control map or basic tutorial objective messages made this impassable for the average player. I did design the section to be a tutorial since it requires the player to hit most of the important buttons to get through it, but results speak louder than intentions.
Even with all the shortcomings I still feel that by going a different direction I grew as a developer and I am glad to have had the opportunity while I am a Ludum Dare participant. My other two entries share a lot in common with themselves and some of my other non-LD projects. Making a game that isn't action-oriented, or 2D pixelart sprite based, or topdown/sidescroller has given me what feels like good experience.
Themes, Themes Everywhere...
...But Nothing to Drink
