This was my first LudumDare, and I’m amazed at how everyone in this community interacts positively to make LD the great experience that it is. So, this is a warm thank you to burlapjack, JenniNexus, Taunia_Sabanski for their little reviews on my game LIGHT. Go support your fellow LD LetsPlayers!

Don’t forget to check burlapjack‘s playthrough:

Play and Rate LIGHT!

Tags: ld32, playthrough, unconventional, weapon

This is my second LudumDare. I was very excited since I did fairly good on my first one. But things didn’t go well this time.

I started late, I didn’t manage time well, I was fixed on one idea for the fiction/setting and ignored the core mechanics completely till the last minute, I had nothing till 8 hours before the deadline, I quickly implemented the simplest mechanic that I could think of, and put a story on top of it. I’d say my performance was less than mediocre.

This however doesn’t mean I’m giving up on making games, I’m only going to be making more. Anyways, it has been a great expreince!

Tags: LD33, postmortem

I noticed that some of the top entries only got 10-15 comments. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but I can guess that these entries didn’t get that many votes. However, they were very successful in captivating their first score of voters. I always thought that getting to the top meant more votes — Turns out I’m wrong. I wanted to hear your thoughts on this guys. Do you prefer less or more votes on your game?

Many Votes
I prefer to have more votes on my game, because the more feedback I get the better I learn from the experience. Plus statistics tells us that a larger sample always gives us better confidence in our stats (namely “mean game score” in this case). With a big sample, outlier bad votes should not affect the overall score. An example outlier comment on my game:

Few Votes
If you’re confident enough that your game will land at the appropriate player base, you may want to take the risk. This may not be totally due to luck though. If you take this approach, you have to perfect the game so that it’s accessible to a very wide player base. A good thing with not trying for many votes is that you don’t have to look like an “attention seeking dev”.

Again, those those are just some random thoughts.

Go play SUBJECT 26!

    seen = scrCamSees(objPlayer.x, objPlayer.y);
    if (seen) {
        with (objPlayer) {
            var wallpaper = instance_position(x, y, objWallpaper);
            if (instance_exists(wallpaper)
                    && wallpaper.image_blend == image_blend) {
                other.seen = false;
            } else {
                scrShapeshift(false);
            }
        }
    }

Go play!

So I’ve seen 40-50 aweseome games.  But only 1 or 2 stood out for me (Note: my game is not one of those xD).  Part of what I like about LD is that I think of it as a showcase of random game elements put under magnification goggles.  You get to see one game mechanic in isolation — which you can learn a lot from.  I have a theory that the more constraints there are in a jam the more creative people get.  But I could be completely wrong.

LD34 for example had LOTS of games that felt like they almost invented new genres / core mechanics.  Maybe the theme in LD35 wasn’t very restrictive?  Do you guys disagree?  Do you recommend any games from LD35?

Go try this puzzler!

… SUBJECT 26 got decent rank.

I think I can say I know how fatherhood feels now.  No matter how good your kid does, you always expect more out of him.

Thanks everyone!  And many happy returns!

Play Until Tomorrow to find out!

Play Until Tomorrow to find out!

Here's a graph of the #LDJAM tweets count: So excited!

Want to know how small? check Until Tomorrow to find out!

Or are they? Play Until Tomorrow to find out!

Then try Until Tomorrow!

Go play Until Tomorrow before reading!

What Went Well

• Enough content -- I'm usually not good at content. But this time I crammed enough to get people interested. The game does feel short, but I think that's the right way to do a narrative-focused game.

"I didn’t expect to play for as long as I did - great job on finishing it. Very nice experience from start to finish..."

• The story was good -- People seem to enjoy it.

"Wow! That was a great experience. The story was very solid and self-contained. I enjoyed discovering it...."

• The right atmosphere -- I spend a lot of time on the visuals and audio, and I'm glad it paid off.

"...Really cool story, the atmosphere drew you in and it was very engaging..."

• No instructions needed -- This is something I try to focus on in every game I make. Though, this time it was easy.

What Could Be Improved

• Not enough mechanics -- The idea for the game started from a theme/story, so mechanics felt like a second thought.

• Controls were laggy -- During walk animation, player input is ignored, which gave the impression of a lag. I got a lot of complaints about this.

• Executed as planned -- At first this may seem like a good thing, but I always found it better when the game making process is more of a back and forth conversation between you and the game, not a straight forward path from plan to execution: You implement an idea then try it out, and that sparks another idea in your head and so forth; It's more fun this way.

• Started late --- I kept doubting myself, and I wasted time that I could have spent tackling some of the issues.

Lessons for Next Time

• Don't take control away from the player, even if you think you have a cool animation to show.
• More mechanics, less content.
• You'll always doubt your game at first. Keep at it and you'll end up with something cool. If not, then you learned something.

Aaand....

Play with it in Until Tomorrow

And why wouldn’t they let you go out? Play Until Tomorrow to find out!

Tags: LD38

And why wouldn't they let you go out? Play Until Tomorrow to find out!

I already did a small postmortem on my game, but after getting more feedback I think I have something extra to share.

I noticed that the game's feedback has high variance. Some thought that it's too easy, and some got stuck. Some thought it's too much content, while others thought it's short. Some thought it's deep enough, while some thought it's shallow. And I think I found some reasons for that. But not to spoil the game, I'll try to keep the analysis short and generic. Here's 3 ways to get variant feedback:

1. Break Conventions of a Known Genre

When you present your game as being of one genre, people will have expectations on controls, mechanics, goals, and theme. If you are not smart breaking conventions, people will feel uneasy.

My game feels like an RPG, but it doesn't stick to conventions. So for people who had certain "RPG expectations" felt that the controls, the mechanics, and the story was broken.

2. No Clear Target Audience

If you don't make it clear what audience your game would suit, you are going to get the wrong audience. Or you might get the correct audience but with the wrong set of expectations.

My game somehow, either through visuals or description, did not make it clear what it's purpose was. I found that younger audience did not get the game, while more mature people found it interesting. I should have done something to mitigate that.

3. Giving False Promises [MINI-SPOILER]

Maybe this one is not applicable to a lot of cases, but my game gave hints of things to expect, but intentionally didn't deliver on them for thematic reasons. For someone who doesn't like those thematic reasons, they feel like they were given a false promise.

One thing that I liked most about LD is the amount of streamers that offer to play our games online. Seeing the reactions live is the most valuable feedback I got on my previous games. Why aren't there that many this time around?

Seeing the comments and the ratings is good and all, but it's not as helpful when I'm trying to find root causes for why my game lacked in certain areas. Am I the only one who thinks so?

[shameless plug] ^@stanov's reaction after finishing Until Tomorrow (played at 4x speed). Shout out to @stanov and @morbidcamel101, the two streamers I'm aware of who streamed LD38 games reviews.