Like a Fever Dream
It's been 5 years since my last jam. Just out of the aether I remembered of the ludum dare, and thankfully I was able to get in last week. Now I'm here deciding on my tools and the guardrails needed so I just don't outscope myself into oblivion. And so, I've decided on the following.
Tools
- "Engine:" To give me a challenge I ditched the engine and decided to go a little bit lower level without having to go all the way down. That's why I chose Raylib.
- Platform: Just make it as easy as possible, the only right answer is html5.
- Graphics: Don't make it complex and adjust as needed: Aseprite, Krita and/or Blender (depending on the flow).
- Audio: Long ago I was a musician so I'll use an old bass, a piezo mic and Audacity.
Guard Rails
- Unless necessary don't go looking for optimal or exact solutions.
- Don't try to use high level concepts (like classes) if a low level one (a function with a pointer) can do the job.
- Keep your design high, but your expectations low. You only have 48 hours to do this.
- Try using some sort of version control and CI/CD. If something fails you want to catch it ASAP by either debugging or reverting.
- Awesome per second: Try to make just a minute of pure fun instead of 10 minutes of just ok.
- You are your resource. Take breaks, eat, and sleep to keep your edge.
- Think of a tale, not a novel: Once again time is limited, and there is no time for epic stories with interweaving plots. Or in our case, awesome designs with multiple interacting systems.
- Iterate and follow the fun. If something catches your eye and is funnier than your original design go for it.
- Misery loves company, but so do joy and wonder. Share what you're working on, and invite people into your process.
- Enjoy the ride.
And now with less than 24 hours to begin, I'll just go ahead and get into a good headspace.
Exploring from a safe distance. Decided I couldn't go wrong if I used the correct analogy to justify programmer art.