LD39 Post Mortem - Power Insufficient
So LD39 happened the other day...
*looks at calendar* SO, LD39 happened a week ago and I promised a Post Mortem. Ok, so I didn’t promise but I did say that I would! Power Insufficient is, at it’s core, probably closest related to 4X games such as Stellaris, Endless Space and (the only 4X game I’ve ever played, really) Master of Orion. Basically, you spend resources sending ships to certain locations to gather more resources so you can send more ships to more locations so that you can one day expand to rule the entire universe. At this super basic level I think the game succeeds. You can in fact spend resources to send ships to certain locations to gather more resources so that you can send more ships to more places and eventually expand your civilization throughout the universe.
So what went well?
Tools This time I decided to go with Unity instead of html5 tech and I believe that was the most important decision I could have made. It helps that I have been fiddling around with Unity on another personal project for a couple of months. Unity allowed me two things that I wouldn’t have had the ability to do if I would have stuck with html5. The first is that Unity allowed me to code less and design more. When writing my entry for LD38, Totem, much of my time was writing infrastructure shtuffs even though I was using the Phaser framework. With Unity, even though I do think the code is a bit sloppier at no fault to the engine, MUCH more of my time was designing and coding the gameplay systems. Time management As soon as the theme was announced I took a walk. I took 10-15 minute breaks very often. I didn’t code the entire time! I allowed myself to get distracted a bit, but only a bit and not AS often as my break taking. I believe this allowed me to stay “limber” and less stressed. It also helped that I... Kept a small scope Before I had even written a line of code I made the decision to do a few things: Have a depleting “energy” bar. Have a bunch of randomly generated stars and have the ability to send ships between these stars to increase the amount of energy in your energy bar albeit at the expense of some of the energy up-front. At the beginning the game wasn’t even 3d. It wasn’t until day 2 that I had decided to go 3d with an orbital camera! This, along with tool selection and time management, gave me a clear road map of features which I could then tackle without getting lost or side-tracked.
What didn’t go so well?
I said time management was something that went well but I ALSO think it’s something that could have gone better. While I am happy with taking breaks and often and just ultimately trying not to force things, I also think I slacked off just a bit TOO much. In hindsight if I would have pushed myself just a little bit further I believe I could have improved the end-result of the game a LOT with minimal effort. Maybe a few more ship types, random events, better visuals and music. There are many things that the game is lacking. The menu is ugly, the graphics leave a lot to be desired, the music is non-existent though I am still really happy with the voice-overs. =D What I’m getting at is that there are things that I could have easily implemented in the time allowed if maybe I DID force things just a little bit.
Conclusion
With all of that being said I have received a TON of good feedback about the game and a lot of good constructive criticism and ideas for a post-compo version(which I am planning on releasing when I get some time). Thank you to everyone who’s played the game and I’m glad so many of you guys and gals enjoyed the game enough to leave feedback on how to make it better!