New Game: This world is broken
Howdy ya'll. I made a game for Ludum Dare a few weeks ago, and I think it's high time I actually make a postmortem for it.
So the theme this time around was "You Only Get One." I came up with a few concepts before settling on this final option. The first idea was a game where you get one chance to win the game, and if you die you run you don't get a second chance, a la a game I played on Newgrounds a while back. (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181). My next idea was a metroidvania game where you can save one princess, however there are several trapped in the castle. Neither of these ideas went far so I decide to come up with a new idea. I wanted something simple, since by that time it was Saturday I night and I was running out of time.
Now I started working on This world is broken in earnest. I decided to go with a ZX Spectrum style, since I was annoyed that I didn't have time to work on much of game for SpeccyJam, a few weeks prior, and I had the palette on hand. I came up with the idea of only being able to wall jump and the game started to flow out. In the end, I finished in the nick of time, although I would have liked just another hour or more just to hammer out a few kinks.
Overall Feelings: I like this game. I like the concept and I enjoyed making it. I think the difficulty curve is a bit steep, although to be fair, almost all of my games have a very challenging aspect. I seem to make a lot twitch platformers.
Art: The art was simple, but so was the game, so I thought it was pretty fitting. Other than the color changes it really only had two sprites and a tile, but it fit the concept pretty well. I think it all worked well in the end.
Sound: Ugh. UGGGH. Okay, I didn't end up having time to input a background track. So, in the last few minutes I added a jump track, which seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn't. Boy, was it awful. I corrected that in the updated version, but I think that the music and sound was definitely the worst part about this entry.
Updated Version: I have created a post compo version, and now all levels have a title card. A few levels have been tweaked for difficulty. I also added a background track and got rid of the sound effects.
Links to both the compo version and the updated version are located here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=8229
Looking toward the future: I've been making games regularly for the last two years or so. This year I managed to complete the One Game a Month Challenge, and last year I made a ton of little games. However, this upcoming year, 2014, I would like to actually make a game. Not just a jam game, but a full fledged game. I'll talk a little more about this in a future post, but at the moment, I think a full game based off of this concept is what I'm going to do. More on that later. For now, I hope you enjoy This world is broken, and I'll see you guys next time.
