Ludum Dare 44 Post-mortem


This weekend happened the Ludum Dare Jam 44, and it was my third time trying. They say that "third is a charm", and it was for me! For the first time I was able do finish my project, even if it is not perfect or complete. In my country, Ludum Dare started at 10pm.

First Day
10pm - 1am
Before the Ludum Dare theme was announced, I was brainstorming ideas for all themes listed in Final Voting. For this LD's theme, I was thinking in making a dungeon crawler game where if you want to be healed, you had to pay for it with your remaining life time.
I coded the player character (movement, life, attack and roll) and went to sleep.

10am - 10pm
I managed to code the procedural generation of the dungeon, the healing mechanics and the enemy. I've lost at least 2 hours because I had to make lunch and dinner for my family.

Second Day
10pm - 1am
I started making the art, but I found some bugs in the game, so I spent the rest of the night fixing them.

10am - 19pm
Now I could work on the art. I spent almost the entire day just to make all sprites and scenery, and I still had to animate them. I was getting tired. I like to draw, but it's been a while since the last time I drew a pixel art. And I still had the sounds to make, and I still don't know how to compose music or how to make sfx. So I decided to leave the game as it was. I fixed more bugs and submited this project to LD.

What went right
- I'm getting better at programing! I managed to code the entire mechanics pretty fast, and there wasn't any major bug.
- It's not perfect, but I finally managed to code a procedural dungeon generation from scratch.
- I'm learning to define priorities. This game was suposed to have more content, but I was trying to keep the scope small.

What went wrong
- I spent too much time into making art.
- There was no time left to work on sounds.

Overall
Even if this game is too simple, I'm proud of it. I've learned a lot with this project, and I'm ready to keep studying to learn even more!

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