Ludum Dare 33 Post MortemWhat is the game about ?It’s a frantic game in which you can only fly and hit walls to change direction while avoiding deadly traps.
What went right:-
Constraints: Since I knew I would only have around 1 day to make the game, I put some constraints on gameplay and art. I wanted the gameplay to be really, really simple. What could be more simple than pressing any key to fly ? As far as we were going to fly a lot I made the velocity better if we keep on flying. I soon realised that this simple mechanic could be highly enhanced by bumping on the walls.
I was working on a NES-inspired game when the contest started so I kept the same limitations for my entry: 3-4 colors per sprite and use my personal NES palette. I also tried to limit the sprite size to 16x16. These are very relaxed NES constrained but they work for me.
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CharacterController2D: This is an amazing class to start with animating a character. It saved me a lot of work and allowed me to have pixel precise controls.
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Looking at the classics: I had no idea about the look I wanted to give to the game so I went to Spriters Resource to search for art style. For the backgrounds and platforms, I’ve been heavily inspired by the Castlevania serie. And for the character I took a mix of several old games styles I liked.
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Reusing: Both code(less than 1%) and derived my own art from the project I was working on. It really helped me to get it on time. I just took the basic character controller of the game I was working on and adapted it to be able to fly. As for the art: I derived a secondary character to create the vampire.
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Testing: I tested each levels a lot, I mean A LOT. It allowed me to create some pixel precise nightmare. So my advice would be: test, test, ... test and test again.
What went wrong:-
Time: As far as I’m dad of 3 wonderful children, I don’t have a lot of time to participate to LD. This time I knew I had less than 24h to work on it. Well, I could have had more time but I prefered to play with the kids
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I started by looking at the theme when I woke up and then… worked on the art from 8 PM till midnight. On sunday I had something like 9-10 hours to work on the code and levels. Not much time.
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Diversity: I wanted to have 10 levels. That sounded like a good number. I ended up with only 2 trap types: pikes and saws. I should probably had better targeting less levels but add more traps and enemies diversity. Everything is a matter of time vs feature.
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Sound: I mostly play games without sound. That’s probably why I didn’t took time to add it to the game. It would have added a lot.
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Jam or Compo: As far I reused some code and art, I entered the Jam. But to be really honest I used around 20 lines of code and just derived personal art. Does it worth not entering the compo ? I don’t know. I worked alone. I strictly applied the rules but I felt like participating to the compo without being able to join it. What do you think ?
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The name: I still don’t know if I like it… I always find it hard to find name for the thing I do. I don’t know if it a good or bad name… what about Super Fly Drake ?... Does the name really matters?
Statistics:Team: just me
Development time: +- 14h
Number of levels: 10
Development tools: Unity, Pixel Maker PRO, Aseprite, Pinta
Useful websites:
spriters-resource.com,
dafont.com
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