LD45 Results/Postmortem
Another Jam In The Books!
Ludum Dare 45 has concluded and the results are in! There was a whopping 1885 games in the Jam category and 2613 total completed submissions. Among those was my contribution, Egg Scramble!
Ludum Dare 45 Jam Ranking
Note: Percentiles are calculated based on the total number of ranked games in each category. A game in Ludum Dare is only ranked when it receives 20 or more ratings. Ranked data courtesy of @adroitconceptions.
Postmortem
The theme of this jam was “start with nothing”. Participants were given 72 hours to create a game from scratch that incorporated this theme. I’ll be the first to admit that I found this “theme” to be more of a starting condition, and not only that, a starting condition that most every game follows. Nonetheless, after a period of brainstorming I came up with numerous concepts and mechanics including:
Player starts without teeth and must find them scattered throughout the level. Taking damage removes a tooth and places it somewhere in the level to be found again. Taking damage while having no teeth is death.
Platformer that starts with no blocks or platforms. Hitting a colored button makes blocks of that color appear which lets the player access more areas of the level. Must hit all switches to reveal all blocks and reach the goal.
Start in a monochrome world. The goal is to restore color to everything by collecting colored orbs.
Player starts as a 0 with legs. They must jump back and forth through an upwards stream of objects, collecting objects which increase their score and avoiding others that cause damage. Increasing score changes the number the player’s body is made of. The higher the score, the larger the number/hitbox. Jumping while airborne makes the player dash. Jump is the only button.
Side-scroller spaceship shooter where the player starts with no ammo. Player can trigger a brief shield that absorbs enemy projectiles and allows them to fire back.
Player is a chicken in an empty coop. They must eat food scattered around the yard to fill up their egg meter while dodging predators. When their meter is full they must return to the coop to lay an egg. The level is completed when all of the nests are full.
It took me longer than usual to decide on what I was going to make. I ended up choosing my last idea as I felt it was a good use of the theme and something that I could complete in the given time-frame.
What Went Right
The game was completed and submitted on time. As per usual, the scope had to be reduced to accomplish this but the end result was playable and functionally complete.
The artwork came out nicely. I’ve been doing some practice with creating vector art and I got a chance to demonstrate that with this jam. I’m still much more so a programmer than an artist but I feel I’m making progress in this area. The ratings and comments seemed to indicate this as well, which was nice.
The core mechanics work well. The game has a simple premise with an effective execution. I would have loved another 24 hours to implement more of what I envisioned, but time is never on your side during game jams.
What Went Wrong
The artwork took too long to create. While I was able to create better visuals, it came at the cost of time. I underestimated the amount of time it would to create everything I needed, and as a result, the scope of the game had to be slashed in order to finish.
The game doesn’t include audio. This was my first submission to not have music or sound effects. Ironically, it was also the first Ludum Dare where I planned to record my own sounds rather than using premade sounds and opting out of the Audio category. This would have helped boost my mood, humor, and overall ratings.
A couple of bugs made their way into the initial release. These were the result of some last minute code changes prior to submission. I had to remove numerous things I didn’t have time to finish and made a couple of mistakes along the way. Luckily these bug were patched the next day so the impact was minimal.
Conclusion
This was my forth Ludum Dare/game jam. Most of my rankings were on par with my last LD, which I wasn’t necessarily happy with, but I made progress in Graphics and Humor. Unfortunately, spending too much time on the artwork resulted in having to cut audio, an additional enemy type, and enemy behaviors, among other things.
While it wasn’t all good, it certainly wasn’t all bad either. I managed to create a simple to play game with a charming aesthetic. I created 3 levels of progressing difficulty, multiple waypoint behaviors for the foxes, and an effective algorithm for randomly scattering the food around the yard. I also got more practice with creating vector art as well as a better understanding of how long it takes me to create assets of a specified size and detail.
Once again, I’d like to thank everyone for playing and rating Egg Scramble! Your feedback is a great help to me and always appreciated! I was hoping for a better result but I’m proud of the progress I’ve made and what I managed to come up with in 72 hours. I had a blast playing your games and I look forward to doing it all again for Ludum Dare 46!
