Time for another post-mortem! If you haven’t yet, you can play Earth Invader here!

For this Ludum Dare I didn’t actually learn anything new… I was very focused with my own project that I didn’t learn anything particularly new. I actually started developing a new engine which would support 3D, but it’s way too far from being complete, so I decided that I would use Unity, since in my new project I’m going to use it anyway, so might as well begin practicing!

What went right:

• Unity

This was my first time using Unity to release a game, and it went pretty well! I’ve tested before with some tutorials so I already knew that it was fairly easy to make something. The work flow was really smooth and wasn’t so difficult. Although I did want to make this game with my engine, it was good learning and worked well.

• Krita

At first I was going for pixel art with GIMP, but then I thought, well, I always wanted to use Krita and try  another graphic style. And so I did, and I’m pretty satisfied with the result! Krita is a great tool, even though I don’t have a tablet to draw I was able to use it well! It was difficult in the beginning to adopt a whole different style, but I guess it was worth it

• Audio

As always, I used Bfxr for sound effect and Bosca Ceoil for music. It worked like the last Ludum Dare, nothing new, but the result was nice. I did have some difficulties with my composition, since I still only know the basics, but the result was something I was happy with

• New experiences

In this Ludum Dare I tried some of new things. Uploaded the game at itch.io, did screen recording (I wanted to make a timelapse, but didn’t work well)… It was really fun and really good learning for my future projects!

What went wrong:

• A lot of setbacks

This Ludum Dare was pretty harsh for me… I was really tired from work, then I spent the first 12 hours just trying to think a concept that I was happy with, then the energy went down in my house, and so on…. Yeah, not the best situation…

• Sudden change of style

Although I’m happy with the style I adopted later, I already had some assets done so I had to remake them (I didn’t really, just made some touches to adapt them), so it got a bit inconsistent.

• No playtests

I really wanted to have more playtests, but I didn’t have any… I really need to start searching for people that are willing to do that…

Conclusion

This was a really difficult Ludum dare for me. Not so much on technical part, that went pretty well, but setbacks from life. But still I managed to overcome them all and finish a game that I’m actually satisfied with! I really didn’t expect that… Even now I’m still pretty tired from the last part of the year, but I’m going to rest a lot this holiday! And let’s hope for a great year that’s coming! For the next Ludum Dare I hope I can finish my engine, get some more composition practice and make better animations! Congratulations everybody! Keep up the great work and let’s even work harder next time! Happy holidays!

PS: Sorry it’s a bit hastily, I’m a bit short in time here ^^;