So, I didn’t write about anything in my journal. To be honest I didn’t have time! I was too busy making that damn game! HAHA. But maybe I can write something now. Mainly about what I have learnt in this contest.

Time: Well, I kind of didn’t learn anything here. I like everyone wildly overestimated what i can get done in 48 hours. I spent ~26 hours. But I am always over-estinating time. At work especially where I’m making games daily, I still think – “a week, sure, no problem”… Then I get bitten by time for disrespecting it. I usually double estimates to stop this… :o)

Instructions/GUI/Intro: Never spend enough time on these and they’re really important. Far too interested in the idea of the game, the mechanic and how it plays. Never on how to teach a player to understand it. The GUI needed an overhaul or actually doing in some cases (falling back to the default Unity stuff).

Planning: I need to plan and timetable stuff out next time. I think I spent 45 minutes modelling a gun, but it’s not visible and should have stuck with something simpler. If I planned everything, allotted time to each part with contingency then maybe the GUI would have been better.

Too big: Next time I’m going to aim for a 12 or 6 hour game. 24+ hours of coding over the weekend on top of all the game coding I do in the week means I didn’t have a proper weekend. I may have gone out for dinner so my wife didn’t kill me for ignoring her that long, but today, on Monday, I’m zonked.

I think that’s it for my thoughts for now. Hope you enjoyed my game…

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=rate&uid=4757

Jasper