I had fun! This was the most important thing for me.
I used my own framework called ‘essence‘. It was good to have an excuse to use it. I’ve learned that I need to update a few bits to make it more user friendly and useful. The framework is far from finished, but it’s constantly being updated on github.
My focus for this will be creating a proper drawing library, as I had to write in sprite code especially for the weekend.
I also want to improve the audio module so that multiple instances of sound clips can be played at the same time. If you listen out in my game you can only head one bullet sound at a time, even if two or three shots have been fired.
HTML5 and JavaScript are a great choice for Ludum Dare, because you can create code so quickly. It’s not without it’s pitfalls (supporting multiple browsers etc).
Lessons for the future:
The movement is tied to the frame-rate, so next time I would separate that out. It was running okay on my old machine, but when I uploaded the game and tested it on another machine, it ran so fast it was unbelievable! It’s the first time I’ve had to limit the frame-rate.
I would like to also include some touch / tilt controls so that you can play the game on mobiles. I’m looking into supporting FirefoxOS as the OS is written in standard HMTL.
The feedback so far has been great. I love the fact that the community is very supportive, and criticism is constructive.
I’m considering entering my game into <game_on>, the mozilla games competition. If anyone else has a browser based game that doesn’t require a plug-in you can too!