endless postmortem

first, it’s about this game: endless rules.

second, I’m not english, sorry for the bad sentences.

No time.

It was my third and harder LD. After made a game with a team, andfor the compo, this time I only had one day (working saturday, no-possible-cancelled party the evening, and on trip monday).

No time? no code?

My first plan was to made a simple text-based game. Friday I made an engine which would have allowed me to only make graphics and text and no programmation. Then I saw the theme…

For me, it’s a theme that involve to have a specific gameplay. So my plan was corrupt. I thinked about it all my day work and the night, and I have the idea of endless rules!

No time? Squares!

Endless rules is the exact opposite of my first idea: just make code and no graphics. A game with only squares.

It was inspire by a drinking game: le roi lapin (= the king rabbit) where each winner establish a new rule. The concept mix with the indie-popular concept of procedural generation, made endless rules, a game where rules changes each run!

What Went Right:

– I’m happy to success. I can say “I made a game in one day”

– The concept is cool, I think

– there is music! My first idea was squares and no music but after made enough rules, I decided to made a music and it’s really better with it.

What Went Wrong:

– graphics: just square and no gfx effects (no time) is really poor.

– not enough rules: more rules you have more fun and replayable is the game. I had enough rules to make the game fun but not enough to have the replayability of a procedural game.

I am really thinking about a post-compo (more than the other LDs)… with more rules, easy/hard mode (in easy mode, you can choose between three rules), and a multiplayer version!…

Thank for reading!