Post Mortem – Love Bomber – The Cult Simulator

Love Bomber – The Cult Simulator
Click here to play.

What went wrong

– Tiled: I’ve never used this tool before and it was a jack-ass idea to think I should use it and not expect to be slowed down.

– My custom tool kit had no map import functionality. I had to spend a few hours implementing one.

– My custom engine was missing depth sorting and I had to write that too

– I didn’t warm up. Normally I do a few things including a walk animation and a complete run-through of all my tools culminating in a small and complete warm up game. Not this time.

– Animation: I didn’t warm up and my animations sucked deluxe and took way too long to make.

– Animation tool: My animation preview tool is a bit clumsy and awkward and made it take a little longer to complete a nice animation. I wish GIMP just had decent animation features.

– Time management: I promised myself a game that I could complete in 10 hours then ‘polish up’ on day 2. Although I completed the game 5 hours before submission, I was still doing basic polish items to the bitter end.

– Content: I wanted my game to have three levels. One inside the church where the player is exposed to the love-bombing concept. The third would be a ‘boss battle’.

– Beginning & Ending: I didn’t have time to replace the place-holders. I wanted to tell more of a story with the game flow.

– Animation pace: Normally I like to pace out animations. Incorporate more visual and audio feedback. For example when you are converted I would have liked a bit of an animation and delay before the scissor transition to the next scene.

– Police nets: I didn’t get to implement that. So the tanks just run around

– The level was too big!

– Sleep: It was too hot and I had too little work completed. I slept 11 hours night 1 and then had a very unsatisfying 3 hour nap on the last day.

– Graphics: I spent too much ‘think time’ on details. I should have worked more on graphics and music when my brain was fried rather than wasting my highest cognitive resources on something I don’t need a ton of brain power to do.

What went right

– Dot eater: I went in thinking “I’m going to make a very simple dot eater or a basic brick smasher”. It helped to have something I knew I could complete in a very short period of time.

– 10 hours or less: My idea was to make a game in 10 hours or less. That didn’t happen, though I am certainly capable of doing that.

– Retro Flow API: My custom API stood its ground pretty good. I didn’t waste time importing resources or doing stupid tasks because my Retro Flow API automated a lot of that process.

Feedback I got

– The level was too big. There was too much content to fill. I think this is my biggest lesson. I could have done a lot more with less.

– The ending was lame: I am all too aware

– Cathartic input: People told me the controls are cathartic and lots of people were actually compelled to complete the game. That to me is a huge LD accomplishment because you play so many games that it’s not always easy to plow through them.

Click here to play