“Delivering” the mail – We Missed You! Post Mortem

Goin’ to the store to get some more “we missed you” slips.

“It’s your average day working in the postal service. What better time to go out on deliveries when everyone is at work?”

Whaaat, it’s not a multiplayer entry? Say it isn’t so! Yes, finally breaking the (2 time) trend of making multiplayer games, I decided for one weekend that I don’t completely hate myself and made a singleplayer game in the fabulous PICO-8. The final result feels a lot more complete than my past two games, and I don’t have to babysit it for 2 weeks making sure that everyone has someone to play with…

With 8190/8912 tokens, most of the map and nearly all of the sprite space used the game literally could not be more complete. (except for the music/sfx, where theres like space for a whole game)

People are getting really worked up about this, so they stand on their roofs looking out for you.

Aye

• Got it all working as planned! It’s really nice when the core game mechanics are developed enough to really shine.
• Pico-8 is a lovely little console, and even though I totally had to work around the map limitation it was really nice working on everything in the same place.
• Abuse the pico-8 map() for cool UI elements. Always looks fab.
• Those shadows under every sprite really made everything pop. Look at a day 1 screenshot, looks a lot worse! I’m just glad the performance held up.
• How do these sprites look OK?? They didn’t seem to look good on their own but put together they worked somehow.

Naw

• Using a tracker is incredibly difficult if you’ve never done so before. The music writing experience just became one solid hour of “press a button, then backspace cos its the wrong note” and I ultimately came out with something a little basic.
• The performance dips occasionally since cars are placed randomly, and the old car cleanup system is a little broken.
• Ran out of token space! This is like, the biggest thing I could fit on pico-8? I was lucky it could just fit.
• The sfx clobbers my music’s harmony line, so you can only hear it on the title screen. :(
• Score systems really need an internet scoreboard. :( Not many people have posted their score! It’s seeming a little arbitrary at this point.

Things that didn’t happen

I originally planned some more complicated missions, such as running into a fire hydrant to create a distraction, and a funnier ending involving driving directly into a lake. I also had an idea where you would have to signal all turns incorrectly or you’d get fired for not making the roads dangerous enough, which admittedly maybe the game is better without.

Can’t get everything you want though, which is part of that ludum dare experience!! I had a lot of fun this time around, and I think it’s one of my best games so far!

My Rating Favourites

This is the best part. Are you a bad enough dude to play all these games?

The Trial of Tyrone Rex by Manky

If you played Billy Mcmath in the last LDJAM, you’ll love this, cos its like, by the same dude. Best 19 minutes of your life.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=22901

456 TAHINI by wademcgillis

“BLUE MONSTER WHO LIKES COOKIES lost his house key and needs to find it to get to COOKIE. Along the way he meets ANGRY TRASH MONSTER, YIP YIP RADIO MONSTER and more vaguely familiar but legally distinct (I hope) friends.”

Does anything else need to be said? No. http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=3444

Primary Objective by Aurel Bílý

Really cool retro styled adventure game with fantastic art, audio and writing. Better than Kings Quest.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=1645