Entropia: Post-mortem.

Introduction

If anything, I've learned that the entropy is the constant during the game jams.

Ironically enough, our game is called Entropia.

This is my 8th LD. I've been here since LD32, in and out. Last few jams, I've participated with my wife and we did some nice games together. This time around, we teamed up with our friend, Will, who is also a colleague of mine. We've been working together as developers for 2.5 years. Although, we're working on business apps, not games.

The time zones

As you know, the world has been split up into timezones. Earth going around the Sun and all that. Well, the thing is, we live in Central Europe and our friend Will is in Brazil. Far, far away. Before the jam, I was kind of scared of the time difference, but we still decided to try it out, regardless of the 5 hours between us.

Me and my wife, we haven't started immediately after the theme anouncement, but almost a full day after. Will on the other hand already had some art sketched by the time we joined. Then we hopped into a Discord video call and brainstormed for a while. Then we went to bed. That is the nature of the timezones. But even if time zones weren't the issue, the remoteness of our team was a struggle.

Note to self: The team should probably all be in the same room (or at a shouting distance).

Who does what?

Will loves doing pixel art. Despite being a developer and not an artist per se, he does it really well. So his part was a no brainer. As the matter of fact, he did join our team primarily to do art.

And that's great! Why, you ask?! Because I suck at art.

I love to code. I can do some art. But I draw like I'm blind. So, that was a no brainer as well.

My wife, well, she's more of a jack of all trades. Good at a lot of things. So while Will was turning calories into pixels, and while I was pretending to understand the code I've written 15 minute ago, she was already deep into doing menus, coding animations and looking for good sounds and music for our game. Her being a constant advisor was keeping me on track and she was cheering for me when I got stuck in some obscure bugs and almost wanted to give up. While I can't precisely categorize her work into a single category, all the bazillion things that she did was actually pushing us forward.

Will and me, we called her a manager.

Note to self: Always work in a team. Being a lone wolf sucks.

Learning from mistakes

My main problem as a coder is the fact that I have WAY TOO MANY ideas that I want to implement. Proper scoping is a challenge for me and I constantly need someone to tell me that we have to cut this feature or the other. That's also the reason why my solo LD games were mostly unfinished.

This time around I decided to keep my scope down. There was plenty of time. But, there was another problem.
I've never done a game in my life that utilizes pixel art. And quite a lot of my time was spent fiddling around the engine trying to make it work properly.

A few hours before the deadline, everything was in disarray. Total entropy.

Note to self: get accustomed with the tools before the jam.

Time is ticking away

Well, you are all very familiar with the feeling of the dealine approaching. So many features unpolished, so many bugs waiting to be discovered. And so little time.

In the end, we didn't manage to produce exactly what we wanted. But it was playable. I still remember the first time I've started it up after the core gameplay was finished. It was actually a game. And then we started tweaking it.

But, 50ish hours is not really enough to make something balanced. Balanced games require a lot of testing. And I mean, A LOT!.

Note to self: For jams, make games that don't require much balancing.

What the future holds

When the jam was over, we needed some rest. Mags and me, we fixed a few bugs and made ports to other platforms. Then over the next few days, I've fixed some more of gameplay and we published an improved and updated version. The way it was meant to be played.

After a bunch of people's comments, we've realized what parts of the game we need to change. So we had a meeting discussing the potential future of the game. If there'll be time, we'll try to make it into a proper mobile game.

Until then, I can only say that I've really had a nice weekend with my wife and my friend.

Having you guys rate our game is really appreciated. But even more than that, the feedback you're leaving is what matters the most. And for all of that, I thank you.

Entropia

So, now that you know everything about it, maybe you can try it out.

Direct link:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/entropia

If you've already played and rated, it'd be great if you could play an updated version and tell us what you think of the improvements.