Save the Bird - Post-Mortem

First of all, as always: a big thanks to everyone who's played and reviewed Save the Bird! so far! If you haven't done so yet, please do!

With just a few days left of LD46, it's time for my customary look back at how development of my entry went, and the lessons I've learned for next time.

What Went Well ###

• For the first time, I had a partner - @alanxoc3 - and an extra day in which I could polish things up. This had so many benefits. Save the Bird! is my first entry that wasn't horribly buggy (which is a particular relief given that my LD45 game was literally unplayable at launch). It's my first entry with a proper soundtrack - and now that I've seen how @alanxoc3 did it, I can have a go at creating my own in future. It's also, by all measures, my most complex and detailed entry.
• I set out to do something different gameplay-wise, and I succeeded. Granted, a side-scrolling shmup isn't too far out of my comfort zone, but the addition of the "escort" mechanic really added another dimension to the game and made it stand out from my previous entries. Escort missions are often considered annoying and terrible, but I think the arcade-style endless gameplay of "Save the Bird!* alleviates that, since the goal is just the escort the bird as far as you can, and not anywhere in particular.
• I also managed to do something different story-wise. My previous entries had plots that played out entirely through text, with only minimal cutscenes. Save the Bird! is the complete opposite, with a full-length, properly-animated cutscene that wordlessly sets up the game's premise. It's given me the confidence to try further cutscenes in the future.

What Went Badly ###

• While most of the game is nicely polished, one thing sticks out: the animation. Most of the game's sprites are static, a lot of the animation is quite basic and rough around the edges, and most egregiously of all, the titular bird is a circle, because a) I had no idea how to approach drawing an animated 8x8 bird sprite, and b) I honestly grew quite attached to the little "fluffball" placeholder sprite. I think this is a side-effect of what I mentioned before, about my games' stories being mostly text-based; I've polished the other areas of my craft, but I lack practice with animated sprites.
• I feel like I'm still making too many mistakes. Yes, I was able to catch and fix them, but I still spent a good couple of hours fixing the inevitable collision bugs, and another couple of hours trying to get the high-score table working. I should have programmed them better in the first place, and then I wouldn't have had to waste so much time and energy bug-fixing. Maybe I could have used that time to improve some of the animations.
• There's a reason my entries are story-driven: the last time I made a plotless arcade game was LD42, and it completely bombed. For all Save the Bird!'s polish and detail, I'm paranoid that it's not going to do as well as my previous entries (especially since it's a Jam entry and thus in a much larger field). The fact it missed out on the Newgrounds frontpage, and has been almost completely ignored there, really hasn't helped my confidence in that regard.

What Comes Next ###

No matter how Save the Bird! does, I achieved my personal targets for LD46, so I think I can be proud of myself. My personal target for LD47 will be to try and work on my animation skills - better use of animated sprites, more fluid animations, that sort of thing.

I may make some post-jam updates to Save the Bird!, to try and improve the animation quality a bit. It'd be good practice for the future, and Lord knows I don't practice enough. Aside from that... I dunno, really. I've got a couple of projects I need to work on but they're not that animation-intensive, and I've been low on creative energy for a frustratingly long time now.

Anyway, I wish everyone the best of luck with their Ludum Dare 46 entries, and I'll try and find the time to rate and play some of them!