Got A Lucky Theme
“Alone” is a universally stereotypical indie theme, and there’s a lot of reasons for that. It’s an extremely easy theme to develop around, and I had no problem picking up an idea straight away. The idea morphed and bounced a few times during development, but with “Alone” as the guiding principle it was very difficult to fall completely off the rails.
Weekly Jams Leading Up To LD48
Establishing and maintaining the Darkade was paramount to success with this Ludum Dare. Getting that regular regimen of completing games under tight development cycles paid off in spades. I was shocked when I was done with Alone’s main game loop at noon, leaving 6+1 hours for polish and testing. I didn’t even need or use the +1.
Dicked Up the Splashers
I got all this stuff ready to go at the start so I had a proper, slick build pipeline. I had my splash screens all lined up so when the game was done it would be just a link to that scene and go.
Well, right at the end I decided to use the splash scene to handle the title screen, and in doing so fundamentally broke the splasher. So, instead of the sweet animated branding, you get the title SPLAT.
Ah well, it doesn’t affect gameplay but it does make the overall thing look like 10% less professional, and I’m all about being professional.
Incomplete Understanding of Audio
I’m getting there, but there’s still a minor disconnect in how the audio is properly weighted. There’s some nice ambient noises in the different areas of the game, but they seem to load randomly, rather than according to design.
0:00:00 “Alone” is the official theme. Initial idea was a guy with a flashlight that could see ghosts. Have the whole thing in monochrome except for key items. That just screams indie, don’t it? Then the wife suggested something to do with desert island survival. Will ponder further.
0:01:15 Got GUI and some basic camera/movement stuff in.
0:03:00 Established some ambiance.
0:17:10 Interactive terminal code and visuals in place, a little concern I may be biting off more than I can chew but I still feel it’s manageable.
0:22:50 Some minor puzzles coming together.
1:04:15 Getting the interactivity with physical objects in place. Still needs a lot of work, but that’ll come after a night’s sleep.
X:XX:XX Got so wrapped up in polishing and refining that I abandoned the blog completely for the last 20 hours. I’m glad I did!
Although the assets and actual game are long gone, there’s an Alone playthrough video by AzuriteYT!
2011.12.17 – 2011.12.20