It wouldn't be me if I wasn't participating actively in Ludum Dare. This time around I went for first person shooter, with sort of mysteries/physics attached to it. Before going further in the article - if you wish you can play it. Take a look here - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/logicatory 

And if you're too lazy to play - you can watch here:

Logicatory

Yup that's the name. This time I went again with Unity, as I'm successfully avoiding using my own game engine. For asset creation I used Gimp, Blender, Substance Painter, Substance Designer ... and that's it! This time around I went solo, two of my friends who were thinking about joining changed their plans in last moment - one went just for compo and another one had major change of plans for the weekend.

So, I was balancing between teaming up with somebody more random on Ludum Dare, but in the end I decided to go solo. To check whether I still can do it in one man. I went for jam, as regularly, because I really enjoy having that 1 additional day for polishing art and finishing up the game a bit more.

What went right?

The game concept, prototype development and some part of art. Strictly speaking I had an idea for game concept really early, upon waking up, and I could start working on it. The prototype was finished in matter of few hours, which was awesome - I could run around the map, shoot, bunny-hop - this really boosted my morale.

I believe I did well with art, of course most of the guys here, who are actual artists can do a lot better - for me, I just simply like making art, even though I'm terrible at it. I wouldn't dare to include my art in commercial game project, but for Ludum Dare it is perfect - programmer's art.

Level design, even though having just one simple level, I think I did my job well to keep player most of the time busy (for those few minutes of gameplay). While it is short, I believe it is a lot better than having long and repetitive game. As this way everyone will finish your game - which is always huge advantage on Ludum Dare.

What went wrong?

Simply said, Monday. I had to work for most of that day, and it took out large part of my time. When I finished, quite late in the evening, I was seriously thinking about giving up. At that moment I told myself a typical phrase: "GIT GUD" ... and finished it. Cut down the level in half. Added last-minute assets. Added music on last minute, built it and released for Ludum Dare.

Thinking about it, this actually should be part of what went right, because if I wouldn't push myself - I would never finish it.

So what actually went wrong was light-map baking. I wanted to try light maps from Unity and attempted it, they were computing in the end for four hours in highest quality. I still managed to do this before submission hour.

Conclusion

I enjoyed Ludum Dare this time, a bit less than usual due to work on Monday, but such is life. I've learned something new and tried something I wanted to try for quite some time - so for me this was a success. I'm very curious to check and play entries from other participants, and looking forward to read their opinions on Logicatory too!

Next time, I'll be back with something more interesting!