LD38 – Post Mortem (by Hackschnitzel)

I write this Post Mortem some days after the GameJam because I had a lot of work to do in the past days.
But I hopefully remember all the important issues.

First. From my side it was a great success and I liked also the time spent coding.
It was a good experience to have Codetoffel on my side, since I (again) felt some times like quitting the Jam due to other (family) reasons.

Lessons learned:
– Schedule and reserve the weekend, otherwise nothing will happen. Have the time / yes it’s hard but separate from your family for that weekend 😉
– In the week before the competition use the vote to collect ideas for the last 10 topics
– Prepare your System / Tools / Resources (I had some problems with Inkscape and with GIT/Bitbucket this time. This was a pitty)
– Know the tools and some tutorials on game development are useful
– Starting in the Compo is not necessary from my point of view. However, I’ve never seen a winner Ludum Dare (Where someone wins in a category) so this might be not so important
– Use an international name. The really felt sorry fot that french guy saying Hackschnitzel
– Do not comment your own game. This will count in the wrong section on the feedback friends website and it is not possible to delete the entries.
– Do not use too good looking assets (bought) Try to stick with nice handcrafted stuff.
– Use the voting and other mechanisms of LD and related sites. There is no need for an heise Artikel (none of them can vote) but it will steal time and … On the other side this can be helpful if you want to sell your Ludum Date game afterwards
– If you know a tutorial related to the theme -> Use it…
– Create a timelaps video (next time)
– Read old Post mortems 😉
– It was good, that we did not choose the first idea I had in the morning.
– It was not so good to create a 2PLayer Game. (For reviews / Game is nice)

Prepare for the next Ludum Dare (Template):

Week before:
– Check if the weekend is possible (with your family)
– Create Demo Post on your Blog
— Create a Featured image (The main one)
— If you want… Motivational Pic for the Desktop (Also nice for timelaps videos)
— Check on how to record timelaps videos
– Create an schedule for the weekend (Look here for the Excel template)
– Create a folder for the LD related things
– Create a bitbucket repo if you are coding in a team. Check how it works and check the process.

Days before:
– Post an “I’m in” on the new ldjam website.
– Check and vote for themes + Brainstorm what you can do for each theme
– Check which images are needed and which Screenshot size is the best for the reporting posts on your games site.

Day1:
– Start early in the morning and go to bed early
– Check US posts done in the night… If everybody uses a sphere – stand out and create something different 😉
– Follow the best idea for your success and fun
– Have Fun…
– Remember the last times “depression” times… Motivate yourself in this times 😉

Day2:
– Plan that you finish on day2. There is still plenty of things to do… And yes… It’s for prototyping…

Day3:
– Relax… and communicate… This is the win on LudumDare… And this time I really had no time for this… What a pitty.

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