Beneath the surface

Ludum Dare #29 took place on the weekend! Ludum Dare is a game jam event held three times a year, featuring 48 hour compo entries (do everything yourself), and relaxed jam entries where teams and existing content are allowed with an extra day.

My entry for the compo is called "Giant Pumpkin" While thinking of the theme, I was watering my plants, figuring beneath the “surface” could imply soil. Roots get really chaotic. Meanwhile I remembered a trip I took to the York, Pennsylvania fair, featuring enormous pumpkins. You get the idea, I latched onto the spontaneous design idea and proceeded from there.

The Good:

Using Flash, I got a lot of bang for the buck using Tween objects for small animations. For example, the plus symbols on roots and stems grow spontaneously in a fraction of a second. That bit of polish does make a difference as it makes the game feel more interactive. 

The sound effects came together well using a cheap microphone to record things found outside. I need to get into the habit of making more of my own audio for my larger projects; finding that exact one needed on free sound websites is arduous.

The little popup that comes up when the cursor hovers over something became really useful and easy to manage.

The Bad:

Balancing many resource types in a game is very difficult! I would have liked it to be more educational, but overall is so far from being biologically accurate.

The Ugly:

There are several bugs with resource costs and weeds. Also the preloader does not work, as far as I know. The adrenaline kicks in as the clock ticks down the final minutes.

Overall an enjoyable experience!