My Little Planetoid ranked 24th in Theme and 85th Overall from 1402 games in total, which is a very good rating. I’m also happy about the 94th place in Mood. This is also the 4th time in a row I’m the first place in coolness, which is cool, but was kinda expected.
Here are the full results:
Coolness
100%
#24
Theme
4.10
#85
Overall
3.66
#94
Mood
3.40
#116
Graphics
3.78
#124
Audio
3.28
#185
Fun
3.25
#256
Innovation
3.30
#437
Humor
2.20
I’m also pretty sure I would’ve gotten a very good community-rating, if that category still existed.
There are currently 1402 games in Ludum dare. Going through games can be difficult, especially with the high number of them, so here are some noteworthy picks. (except mine, which already is awesome :P)
Last weekend I competed in Ludum Dare and created My Little Planetoid in 48 hours. Read on to find out what I thought afterwards (a post-mortem, if you will).
What went right
Genre/Setting This is both a science-fiction and city-builder game. The combination itself is rather rare.
Building stuff It just feels awesome. And I love the “Build now on moon”-gag, which I think is quite good game-design.
Timelapse According to people this video is “intense”. It might be due to the orchestral music, but probably because my facial expressions during Ludum Dare alternates between “frown” and “manic laughter”.
Soundtrack I composed this over the course of the 24 hours. The first idea of the music I had immediately after I decided on the idea, and it grew from there. It has been quite well received, with many people saying they like it and find it relaxing.
Also, the idea of a space-banjo is just awesome.
Graphics Having empty space as background meant I was able to concentrate more on the 3d-models in the foreground. And while they could be improved a lot, you’ll notice there’s a lot of detail to be found.
Mood The combination of the sombre soundtrack and the space-y visuals worked quite well, which people also remarked positively.
What went alright
Theme This time I actually prepared. I made a list of ideas for every possible theme. Tiny World was the one where I didn’t have anything brilliant ready, so threw in an idea I already had before. After the announcement I developed more of them, but threw them out when I saw others made them first.
Scope in fiction My Little Planetoid has a somewhat weird range of buildings. You start out with houses and farms, which could position this game anywhere in the past or future. Then you quickly advance to Science-Laboratories and advanced-space-stations. So while it is a progression through technology, I feel it could’ve been more focused.
Scope in design In design-terms My Little Planetoid is huge. It has more unique features/elements than any of my previous games. It has multiple complex 3d-models. It has a somewhat extensive GUI. And, most importantly, a huge web of each other influencing resources and variables.
I was even glad when something emergent happened, but there was lot of potential for bugs and unforeseen combinations. Which led to…
Balancing & bug-testing I literally coded in something 10 minutes before the deadline. There was no time left for dedicated balancing and bug-hunting, only what I noticed during test-plays myself. The resource-balancing now kinda works, but it does feel off sometimes.
In the end the basic resources become abundant, so you aren’t really thinking about them any longer.
Textures I used a basic pixelated diffuse-map on all things. Sadly there was no time to take care of UV-maps, but it doesn’t really show unless you really look.
What went wrong
Failure to realize how bloody huge this project is This led to a (frankly mental) development-speed in the last hours, and the incomplete balancing.
All in all
This was an awesome and fun gamejam. My Little Planetoid is right now one of the most-played games, and people really enjoy it. The general consensus is that this could be huge if further developed. And so I will :P
Matthias Zarzecki 