Toy Soldiers - 48 Hour Rapid Prototype
Game made using Unity, 3DS Max, and Photoshop in 48 Hours for the 28th Ludum Dare 48, a competition to make a game from scratch in 48 hours. All code and art made within 48 hours.
Gameplay Video: |
Production Timelapse:
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Brief Postmortem
Things I did Well:
This was my first Ludum Dare. I picked a game design paradigm that was too complicated to make AND polish in 48 hours. I believe it shows my ability to rapidly create a relatively complex design in prototype form on a very short timeframe and I am proud of it as an example of this.
I recreated the walker behavior of classic lemmings in a rudimentary form quickly; I was able to make decently representative placeholder art with virtually no art time budget; I was able to hand-paint particle effect base textures and create decently polished particle effects, as well.
Things I learned from this project:
The primary thing is that some optimization is necessary. I always hear these warnings that spending too much time on optimization prevents you from finishing your project; but when you perform a physics check over one-thousand times a second; you really need to optimize it.
The "walking" AI requires 7 checks on every physics tick to decide which direction they wish to move; it's the only way to make AI that matches the classic Lemmings behavior to work, in the original title they used the Amiga's built in pixel checks against the texture file of the level and similar is necessary here; but doing this via normal modern physics checks is too much; I have to recreate the faster simpler "check against image" or (using less memory for the physics) a simple "check against boolean[]" if I wanted to make this prototype into a more playable title. This is a little bit more programmer time; but would take it from "processor heavy on a good computer" to "reasonably runs on a mobile phone".
Leave some time for polish and test on a title to publish. Ludum Dare forces a really short timeframe as such a design simple enough for the core to be made in a few hours so polishing can be completed is necessary for something more viable (fun for players). This was a solid prototype, but not a viable product due to very little level design and polish time. I'd say in the future for rapid design contests, it's probably better to go with the 'simple title; use lots of polish' than something complicated like this.
Further Steps:
To continue with this title; I'd have to start by redoing the physics with the aforementioned back-end for optimization; then create level designs that ease a new player into the mechanics better; add more mechanics that are more unique to the title, instead of strictly just "yay lemmings". Improve the art quality, polish. Due to the relatively low count of Lemming-like titles on the market; it might be semi-reasonable to produce a commercial product within its design paradigm for the mobile market.
This was my first Ludum Dare. I picked a game design paradigm that was too complicated to make AND polish in 48 hours. I believe it shows my ability to rapidly create a relatively complex design in prototype form on a very short timeframe and I am proud of it as an example of this.
I recreated the walker behavior of classic lemmings in a rudimentary form quickly; I was able to make decently representative placeholder art with virtually no art time budget; I was able to hand-paint particle effect base textures and create decently polished particle effects, as well.
Things I learned from this project:
The primary thing is that some optimization is necessary. I always hear these warnings that spending too much time on optimization prevents you from finishing your project; but when you perform a physics check over one-thousand times a second; you really need to optimize it.
The "walking" AI requires 7 checks on every physics tick to decide which direction they wish to move; it's the only way to make AI that matches the classic Lemmings behavior to work, in the original title they used the Amiga's built in pixel checks against the texture file of the level and similar is necessary here; but doing this via normal modern physics checks is too much; I have to recreate the faster simpler "check against image" or (using less memory for the physics) a simple "check against boolean[]" if I wanted to make this prototype into a more playable title. This is a little bit more programmer time; but would take it from "processor heavy on a good computer" to "reasonably runs on a mobile phone".
Leave some time for polish and test on a title to publish. Ludum Dare forces a really short timeframe as such a design simple enough for the core to be made in a few hours so polishing can be completed is necessary for something more viable (fun for players). This was a solid prototype, but not a viable product due to very little level design and polish time. I'd say in the future for rapid design contests, it's probably better to go with the 'simple title; use lots of polish' than something complicated like this.
Further Steps:
To continue with this title; I'd have to start by redoing the physics with the aforementioned back-end for optimization; then create level designs that ease a new player into the mechanics better; add more mechanics that are more unique to the title, instead of strictly just "yay lemmings". Improve the art quality, polish. Due to the relatively low count of Lemming-like titles on the market; it might be semi-reasonable to produce a commercial product within its design paradigm for the mobile market.