Last Ludum Dare judging finished recently, my game Cheese Mountain, ranked fairly well, as follows:

#225    Theme(Jam)      4.00
#247    Humor(Jam)      3.18
#455    Fun(Jam)        3.22
#608    Overall(Jam)    3.22
#642    Mood(Jam)       3.06
#657    Innovation(Jam) 2.94
#741    Graphics(Jam)   3.00
#1888   Coolness        35%

I’m super happy with my ranking in Theme and Humor categories, because it was my first Ludum Dare. It’s also the first time that I finished a game all by myself.

What I wanted to do:

  • A game controlled by the arrow keys
  • In which mice pile on top of each other
  • To reach the cheese at the top of the screen

What I got:

  • A game controlled by the arrow keys
  • In which mice pile on top of each other
  • To reach the cheese at the top of the screen
  • With really weird physics
  • And a crashing game bug that I could never reproduce

Mistakes made and lessons learned:

  • I have to start recording my progress as gifs, I found the most funny and strange bugs ever. But I never made gifs out of them. Oh, so much wasted potential!
  • Inkscape is great for decent looking programmer art. I super recommend this blog if you are getting started.
  • Construct 2 is great for people who are not me. I’m finally a competent programmer, which means that things that can be easily done with a bit of code turn into a titanic chore in Construct 2.
  • Keeping the scope super small is a life saver. The game was finished in spite of switching from Construct 2 to Phaser and switching physics engines afterwards. It turns out Phaser Arcade physics is terrible with stacking objects, P2 actually worked, but it isn’t polished.
  • I finally figured out how to prototype efficiently. Now I also know how to break a big problem into smaller ones without falling into analysis paralysis.
  • Will I be able to apply my newfound skills in a group setting? Stay tuned for Global Game Jam 2016 to find out!

I tried to make a gif just now and failed. So I will leave you with a screenshot.

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You can Play Cheese Mountain here.