Ludumdare 48 Hour programming Compo entry PostMortem


Ultra Flea

Background

I have programmed games in the past in the late 80's early 90's. I haven't been programming
in ten years. This is my second game since I started programming again. I have problems with
completion and this causes me extreme stress. So actually completing the game made me stressed.

What went right

Finishing a game

Hey it may crash and not be complete but I did it. I never thought I would create a game in 48 hours.

Kdevelop

Kdevelop is a IDE for Linux, it is meant for the K desktop environment but I used it under the
blackbox window manager. It is a very good product for one that is free. As good as MS visual studio.

Design

Years of studying other games design has paid off. I had a really good concept from the origional
contest theme. I managed to get this concept and flesh it out within 40 minutes. I had written a
short design and drew a sample screen on paper detailing what was going on.

Having a well thought out design with set goals and a screen picture really made it easy to code. I
also could cut features and add them later. Even though the game is not yet finished my initial game
doc will still be used to finish off the game.

Learning

I learnt heaps. I learnt so much about programming in such a short period of time. I learnt so much I
would do a similar contest again (When I recover)

Gimp

All my graphics were done in Gimp and my knowledge of using that program helped me create what I
needed simply and quickly.

What Went Wrong

Environment

As good as Kdevelop is, it still has its share of bugs. If I changed the version number and it rebuilt the
makefiles it would crash. I had continuous problems with a build error and having to edit it out of the
make files until I found it and deleted it. There is no easy way to add or del directories that are built
into your project.

After a while my cursor would disappear in kdevelop. It was there on certain files and not there in others.
If I changed to another workspace and back it would reappear. This cost me time and frustration.

Kdevelop also has a bug in the tar.gz building in which it adds any previous tarballs into the one it is
currently making. Bloating its size out uneccesarily.

Tabbed editing is a good idea unless you have 33 files open. At which point it becomes a hassle.
Having the files on the left and scrolling up and down through them would be easier

Stress and insufficient time spent working

Worrying about completing a project slowed me down. At one point I was going to quit but I didn't.
As I reached a semi playable version this became worse, but I managed to finish it

Not knowing my graphics library SDL

I had never used SDL before. I read the documents briefly in the week before the competition. This
caused huge time delays and problems. I had to code brenhams line drawing algorithm in, and I also
copied some code out of the help into my project. I did not know what the library could do or how to do
it. I learned everything I know about SDL on the weekend.

Lack of programming experience

I don't know C++ that well, and had to read my manuals to work some things out. Also some OO concepts
could have helped me speed up development and eliminate some bugs. At least now I Know what I need to
know about C++.

Ludumdare website problems

I could not properly connect to the website to upload my final product. This
caused me a bit of frustration. I eventually worked out most of these problems though.

IRC weirdos

They invaded the IRC channel and opened up private conversations with you.
Then they would say would you like to join my channel. I really want to know
what planet these people come from. I only had two of them, but it was weird.

Ran out of coke

This is probably after not knowing SDL the worst thing to happen :).
I had to go shopping and buy some more.

Development tools

Kdevelop 2.1.1
Gimp 1.2.3
SDL 1.2

Conclusion

The 48 hour contest is a great idea. It really forces you to work and to focus on the game not unimportant things like fancy graphics. Next time I will know my Graphics library before I start. Also I intend to finish Ultra Flea or at least get the major bugs out of it.