October 2012 challenge, Day 20

Well, I failed.

I got the core mechanics and everything done in just a couple days but I only had a few hours a week to work on music, sounds, graphics, and extra content. That just didn't happen. So, as tough as it is for me, I've admitted that I should cut my losses and stop worrying about it.

Retrospective time!

I should start learning the language, tool chain, graphics, music, and sound before committing to a project. I hadn't used haxe before (but I'm somewhat familiar with Actionscript) so the language, libraries, and compilation process and quirks took some time to get. Despite 6 or so years of piano lessons, I don't know anything about making good computer music either. Pixel graphics wouldn't fit the theme and good looking graphics are beyond what I can do. I had some good luck with procedurally generated plant graphics, but couldn't quite integrate it with my game code due to how the rendering code worked.

I should stop planning on spending all of my time working on a project with so many unknowns . I have less time than I expected and it's not sustainable. After a week of nothing but work, sleep, and this project, my place was a mess and it was hard to stay focused. If I picked a smaller project - like a platformer or turn based strategy - then I think I would have had a better chance of finishing. I can do old-school graphics and sound effects so that's what I should stick to.

I should continue writing well factored code and trying short term projects like this. Breaking it down into pieces that I could prioritize and implement in a couple hours helped me get started and make early progress. The simple and clean code meant that I could change my mind, try something different, and generally make progress much faster than some of the messier code bases I've crapped out.

If I follow these simple plans, then I'll be much better equipped for the next ludum dare.