This LudumDare, I didn't have *nearly* the time or focus compared to the last one. I had family pictures, a huge family party, EATING, etc. I think I probably got in 20 hours of solid work, minus about 6 that didn't get used. Here's the broken down takeaway:
1. DO NOT START PROGRAMMING BEFORE PSEUDOCODE/DESIGN IS DONE. This caused me to lose a MASSIVE amount of time. Had I done about an hour more of design and planning, I would've moved right past my first implementation, and would have gained 5 hours of time. My entry would've been much more complete.
2. DO NOT TRY TO MIX GAME TYPE/CONCEPTS. It is great for long term development, but it just can't be done in 48 hours.
3. KISS. "Keep it simple, stupid" should be the tagline for the entire competition.
4. DO PLACEHOLDER ART FIRST. Trying to do artwork before coding an engine, and really the entire game, is BAD.
5. Don't go to family Christmas parties.
In all, I wrote 994 usable, end product lines of code. The one thing I did really well this competition was HAVE ALL MY USEFUL CODE IN A FRAMEWORK. That was spectacular, and saved me tons of time.
Download the game here, or in the downloads page.
Happy gaming!
6. Don't have a day job.
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