Ludum Dare #30 Dev Journal: Salvation – Light at the end of the tunnel

I’ve now gotten the game into a state where I can start working on assets. Currently I have 10 hours and 52 minutes left. Originally I wanted to spend 24 hours on the assets but I am confident that 10 hours will be enough to cover all the buildings I have in game since I didn’t add all of them.

My plan now is to make the textures / sound effects and if I have time maybe a sound track. I’ve never made music before so I’m apprehensive but I’m super proud of my game and wanna go all out.

If I finish this with enough time remaining, I plan on spending the rest of my time fixing bugs.

Not all buildings are in and I’d like to make the game more in-depth and add a Save game system but those are on the backburner. I’ll probably add those in my own time after this event.

I have to say, all the other games I’ve made in the past have been little arcade games that I didn’t think were amazing, just standard match three stuff. Or avoiding obstacles stuff. This is the first game I have made that has something to it in terms of depth. It’s amazing what you can do in around 32 hours. This event really made me see what I am capable of. I love city building games/ strategy games so I’m really happy I could churn out an idea I was playing with for a while. It feels like a weight is off my chest. :D

My game is not the most amazing thing ever but you know you have a fun game when you lose and go “This is bullshit, I should have been fine, why did my happiness go down like that? stupid leavers!” Or when you build yourself into a corner and realise that the refugees will probably rebel before you can get enough funds from the government to build more living accommodations. If you can get worked up at a game you made then things are probably going pretty good :)

-Improvement ideas-

• Add background elements (in terms of quads) like asteroids, ships, fleets etc to make things more immersive / war torn.
• Add a deconstruction tool so I can revert the building to an empty room object and get some money back. This will make it so I don’t build the wrong building and have no way out resulting in a lost game.
• Add tooltips! Like seriously, loads of tooltips!