Okees then...
RB[0] on 2007/09/23 16:23
of Hole in the Head Studios - We might have lost our minds...
I was surprised at how highly we were rated, 16th, especially since there really isn't any game-play there yet :)
Some replies to the most recurrent comments:
"Did not use theme": well, actually the race you are is a twisted coil(snake) and the final version(no upload) there was some rather interesting bugs that made it very twisted, but no crashes anymore :P
"Did not like graphics": This was due to the fact that we ran out of time to change the grass tile, and remove the lava, which really didn't fit, we actually had those changes but they got lost in svn somewhere...
"Empty value for randrange Crash": this is due, I think, to the fact that when a unit dies it wasn't immediately removed form the game, so if multiple units attacked, then it would crash :/
"Nothing to do": well, another thing that was in the final version, but it was just so large I couldn't justify uploading it, but had I anyway it probably wouldn't have worked as I fried my network card :/ I probably should have even though it was like 28 mbytes, because I saw some of the other entries were even larger, but I thought that the rules still stated that you should(must?) keep the size under 24 mbytes, oh well
"The music ig good/superb": we have nihilocrat to thank for that, he finished it all in the first 3 days IIRC, and it is really quite nice :)
"The screen was to small": this is because we used pyglibs for the isometric, and it has some bugs that slow down the rendering when the screen gets any bigger, right now we are only getting 30-45 fps, without psyco of course ;)
"Not innovative": the idea is actually quite innovative, with some resemblance(so I've heard) to Kohan, but different still, you'll see when we finish this :)
"I fought something and nothing happened": this is partly due to the engine, but also could have been remedied in the campaign code itself, by just making an even where if enemy1 is dead, the game ends, as it is this is implemented only in the unreleased final version :/
"couldn't figure out what the controls did": "loiter" causes your unit to stop where it is, "recruit" when over a city will increase the number of troops in a "unit", "harvest" gains more food - I think this is unused in the pyweek version IIRC
"Needed more time": amen to that one :D
All in all, I was rather disappointed by how we finished, but this is also the only pyweek game we've done, except for maybe MGT that really has any potential after pyweek :)
If you are interested, look around the data folder, there is a lot of stuff in there that we never got around to using, but is still really nice, especially since we had two more races(some of which got into the "final" version ;) )
There is also some other music(I actually think I might have put the "wrong" one into the main game, partly why some ppl didn't like it)
(log in to comment)
Comments
RB[0] on
2007/09/26 17:15:
Okay, now for my "postmortem":
-
I had meant to put this with the original post but forgot ;)
What went wrong:
Well, to start we had a very ambitious project, which, though I think it still could have been done, needed a lot more time than any of us were able to commit.
Everyone except nihilocrat and myself were gone for the first 2-4 days, so that was not a very good start.
Second, after that very few of us were able to put more than a couple hours a day in(even I who usually has most the week off had a lot of important stuff going on :( ), and more than half of the time I put in I really didn't accomplish a lot, because, though it got really bad the last day and a half or so, I was actually sick the whole competition except for the first day or two.
Third, what I did get done focused too much on creating an unusual, and if I do say so myself, innovative, game engine, when it would have been much better to go for a more traditional rts, villagers get resources, troops cost resources, troops kill each other ;)
Fourth, basically we focused on good code-layout and good production/innovation again, instead of fun, which was I didn't want to happen :/
Fifth, I and a few others had a different idea for a game around wednesday/thursday, that would have been much easier to do, and would have fit the theme, but we decided to stick through with the game we already had, probably a better idea if we had a month or so, but not so good for a pyweek.
And lastly, none of us really felt very inspired(stressed, enthused, in-to-it, etc.) this time. I know I especially felt this way, until, that is, there wasn't enough time left to really make a difference :/
What went right:
We had non-ripped music this time, thanks to nihilocrat :D
Pyglibs actually worked this time, well mostly, I only had to re-write the isometric stuff ;)
We do have a really nice game engine, which we are already continuing work on :D :D
We have a really well rounded team finally, instead of just me and fydo and whoever I manage to get to join this time through ;) Most of us are already planing on returning next time :) And hopefully I'll be able to prepare/schedule for next time better, so not as much important stuff coincides with pyweek so, err, imperfectly? ;)
Not to mention this was the first time I had to lead a team of more than just myself and a one or more artists, this time we had several programmers as well, so that got interesting at times ;)
fydo on
2007/09/25 21:00:
Yay for Pyweek! I'm quite happy with how we did, considering how little of the game was actually playable.I do have a little write-up thingy on my website here: http://fydo.net/gamedev/pyweek-5-results
Also, it bothers me a bit when people have ratings that conflict with their comments.
One person wrote "The music is superb, the graphics are very, very nice" and yet they only gave an 'Average' rating for production. Argh!
Just a little pet peeve of mine. ;)