Game Release - Sort It Out for Ludum Dare 53

Today I released my second ever game, Sort It Out. I made the game for Ludum Dare 53, as the title made so obvious. 

As I did with my last game, I'm gonna talk a bit about my process and what I did/wanted to do/still want to do with this game and into the future. 

The theme for this Ludum Dare was Delivery. I really didn't like it too much at first, personally I wanted "Your health bar is more than a health bar" to win, I had a couple ideas that would've gone well with it. Eventually though, I had this idea from a good year or two come storming back into my head from the bowels in which it was banished: A simple game where you had to compare shipping information on incoming shipments with some form or manifest, and you had to accept or deny the shipment. 

This idea, to me, fit great within the theme. And so I ventured onward. I recorded much of my journey, so it may turn into a video for YouTube if I feel like it. I spent a good hour or so while eating dinner figuring out the specifics of my idea and thinking about how I could make it in <72 hours (The time I had). I eventually got the inspiration for a false perspective 2D game from a video I saw a couple months ago wherein a guy was trying to make a Five Nights at Freddy's clone. That perspective effect, whilst pretty easy for me to implement, became a massive ache in my side for much of the game's development. 

Without diving too technically into it, the game tracked the mouse to move the background, with different speed values for the movement creating the perspective effect. This had the adverse effect of, if you moved the mouse too fast while the game was starting or you had the mouse in a weird location, the background of the game would be partially off the screen, rendering the game unplayable. I attempted multiple band-aid fixes, but what eventually stuck was just warping the mouse to the center of the screen right before the game fully started with the hope being that the player wouldn't think about it and just leave their mouse still. The issue became a problem again later on when I added the pause menu: The player could move the mouse while the game was paused, and piece by piece move the entire game off of the screen. I didn't have the time to even begin to figure out how to fix that issue.

Other than that however, developing the game was remarkably straightforward. I was able to get the basic game loop implemented in a few hours on the evening of the theme being revealed. The next day of the jam came around and I started working on assets and finishing up the game loop. I made a point to create every (visual) asset in the game, from the models all the way down to the textures. This isn't typically a good idea as someone who struggles with finishing games, but I wanted to do it and I (correctly) assumed there wouldn't be much for me to create. The third day came around and I spent a good hour or so working on the game, then spent the rest of the day watching the Mandalorian. Oops. Today, the final day of the jam, was one of my most productive days in the last few months. I sat down for 4-5 hours straight and did basically everything I planned to do with the game. That might not sound like the best thing in the world, but with a pile of homework due every week and my (in)famous low motivation, I think I did really good. 

Overall, I am extremely proud of this game. It was nearly exactly what I wanted to make as well as exactly what I thought I could make. That's about all I have to say about the game for now. Thanks for reading if you made it all the way here, I'm gonna go rate some other submissions to the jam.