My 13th Ludum Dare submission is called Trippin’ Ballz and I think it came out much better than expected… considering I didn’t expect too much!
I think “Signals” was a great theme… I always have zero ideas for each theme, but audio signals was something that came to me right away and I wanted to explore that. I also like developing shooters and arcade-like games so I naturally moved in that direction.
I actually started putting something together Friday evening (a rare occurrence). I wanted something that can be “listened to” for audio clues and then shoot them. I eventually decided to use colored cannons to shoot “something”, and decided to use colored balls. Since I previously created a game where balls were bouncing around (The Pongs) I didn’t want to repeat that game mechanic, but reluctantly I decided to go for it.
It seemed like most of the features were added ad-hoc, and very late into development:
- Originally, you selected which cannon you wanted to use, and I changed it to automatically select the cannon when you hovered over a Ballz to reveal its color, and kept that mechanic going for most of the development weekend. About 2 hours before submittal, I determined that it was better the first way, and changed it back to allow you to select the cannon before listening for audio clues. After all, auto-selection of the cannon defeats the purpose of listening for specific tones the Ballz broadcast.
- If felt I needed something more, and decided on a Power-up. But what to use? How about a Magic Mushroom? I coded it where the Magic Mushroom only worked when you hit a Ballz with the color of the active cannon, but it works so much better when you can just use it without hitting a Ballz. I am glad I made that change, but unfortunately, it was about 1 hour before it was time to submit. Luckily that change wasn’t hard to implement.
- Late Sunday, I had a working game, but I didn’t know how to end the game. Just blasting Ballz is fun, but how do you win or lose? Let’s add an asteroid to protect. Why not?
During the weekend, I was trying to come up with a name and decided on Trippin’ Ballz (child-like humor, for sure). Well, now that the name has been decided, I got to add some trippy features.
Without the time to develop shaders (my shader skill is passable at best) I simulated some screen shakes when you pick up the mushroom and use the mushroom power-up. Some on screen text, trippy background effects, chiptune, and Ballz expressions fill out the effects.
What Went Well
- The theme was very good. Usually, it’s tough for me to get an idea I am happy with, but this time it was a pretty easy process.
- Godot made this so easy! I’ve been using Godot for about 2 years now (former Unity developer), and I just love working with this game engine.
- Playing the game gave me additional ideas to add effects and sounds, albeit at the last minute. Changing the game mechanics at the last minute was stressful, but successful.
What Didn’t Go So Well
- Man, changing game mechanics during the last few hours is stressful! Luckily it worked out. I was contemplating just leaving some things as-is. Glad I went for it.
- Some reviews indicate that you can shoot the Ballz without really listening for tones. This is true (somewhat). I know that many LD players check out a game for a few minutes at max, and then move on, so I decided to have the player jump right in without the length build-up. You do have to listen for tones at some point (to maximize power-ups, for example), but this will be addressed in a future (perhaps full release) version.
- I guess a Macintosh build isn’t going to be as easy as it used to be. Gatekeeper was choking on it so I had to remove it. Luckily a Web build was much easier.
What’s Next?
As with every LD game I submit, I’m thinking that I want to expand this into a full release. I guess it depends on my final rating to see if it is worth it. I like it, I like shooters, and I have some additional ideas that I want to implement.
I am curious if there is anything you would like to add/remove/change.
