This gist aims to hopefully explain the approach we took when deciding which and which bugs not to fix after the Jam event had afficially ended.
You can find our Git repository with full commit history at terebigeemu/ludum-dare-49
According to the Ludum Dare website...
Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log). You probably wont get a 2nd chance with some players, but at least it wont be a problem for future players.
We found quite mixed responses, especially as new-comers who are unfamiliar with the community. In fact, most of us haven't even touched game development before Ludum Dare 49.
Examples of community discussions we found:
- https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/world-destroyer/bug-fixes-and-the-rules
- https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/you-cant-have-too-many-cats/is-it-ok-to-update-the-game-to-fix-bugs
Most agreed that fixing certain bugs were ok, but the extent of this was unclear.
In accordance with the Ludum Dare rules we've made bug patches to fix significant issues with the game that were not intended. In the interests of fairness we’ve uploaded all our builds (which only fixed major bugs) over the Submission, which can be accessed via appending the version number at the end of the URL (e.g https://play.adrian.id.au/ldjam-49/rc3) - although we’d like you to ideally take us at our best, we’re putting a link to each bug patch in the interests of fairness.
We're happy for the community to rate our game with any game
- rc11 is the final build of our game, which contains only bug patches fixed after the Submission Hour
- rc5 was the final build before the submission hour ended
- rc3 was the final build before the Jam event ended
- Wednesday 6 October 7:42pm - [rc12] Fixed void/teleport bugs - ((commit)[https://github.com/terebigeemu/ludum-dare-49/commit/2426fc53169c18959a08d2d35f351170870c41ec})
- Tuesday 5 October 6pm - Added Windows and Mac builds
- Tuesday 5 October 5:38pm - Added screenshots to our Ludum Dare page, which I believe we're allowed to edit after the initial complete submission
- Tuesday 5 October 5:32pm - [rc6-11] After-school fixing-up of graphical bugs, spawning in the void, etc. (commit)
- Tuesday 5 October 9:47am - [rc5] More graphical and level teleport bug fixes. This is our final build before the Submission Hour ends (commit)
- Tuesday 5 October 9:03am - [rc4] Build fixes - (commit)
- Tuesday 5 October 8:24am - [rc3] Graphical bugs (commit)
- Tuesday 5 October 8:13am - [rc2] Fix WebGL export bugs with rc3 (commit)
- Monday 4 October 11:24pm - [rc1] Add release candidate 1 at /ldjam-49 (commit)
Overall, the decisions on what bugs to fix was made by developer Adrian (aidswidjaja).
We considered bugs to be anything that acted differently from its original intention, causing the game to act differently in a significant & major way.
When choosing what bugs to fix after Submission Hour, we took a balanced approach, being careful in what we considered to be bugs and erring on the side of safety, while balancing the fact that we wanted to show our work as it was supposed to be. Furthermore, we always kept archives of previous builds open, and we're leaving it up to the community (who happen to be more experienced with Ludum Dare than us) to decide which version to review
Things that significantly affected the gameplay / made the game unplayable.
- Incorrectly layered GameObjects which affected gameplay (i.e graphical glitches, invisible platforms)
- Spawning in the void causing an endless death cycle
- Falling through the void forever
- Can't teleport to next level
- Impossible levels caused by mismatched BoxCollider2D positioning (i.e the collider was far larger than the actual sprite, though this was not intended)
- Things I stuffed up while trying to fix other bugs (e.g leaving the player in a position from the start position because I suck at my own game and just dragged myself there to test it during debugging)
- The main one that sticks out in this category is moving a platform by a tiny amount such that the player can actually finish the game. Although not strictly a technical design bug, it was intended that the game actually be completable, and the platform (at the end of the level) did not move by much.
- Invisible barrier in Skyscraper1 that I forgot to carry over to Skyscraper2. You could technically complete the game without it, but it was definietly not what we intended as the behaviour was supposed to match SKyscraper1, so I simply copied and pasted it.
Things that were a result of design oversight / not that important / couldn't fix / weren't really a technical bug compared to a flaw in design - here's what we didn't fix
- End landscapes weren't complete and you could sort of see them. Not a big deal, not really a bug, and although it diminished player experience I didn't deem it bug-like nor significant enough to warrant a fix
- The skyscraper ended pretty far down but not enough, causing you to be able to see it during the death animation. Same reason as above
- Weird graphical glitches when the automatic kill mechanism kicked in when a player attempts to go out of bounds - not significant so we this one unfixed
- Double jump can be hacked by finding any BoxCollider2D GameObject and touching it - the team thought it was fun for speedruns so we left it in
- You can still see some areas of the building when transitioning to a new areas from the intermediary school/bedroom area - I don't really know how to fix it, it isn't that important, and I don't really have any energy left to patch it
- Death fade scene animation was improperly timed relative to other similar animations for some reason, causing it not to render at all - same reason as above
- Bad title screen animation timing
- Fade out animation for Thank you scene - that's a new feature, not a bug~
Overall, we really enjoyed Ludum Dare. Although we're new to Ludum Dare (first-timers!) and for many of us, this was our first experience in game development, we hope you enjoy our game, even if it is a bit of a generic platform with almost as many bugs as Fallout 76. Even if it really isn't that great gameplay-wise, I hope you enjoy the assets made, which we all did from scratch in 72 hours - all 100% of them.
Adrian aidswidjaja