Thursday, February 3, 2011

Proof of Belief

Here let me quote my own words : "Finally in hindsight, the lessons I learned from them is that the most successful teams would not make things from scratch, given how short the duration is, and should also stick with tried-and-true concepts.".
Time flew by, with Global Game Jam entering its 3rd year. I showed up again at 721 Broadway building as I always had, with same passion and same perseverance. The only difference on me is the added experience from last 2 years, the one of defeat. So I decided to try something that I never before had, which is to be more conservative and less ambitious. This may sound a little pessimistic, but come on~ we only have 48 hours to finish the whole thing.
With that new disposition, I set out to explore the Flixel engine 3 days before the event, and luckily I got all the content creation pipeline pinned down, and by the midnight of the first day I laid out a very simple backbone for my awesome teammates to spend their time with(while I showed up late). On day 2 we not only agreed on using the same technology but also worked with a single goal, that is, put out one game that's playable and tons of fun.
Things were going too well, and by the end of the 2nd day we already had something playable, so basically the final day was all about fixing bugs and adding some finishing touch to the game(music, sound, menu...etc.). During the demo session, however, our presentation was kind of rushy, with only 2 of the maps shown to the audience(plus we didn't have very impressive graphics either!). All of us felt doomed, but not until the staff announced the winners did we realize that we got 3 grand awards.
According to Randall, one of my teammates, even if you think your game is damn good you still have to hear it from the mouths of others, because a game is meant to be played! So while we are preparing for an exhibition at Babycastles and the notification that we won another award in Europe, I cannot help myself but say: "Ned, you really suck the boredom out of my life"

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