Hey guys! my name is Alberto ‘Keto’ Izquierdo, I’m from Spain, and I’m the programming part of this games development team. So, let’s talk about the development of the game.

What went wrong:

Box2D: It’s a great tool… if you have time enough to understand it. Scales, camera problems, bodies not working as expected… yeah, everything went wrong in the beginning.

Web version: Let’s start like this - I LOVE LibGDX. It’s an awesome tool to make games, it’s not a drag and drop tool but rather it lets you code with the perfect level of detail; but the web version… let’s say it’s not too good. Sound problems, lag, graphic bugs, lag, LAG. It’s an awesome tool to make games for Android or for desktop (I haven’t tried to make anything for iOS yet), but web version is far from perfect.

Time: this is obvious, it’s a game jam. We thought about million things we wanted: health potions, 5 different weapons, 4+ types of enemies, upgrades… The list goes on. C’mon Keto, this is a jam, stop trying to make rpgs for a jam.

What went well:

Teamwork: this is awesome. Finding someone who loves videogames as much as you and that can make awesome graphics (all the programmes will know what I mean).

The “idea”: it was not the perfect idea, but it was perfect for a game jam. One single map, a pistol (or a uzi if you are able to find a chest), and a bunch of enemies waiting to be killed! what else do you need?. Make it simple and you will succeed.

And as always: the experience. Jams are awesome, they let you realize you are able to make a game in just 72 hours, it’s insane what people are able to do in so little time. Pick nice music, drink a lot of coffee, sit down in front of your PC, and start making your game, that’s what you need.

And now it’s my turn! Joshua ‘Dragonfly’ O’Sullivan here; you can just call me Josh though. Oh, I’m British by the way.

I was responsible for all media sides of the project, that being graphics, music & audio. Like the typical post mortem let’s take a what went wrong/right approach.

I tend to take a “Good News First” approach; so lets start with what went well:

Day One:

Aside from having to attend my full time job for 2/3rds of Day One, it went well! We skyped during work time to lay out some plans and base ideas, flesh out what kind of enemies and weapons we’re going to have. During my lunchbreak I started the Caves tileset, and ended with the main rocky floor, some cracks, water edges and had just begun to do a rock wall, which can be seen here - http://i.gyazo.com/4cad10a3ed77ad832c6d83ce2be552b3.png - For only 1 hour’s work, I was quite proud and this set me off in a good mood for the project.

The weapons went very smoothly, and I made the first sprite for the player facing forwards. The eyes though, they were BAD - having had enough of this sprite I made more progress on the caves before heading to bed. 11/12 cans of energy drink remain.

Day Two:

First thing I was feeling like I wasnt ready to do art - I instead went about making some atmospheric backing audio. I made this using “Paul’s Time Stretch” and Audacity. I mixed together many audio forms that I generated with different tools, many of which I’d ‘stretched out’ in Paul’s time stretch. I then rendered the audio and stretched it ALL as one clip, which created the backing audio.

Now onto sprites - Immediately I went and fixed the players’ eyes, got some progress on the player sprite animation and begun drawing enemy sprites. My first sprite was to be a ghost. I couldn’t get it right though initially, so I opted in for everyone’s favourite as my first enemy instead. SLIMES!

I then spend the next 8 hours (or so?) building the level. I would draw sprites as I went; waterfalls, cave edges, bridges, enemy spawns etc etc. I found the stone archways to be the most fun! After the level I worked on more enemy sprite work and started trying to come up with a name for the game. 6/12 cans of energy drink remain.

Day Three:

The grind. This is it the day we finish! I managed to go into some overdrive in relation to the sprites - I was able to pump out more material than alberto was able to program into the game! We planned for 4 - 6 monsters but ended with three, but I managed to finish the ghosts’ sprites. I thank the energy drinks! I also produced the HUD’s graphics (so late in the game’s development, oops! Poor Alberto! :P), the logo (We settled on “The Depths” as a name.) and had some time left to spare during the final hours - with these precious last moments I repared the GameJolt page; uplaoded the game once alberto was done, and went to bed. Satisfied. 1/12 cans of energy drink remain

Day Four(?!):

Nearly late for work, overslept again! I made it just in time; and with 1 energy drink left from the day before I was able to make it through the day!

Success has been had.

What went wrong:

Day One:

As mentioned earlier, I had to attend my job! Damn bills… Aside from that, not much really to report; except the amount of trouble I had drawing eyes on the player sprite - http://i.gyazo.com/f4f33933cc63aedf07454cb1b00d2679.png - Eww, gross.

Day Two:

Oops.. Overslept. Not by too much but that lost time instantly got me in that ‘panic mode’ where I felt the need to work fast! During the level creation process I had numerous issues with layers appearing above the player, under the player etc etc in ways I hadn’t imagined while building it. I also had trouble with the enemy sprites - the bat’s wings just weren’t looking right when I animated them! …I couldn’t work out what the game should be called though, so no logo work commenced. Instead I used bfxr, got some sounds sorted out. I unfortunately haven#t yet mastered the art of sound creation myself.

Day Three:

My internet kept dropping towards the end of the night (Early morning hours) - this caused the upload procedure to be a painful one as I couldnt maintain a connection long enough to even start the transfer. didn’t get to sleep until 2:00am; painful, I had to get up the next day at 7am… which I failed to do, too!

Overall, I have had a very pleasant experience. Being able to work alongside Alberto (Keto) is absolutely amazing; he’s not only able to value my ideas as much as I value his, but is also able to make them a reality.

Thanks for taking the time to read this; hopefully you have or are going to play the game - I hope you enjoy it!

Please don’t forget to cast your vote in the right place, over at the PewDiePie Game Jam page - http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/the-depths/39650 - And if you drop us a comment, we’ll gladly reply to you and even play your game if you made one for the jam.