I’ve got to say working tireless hours for a game is good experience for anyone, didn’t really expect to learn this much in one weekend. Boblar’s Ascension is my first Ludum Dare game (and also first game I have tried to make others play).

First day:

I was going to participate in local game creating club for the ludum dare event. My first thought was something along: “I’ll just tag along with some team and see how it goes”. After chatting with couple of the other devs, I decided that “I have my own game idea and I’ll roll it on my own, thanks for the support guys”. Afterwards I just went home with the idea of game where you try to pollute the planet while making as much profits as you can. I also wanted to have annoying rich guy with voice on the game so Boblar came alive. During the first game design moments I had created grid with different tile types, pollution counter & the basic gameplay. The pollution was very hard to control in the beginning and the tileart was…well over 9000 hours spent on photoshop! (1 minute per tile~)

How the game looked after the first day:

Second day:

During the second day I got helpful volunteers (fiancee) to draw boblar’s figure. After baiting some time I also managed to get some ending pictures for the game from her. I also discussed with other person (panda) about the tileset and she wanted to give it a try. Afterwards I added some better looking tiles to game, boblar’s face, camera moving & road pathing check (activating factories with towns).

Third day:

On monday I realized that the game must be finished soon. So I did the voice over for Boblar and tweaked the pollution and income system a little bit. I also upgraded the last of tiles to match the other tiles (had mixed original bad ones and some good ones made by panda). After submitting the game I was really done from all the work. After resting for a good deal I realized I also had to vote for games! (which I did for sometime)

Afterthought:

First thought about the whole jam is: “cut all the features you have in mind to finish the game”. In the beginning I planned on doing something like treehuggers wanting to destroy the factories while you were activating em and you had to protect em with tanks or something. I also wished to make some mines for mountains but that also had to be cut out. Forests could have also reduced pollution and…well the list goes on. I am definetly going to participate on december when next jam is being held!

PS. I also realized my game doesn’t run in good deal of computers…Great point to think about when creating next game.

And lastly the shameless self promoting

If you wish to try boblar’s ascension then click Boblar’s Ascension