Some thoughts on my Ludum Dare experience. First Ludum Dare for me. It was a highly intense and rewarding weekend for me. Starting three O’clock in the night to check the theme, and then working 6 to 23 both saturday and sunday.. Dead in the head monday/tuesday the week after. But it was worth it!

The idea came quickly to me (three O’clock in the night actually). I wanted to do a ‘story-driven’ typing/shooter game, where the player needed to use words to solve an internal problem.

Play ‘A Way Out’ on LudumDare.com

I worked in JavaScript and Phaser. I am not extremely experienced with Phaser (I have used it in one previous game jam), so I was surprised of how few hurdles I encountered on the way. I spent quite a bit of the time polishing small things (text/sprite fading and timings was the worst one!) I also got nice visual effects using simple filters in Gimp, together with various degrees of transparency in the game. Finally, sunday evening, I put the sound together with FL studio and my trusty mini-keyboard.

One of the most rewarding parts of the Ludum Dare, which I didn’t anticipate to be so engaging, is the reviewing of other players games as well as receiving valuable feedback on the game. During the giving and receiving of ratings and comments, I came to realise how important the details are for the playing experience. Could I have handled the power-weapon differently? Was the finish to abrupt? How does the navigation feel? The details came back when I played other games. I have enjoyed most of the games I played (many fantastic games out there!!). But what is it in some games that makes me tick in particular? A slight difference in responsiveness of the movement, or balancing of the difficulty makes a world of difference.

With all that said. If you enjoy frantic typing games, and/or enjoy story driven ambience in games, you should give my game, ‘A Way Out’ a spin. And, I am in particular grateful if you rate it and leave a line. I am attempting to play and rate all commenters games (that run on my old computer) in return.

Play ‘A Way Out’ on LudumDare.com

Jakob, LinkPact Games