LudumData

I’m in for my second LD!

[raw] LD31LD #31 01. Dec 2014 · 12:04 UTC · 3 days before compo start by LeftRight92 · 2

Hi folks,

Following the great time I had taking part in my first ever Ludum Dare, LD30, and the relative success of my game Harmony (in which I just came shy of the top 25% overall for compo entries) I have decided to return once more!

Doing things differently

Unlike last time, in which I was working from home, I will be joining my University’s game development society for the weekend. This should prove a great way to keep focused on development, even though I still plan on entering the compo and not the jam.

Given feedback from my last entry (and the fact I’ve not done a huge amount of development work between now and then) I’m going to try and steer clear of a mouse based interface this time around. My entry in the last LD suffered heavily from a badly planned UI and until I can put some time in learning how to make Unity user-interfaces properly I’m going to try and avoid it.

What I’ll be using

  • The ever popular Unity with MonoDevelop. I probably should learn another engine at some point…
  • PyxelEdit & Paint.NET
  • If I decide to go 3D (which I probably won’t), Blender
  • Sound continues to be my weak spot, so sfxr or similar, no idea for music.
  • Google, lots and lots of Google

As ‘sound’ was the worst rated category of my previous game (excluding humour, it was not intended to be a funny game) I need to ask for a few suggestions. I have no functioning knowledge of musical composition (however, a basic grasp of keyboard, even though I lack said keyboard at the current time) and my knowledge of sound generation for sfx etc is similarly non-existant. What can I do to increase my chances of getting a decent sound score, given my lack of ability in this area?

Comments

jugglerrob
01. Dec 2014 · 17:49 UTC
I think you’ll find that most devs who participate in the compo also have a hard time with the audio category. Often times sound is left out completely, that means even mediocre sound in your game would give you a boost in that category. Proof: My last game merely had a drone sound in the background and a jump/fall noise and it placed #174 in sound. What I would suggest if you have no experience with music creation software, such as fl studio, would be to fire up audacity and record sounds using a microphone (or line-in on your keyboard if you can do that). If you play keyboard then consider record that. Even just a simple chord progression (You can find the notes for these online if you are that desperate) would work for background music. Sound effects for clicking buttons or jumping or firing or dying or anything else could be single notes, or a noise you make by tapping something on your desk, be creative.