Ludum Dare 30 has been a very unique experience for me. It’s shown me my abilities and limits in game development. It’s been a whole lot of fun rating everyone else’s game, too. Great ideas out there.

I believe I did very well for my first Ludum Dare, check out my entry,  Alternation:

Click me

Thanks for all the feedback by the way! Please rate if you can on Kongregate because I am getting few ratings.

Now, I made numerous mistakes and wrong turns with my entry, but I also did some great things with it. Here’s how Ludum Dare weekend basically went along:

Before the theme was announced, I was focused on making a 3d game with Unity, preferably a platformer. I also wanted to enter in the Jam.

When the theme was announced, I immediately started to brainstorm for ideas, among these ideas:

• A top-down where you have to get to other planets by shooting other spaceships.
• A platformer where you travel through dimensions to a goal.
• An FPS where you shoot things that attack you (so unique).

I went with the second one and I begun to make a prototype. I decided to make the entry a puzzle fps without combat, much like Portal (couldn’t help it, love that game so much). The prototype took a couple hours to get to a point where it functioned. I then began to build the first level.

Upon finishing this level I determined the core gameplay, the ability to switch between dimensions by clicking. I started to work on level two when I realized I should introduce a new gameplay feature. I did just that with the addition of levers. I later added “death blocks” to level four. I made six levels in total, and play tested them multiple times.

I finally got to a point where I liked the feel and mood of the game and I submitted it around 8:00 pm Sunday. I thought the game was decent enough for Kongregate, so that’s where I hosted it.

After release, I slowly received feedback and I saw the good and bad of my game. Feel free to read the list:

The Good:

• The audio I used was completely awesome. Thanks to audionautix.com.
• The dimension switching was (almost) free of bugs.
• The puzzles proved to be challenging.

The Bad:

• The puzzles turned out to be a bit too difficult and awkward for some people.
• Only six levels are present, sorry guys.
• Most of the levels rely on parkour/reflex skills, which was a really bad move.

Overall, this was a great first Ludum Dare for me, hope you all like my entry and do well with yours!

Thanks for reading and extra thanks to everyone who posted feedback! See ya!

Tags: #LD48 #LD30