{"author_link":"\/users\/bunnery","author_name":"Bunnery","author_uid":"bunnery","comments":[],"epoch":1493045585,"event":"LD38","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":26500,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"90510","p_author":"Bunnery","p_authorkey":"1011212","p_urlkey":"303319","p_title":"Taking Part in Ludum Dare Game Jam \u2013 Part 1","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD38","p_time":"1493045585","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1011212","us_name":"Bunnery","us_username":"bunnery","event_start":"1492732800","event_key":"69","event_name":"LD 38"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD38","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9405,"_trust":1,"author":11212,"body":"\nNathan has been wanting to take part in a Game Jam for quite a while \u2013 so when we saw that the Ludum Dare game jam was about to take place \u2013 and they were celebrating their 15th year \u2013 we decided we would give it a go this time.\n\nAmazingly, as we are busy most weekends, this particular weekend everyone cancelled on us and we had an entire weekend to ourselves \u2013 we took this as A Sign and resolved to definitely\u00a0try to make a game in just one weekend. We have never done this before so we thought it would be a great challenge and possibly fun! \n\n\nThe first step was to vote on the possible themes on the LDJam website \u2013 these had already been posted by other users and game jam enthusiasts. The actual theme of the competition would be announced at 2am (UK time) on Friday night while we were sleeping. We were hoping that it would be \u201cKeep it alive\u201d as we\u2019d thought of a really great idea for that \u2013 but when we stirred in the night and checked our phones we discovered that the actual theme was Small World.\n\nWe tried to go back to sleep and hoped we\u2019d dream up a really good game idea before morning. We had a brainstorming session as soon as we woke and talked about what Small World could encompass:\n\n\nthere are already games out there already featuring small worlds that are fought over because they won\u2019t fit everyone on\n\nsmall world can also mean child-sized things\n\nsmall world theory where everyone turns out to be connected to everyone else \u2013 could we make a game about that or would it just end up being too massive?\n\nthen, we had the brainwave that small world could also mean \u2013 microscopic!\n\nThat idea really got the cogs turning and we came up with superbugs \u2013 a game where you\u2019re in a science lab and\u00a0peer through a microscope at viruses in a petri dish.\u00a0The aim of the game would be that you have to kill them off with combinations of drugs before they grow too big and become Superbugs \u2013 and resistant to ALL drugs.\nWe\u2019d start with a few simple levels , where you just have to kill one virus\u00a0with a drug of the same colour. This would be scaled up to many viruses \u2013 some needing multiple drugs and others needing colour combinations to kill them off.\n\nAs Nathan, our developer, is halfway through his first course on Unity \u2013 we thought we\u2019d make the game in that. It seemed like a good way of testing his understanding so far!\n\nOur first prototype was one petri dish containing the viruses \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t very interesting and did not need a lot of skill. Also it was difficult to animate the viruses and get them\u00a0to interact with each other.\nThen Nathan came up with the idea of hexagonal cells \u2013 like a beehive \u2013 where each drug would affect the cells around the target one. This would make it into a proper puzzle game. It also allows for drug colours to be combined to make the other colours needed.\n\nWe didn\u2019t have any access to sounds \u2013 so\u00a0Nathan did the sound effects himself and recorded them to put them in the game. \u00a0I especially like the \u201cpop\u201d as each virus explodes as it is eliminated by the correct drug combos!\nOne of the hardest parts of making the game so far is working out how to automate the production of each level to ensure that it is still solvable. They do it with Sudoku \u2013 so it must be possible!\n\nCheck back in a few hours for part two, where we\u2019ll show how the game turned out and how you can play it!","comments":0,"created":"2017-04-24T14:38:09Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":26500,"love":1,"love-timestamp":"2017-04-24T18:34:38Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-04-24T18:34:38Z","name":"Taking Part in Ludum Dare Game Jam \u2013 Part 1","node-timestamp":"2017-04-24T14:53:05Z","parent":16885,"parents":[1,5,9,9405,16885],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/superbugs\/taking-part-in-ludum-dare-game-jam-part-1","published":"2017-04-24T14:53:05Z","scope":"public","slug":"taking-part-in-ludum-dare-game-jam-part-1","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":49873},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"26500","n_urlkey":"303319","n_parent":"16885","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/superbugs\/taking-part-in-ludum-dare-game-jam-part-1","n_slug":"taking-part-in-ludum-dare-game-j","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"11212","n_created":"1493044689","n_modified":"1493058878","n_version":"49873","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/superbugs\/taking-part-in-ludum-dare-game-jam-part-1","text":"\nNathan has been wanting to take part in a Game Jam for quite a while \u2013 so when we saw that the Ludum Dare game jam was about to take place \u2013 and they were celebrating their 15th year \u2013 we decided we would give it a go this time.\n\nAmazingly, as we are busy most weekends, this particular weekend everyone cancelled on us and we had an entire weekend to ourselves \u2013 we took this as A Sign and resolved to definitely\u00a0try to make a game in just one weekend. We have never done this before so we thought it would be a great challenge and possibly fun! \n\n\nThe first step was to vote on the possible themes on the LDJam website \u2013 these had already been posted by other users and game jam enthusiasts. The actual theme of the competition would be announced at 2am (UK time) on Friday night while we were sleeping. We were hoping that it would be \u201cKeep it alive\u201d as we\u2019d thought of a really great idea for that \u2013 but when we stirred in the night and checked our phones we discovered that the actual theme was Small World.\n\nWe tried to go back to sleep and hoped we\u2019d dream up a really good game idea before morning. We had a brainstorming session as soon as we woke and talked about what Small World could encompass:\n\n\nthere are already games out there already featuring small worlds that are fought over because they won\u2019t fit everyone on\n\nsmall world can also mean child-sized things\n\nsmall world theory where everyone turns out to be connected to everyone else \u2013 could we make a game about that or would it just end up being too massive?\n\nthen, we had the brainwave that small world could also mean \u2013 microscopic!\n\nThat idea really got the cogs turning and we came up with superbugs \u2013 a game where you\u2019re in a science lab and\u00a0peer through a microscope at viruses in a petri dish.\u00a0The aim of the game would be that you have to kill them off with combinations of drugs before they grow too big and become Superbugs \u2013 and resistant to ALL drugs.\nWe\u2019d start with a few simple levels , where you just have to kill one virus\u00a0with a drug of the same colour. This would be scaled up to many viruses \u2013 some needing multiple drugs and others needing colour combinations to kill them off.\n\nAs Nathan, our developer, is halfway through his first course on Unity \u2013 we thought we\u2019d make the game in that. It seemed like a good way of testing his understanding so far!\n\nOur first prototype was one petri dish containing the viruses \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t very interesting and did not need a lot of skill. Also it was difficult to animate the viruses and get them\u00a0to interact with each other.\nThen Nathan came up with the idea of hexagonal cells \u2013 like a beehive \u2013 where each drug would affect the cells around the target one. This would make it into a proper puzzle game. It also allows for drug colours to be combined to make the other colours needed.\n\nWe didn\u2019t have any access to sounds \u2013 so\u00a0Nathan did the sound effects himself and recorded them to put them in the game. \u00a0I especially like the \u201cpop\u201d as each virus explodes as it is eliminated by the correct drug combos!\nOne of the hardest parts of making the game so far is working out how to automate the production of each level to ensure that it is still solvable. They do it with Sudoku \u2013 so it must be possible!\n\nCheck back in a few hours for part two, where we\u2019ll show how the game turned out and how you can play it!","title":"Taking Part in Ludum Dare Game Jam \u2013 Part 1","wayback_source":[]}