Hi all, i'm Oli, I've been doing LD, mainly solo, regularly for the last 2 years. This Jam I made Bunny on a Plane, and I want to talk about how to get the most out of your assets as a one man team.

This obviously applies more to people doing the Jam rather than the compo, so keep that in mind

Bunny on a Plane makes extensive use of previous code and assets, which can be really helpful when you're trying to make a thing in a small amount of time. My last 3 LD games have shared, and new assets, which are made as required, but they all share a 3D Bunny toy model, and make use of boilerplate code from the previous games.

I think making some simple reusable UI control code really helps making things feel complete, a title screen helps a lot. Try and build small libraries for all types of assets, sound effect, fonts, 2D, 3D, not just code. This can also help develop your own style. The last 3 jam games I've made are all set in the same world, so shared assets and style makes thematic sense.

In bunny on a plane, in terms of new assets, I made a plane, some 3D music notes, balloons, some nice splash screens, and some music. All of those assets can be reused, apart from perhaps the music. I also made a karaoke script that can be easily dropped in to new games.

You'll also find that things like a high score manager and scripts to change things like color, size and position at random come in very handy. Try and keep your game jam code modular this time, so you can use it next time.

Of course, finding great friends to help make assets and code for you can really help a lot,and is something I'd encourage, but if you're a lone wolf, or like the challenge of working alone, thinking about how the code you write this jam can help your next jam is worthwhile, and is good practice in general.

We're all in this to make games, not rewrite the same high score system every jam, so keep the idea of modular, reusable assets in mind.

Thanks for reading, hope you give my little game a try!

Download Bunny on a Plane

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/bunny-on-a-plane

Thanks

Oliver Carson Sizeable Games

Twitter

https://twitter.com/OhCarson