{"author_link":"\/users\/co5monaut","author_name":"CO5MONAUT","author_uid":"co5monaut","comments":[],"epoch":1778103678,"event":"LD59","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":432540,"likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"96940","p_author":"CO5MONAUT","p_authorkey":"1313760","p_urlkey":"312589","p_title":"Last Brain Cell post mortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD59","p_time":"1778103678","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1313760","us_name":"CO5MONAUT","us_username":"co5monaut","event_start":"1776470400","event_key":"113","event_name":"Ludum Dare 59"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD59","removed_author":false},"_superparent":424249,"_trust":1,"author":313760,"body":"![EdSplash.png](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326c.png)\nHi jam folks!\n\nI didn\u2019t even wait for the theme announcement \u2014 I just went to sleep like an old man. In the morning I saw the theme, got a bit sad because I already had another idea prepared, and originally wanted to make the game in Construct because I already spend enough time in Unreal at work lol.\n\nMy early ideas included:\n- a signal from space,\n- Doomguy jumping into the Earth\u2019s core,\n- Morse code during war,\n- office signals,\n- forest Wi-Fi horror,\n- and neural signals in the body.\n\n\nI actually started the forest horror version, then suddenly decided: no, let\u2019s suffer properly and make it in Unreal, solo, in compo spirit, despite the fact that I absolutely do not know how to do 3D.\n\nWhile I was in the shower, the idea finally clicked: **signal distortion**.  \nFirst it was some robot carrying a signal from point A to point B. Then I remembered an old idea I had back in 2012 about a **physical backpack**, where information could fall out and get mixed up. Then I remembered the \u201clast brain cell\u201d meme.\n\nAnd that\u2019s how the final idea was born:\n\n**you play as the last brain cell of a shy guy on a date, carrying Thoughts through his brain to the speech apparatus so he doesn\u2019t say complete nonsense.**\n\nI opened Blender for the first time in 5 years, made a sphere with little arms and legs, watched a 6-minute rigging tutorial, imported it into Unreal, and somehow ended up with a dumb little neuron guy. Animation tutorials were no longer 6 minutes long, so I gave up on that and used Unreal\u2019s built-in procedural animation instead. Because my export was broken, the rig was cursed, and IK didn\u2019t behave, I ended up with floppy physics arms \u2014 which honestly looked funnier anyway.\n![ezgif-5267409b586563d1.gif](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326a.gif)\n\nI also tried to add jumping and moving platforms, but they felt terrible, so there is no jump in the game lol.\n\nThen I spent half a day fighting a shader because I copied one from a stylization talk and it looked \u0443\u043d\u044b\u043b\u043e, so I had to make my own weird fleshy version instead ahaha\n\nBy day two I finally had:\n- a weird brain-cell character,\n- a backpack,\n- fleshy brain terrain,\n- a Megabrain that spits out Thoughts in the correct order,\n- and the core loop.\n\nThe core loop is simple:\n- the Megabrain spits out Thoughts in the right order,\n- you memorize them,\n- you carry them through the level,\n- and throw them into the speech hole in that same order.\n\nIf you do it right, the guy says something normal and the **Mood** goes up.  \nIf not, well\u2026 the date goes badly.\n![Compressed.gif](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326b.gif)\n\nI wanted to add way more:\n- 3 stages of the date,\n- voice acting,\n- wind in the head,\n- shaking from nervousness,\n- scrambled Thoughts,\n- visual reactions from the girl.\n\nBut even without all that, I\u2019m still really happy that I managed to finish the core gameplay loop \u2014 and make the whole thing 100% by myself.\n\nIf you want to help this poor guy survive his date, you can play it here:\n\n[Last Brain Cell](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/last-brain-cell)\n\nThanks for reading, you\u2019re awesome.","comments":0,"created":"2026-05-06T21:26:48Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":432540,"love":5,"love-timestamp":"2026-05-07T07:25:43Z","meta":[],"modified":"2026-05-07T07:25:43Z","name":"Last Brain Cell post mortem","node-timestamp":"2026-05-06T21:41:18Z","parent":427980,"parents":[1,5,9,424249,427980],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/last-brain-cell\/last-brain-cell-post-mortem","published":"2026-05-06T21:41:18Z","scope":"public","slug":"last-brain-cell-post-mortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1374601},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"432540","n_urlkey":"312589","n_parent":"427980","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/last-brain-cell\/last-brain-cell-post-mortem","n_slug":"last-brain-cell-post-mortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"313760","n_created":"1778102808","n_modified":"1778138743","n_version":"1374601","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/last-brain-cell\/last-brain-cell-post-mortem","text":"![EdSplash.png](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326c.png)\nHi jam folks!\n\nI didn\u2019t even wait for the theme announcement \u2014 I just went to sleep like an old man. In the morning I saw the theme, got a bit sad because I already had another idea prepared, and originally wanted to make the game in Construct because I already spend enough time in Unreal at work lol.\n\nMy early ideas included:\n- a signal from space,\n- Doomguy jumping into the Earth\u2019s core,\n- Morse code during war,\n- office signals,\n- forest Wi-Fi horror,\n- and neural signals in the body.\n\n\nI actually started the forest horror version, then suddenly decided: no, let\u2019s suffer properly and make it in Unreal, solo, in compo spirit, despite the fact that I absolutely do not know how to do 3D.\n\nWhile I was in the shower, the idea finally clicked: **signal distortion**.  \nFirst it was some robot carrying a signal from point A to point B. Then I remembered an old idea I had back in 2012 about a **physical backpack**, where information could fall out and get mixed up. Then I remembered the \u201clast brain cell\u201d meme.\n\nAnd that\u2019s how the final idea was born:\n\n**you play as the last brain cell of a shy guy on a date, carrying Thoughts through his brain to the speech apparatus so he doesn\u2019t say complete nonsense.**\n\nI opened Blender for the first time in 5 years, made a sphere with little arms and legs, watched a 6-minute rigging tutorial, imported it into Unreal, and somehow ended up with a dumb little neuron guy. Animation tutorials were no longer 6 minutes long, so I gave up on that and used Unreal\u2019s built-in procedural animation instead. Because my export was broken, the rig was cursed, and IK didn\u2019t behave, I ended up with floppy physics arms \u2014 which honestly looked funnier anyway.\n![ezgif-5267409b586563d1.gif](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326a.gif)\n\nI also tried to add jumping and moving platforms, but they felt terrible, so there is no jump in the game lol.\n\nThen I spent half a day fighting a shader because I copied one from a stylization talk and it looked \u0443\u043d\u044b\u043b\u043e, so I had to make my own weird fleshy version instead ahaha\n\nBy day two I finally had:\n- a weird brain-cell character,\n- a backpack,\n- fleshy brain terrain,\n- a Megabrain that spits out Thoughts in the correct order,\n- and the core loop.\n\nThe core loop is simple:\n- the Megabrain spits out Thoughts in the right order,\n- you memorize them,\n- you carry them through the level,\n- and throw them into the speech hole in that same order.\n\nIf you do it right, the guy says something normal and the **Mood** goes up.  \nIf not, well\u2026 the date goes badly.\n![Compressed.gif](\/\/\/raw\/0a9\/c4\/z\/7326b.gif)\n\nI wanted to add way more:\n- 3 stages of the date,\n- voice acting,\n- wind in the head,\n- shaking from nervousness,\n- scrambled Thoughts,\n- visual reactions from the girl.\n\nBut even without all that, I\u2019m still really happy that I managed to finish the core gameplay loop \u2014 and make the whole thing 100% by myself.\n\nIf you want to help this poor guy survive his date, you can play it here:\n\n[Last Brain Cell](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/last-brain-cell)\n\nThanks for reading, you\u2019re awesome.","title":"Last Brain Cell post mortem","wayback_source":[]}