"I better not touch that Postmortem Ruining Device 3000."

"Oh no! Somebody else made this postmortem too long!"

The idea:

So the theme was "Tiny Creatures" and the first thing I though of was a disney princess singing to woodland critters as a means to make them do your bidding. Unfortunately, I'm a Bass/Baritone and not a Soprano, so let's make the princess a prince this time.

Prince Charming... singing a harmony. Charming... Harmony... Charmony! Good enough for me!

Goals:

I've been trying for 8 Ludum Dare's now to make a really good "tree swaying in the wind" shader. There's a good screenshot in my LD54 postmortem of the tree shader going wrong and being abandoned. Actually, to quote my previous postmortem, "I could absolutely boost my graphics ratings with some neat shaders." I wanted to go all out on graphics this time. It's been a while since I've scored in the top 10 of graphics, and my art has improved a ton since then.

On top of focusing on art, I wanted to mimic the story-telling of my LD 53 game, Inbox Fool. Having a villain that taunts you in every level (as well as making bad jokes) is a very natural way to put my bad sense of humor into my LD games, so I plan to do that too.

These goals will be explained in the following sections: * Shader-land * The Critical Blunder * Okay, what the heck was that story? * A lot of singing * Let's talk about why I ran out of time.

Shader-land:

Let's make some trees that sway in the wind.

Step 1, separate the trunks from the leaves.

To make the leaves sway, we'll create a texture for the shader. The purpose of this is to seperate each chunk of leaves into their own sections that sway individually. We want the tops of the leaves to be fixed on the tree, but the lower parts sway further than the higher parts. Imagine a gradient from black to white, where darker shades of grey represent less movement, and lighter shades represent more movement.

Now in the shader code, just scoot the pixels of the leaves over to the right some distance, multiplied by the brightness of that pixel in the lookup table texture. (Multiplying by a dramatic amount just to highlight the effect. Obviously the trees swaying this much looks bad. The key is being subtle.)

Modify the amplitude of the displacement by multiplying by some sine wave over time, and you've got some reasonable tree swaying!

There was another effect I really wanted to create. You know when you're walking through a forest and there's a patch of spotlights as the sun pokes through the leaves? A bunch of little pinhole spotlights would really make the forest scene a delight.

Step 1: Make a circle.

By adding some "cutoff" value, we can make the circle solid instead of blurry.

Step 2: Fading luminosity.

I want the circle to be bright when it's near some target point, and fade away as the circle moves from the target point.

I started by adding the target point, and setting the pixel's brightness to be the pixel's distance from the point:

Not quite what I was going for. Instead, set the brightness to the distance of the circle's center from the target point:

Looking good!

Step 3: More dots.

Okay, so how do we scale this? The way I'm creating the circle reminded me of voronoi noise! (Which is way too much code to put in a single screenshot, so from here on out, I'll just show the results)

Applying the fading luminosity, and we got something looking like this:

Step 4: Replacing the luminosity "point" with perlin noise.

Using a perlin noise texture, I performed some math to create "blobs" that would be hotspots for the pinhole lights.

Now instead of using math to calculate the brightness of the circle, I just grab the value from the perlin noise:

I also added multiple layers when I move the dots around, so they aren't all in unison.

Oh yes.

Make all the local texture coordinates into world coordinates, and you've got yourself some neat tree pinhole spotlights!

The Critical Blunder:

It really wouldn't be Ludum Dare if everything went right. So there were framerate issues. I was half-joking with a roommate that I'm being punished for having a really good GPU, but in hindsight I really do need to test my game on a laptop or something. I think a lot of us have been in a situation during Ludum Dare where we are mentally exhausted, we're rushed for time, and not thinking clearly. This is one of those situations.

So the pinhole shader is looking cool, but I want more spots, you know? Let's loop the existing code, oh- I don't know... 60 times.

I'm such an idiot.

Now, initially I set that number to be like, 100. It looked great, but in the Unity Editor, I was also getting some dips in performance. Granted, this was with the scene viewer, which on my monitor was around 2500:1000 pixels. I forced the resolution of the game to be 768:512, which dramatically cuts down on the number of pixels in need of calculations, which fixed the performance on my end. I also then cut the number of iterations from 100 to 60, so I figured it was good to go.

After reports of bad performance, I knew exactly what the cause was. I modified the shader and capped it at 4 iterations, making a Post-Compo "light GPU build". It looks basically the same.

Dang it.

Okay, what the heck was that story?:

Or, "How I recorded a ton of lines that never got implemented because I ran out of time." I ran into a similar situation in LD52. Voice lines were recorded, but there wasn't enough time to implement them. Here was the plan:

The story of the game is as follows. Your golden parrot is stolen. Now, under the control of The Dissonancer, your parrot will act as a messenger, delivering the stupid messages the boss has to say. The message for level 1 read:

"MYRAH! Look, I'm your parrot! I'm loyal to The Dissonancer now! Ha, just kidding. It's me! The Dissonancer! I already taught your parrot how to say this message. Uh- Don't question it. I'm just going to be "mocking" you through this "bird". Squawk- this is your parrot speaking now. Ohhhh, you're gonna miss me! ... Okay, how do I tell the bird to stop recording? Is there like, an off button or a command? This was a good message. You should fly over to that Charmony dork and let him hear it."

And I had stupid banter for some other levels as well, but I was RUSHING to finish everything and it didn't make it into the game, which is devastating because there were some really bad jokes in some of those banters, and I really wish they made it into the game.

Anyway, all that's left of the story now is: the wall is destroyed, the Dissonancer steals the parrot, the parrot sings the boss fight music (but there's no animation or indication that it's the parrot singing it.... oh well), and then you get the parrot back and explain why you can't pay to have the wall replaced. There were more references to the wall in the unused dialogue, and it would've made the payoff at the end so much stupider.

A lot of singing:

This is the sixth Ludum Dare in a row in which I've added Acapella music. I'm still not an expert, but it's fun!

Since this game revolves around singing to creatures, naturally I had to sing some music. I'm not actually a professional, (and I thought it would be really funny if it's obvious Prince Charmony isn't either) so his "singing" is mostly him going "Doo doo doot doo doo! Blah bomp. Bwa dunna domp blomp womp!"

Before I talk about the boss fight music, let me take a brief moment to talk about the new things I tried with my synth music. I picked up some slap bass VSTs, and oh my god... I cannot believe I hadn't been using slap bass this whole time.

And as always, the acapella is way easier to make if I already have a synth version made first.

As for the acapella boss fight music, I had big plans. I know I've done it a lot this postmortem, but allow me to refer to a previous postmortem. In my postmortem for LD55, I wrote "I realize I forgot to do some cool stereo effect, with one set of vocals specifically in one ear, and another in another. Oh well- Next time!" and I can safely say, ladies, gentleman, and everyone still listening, "we got 'em".

For all those who doubted me, I say:

I can't honestly think of something that went wrong with the music, which is a relief considering a lot went wrong with the graphics. I added stereo effects, chords, and it sounded great! Perhaps the music could have been a longer loop, but I haven't heard anybody complain about the repetition.

Let's talk about why I ran out of time:

Okay, so I over-did it on the art. I spent 5 hours on the background. And in Ludum Dare Compo terms, that's a LOT of time. It wasn't just to try and score well in graphics, but more importantly, I really struggled to make a "game" from my concept.

One idea I had for the gameplay would be to set up a rube-Goldberg machine using the animals to move an orb to... I dunno, a sleeping deer or something. Another woodland creature of sorts, who would then point the way to the next level. The puzzles would be all about setting it up, and watching it go, but I was not sold on that idea.

I wanted to make a puzzle game akin to my LD53 entry, Inbox Fool. I scrapped the rube-Goldberg machine idea, but the phrase "solid cube of birds" rung comically in my mind. I needed to make that. Frogs being bounce pads also made sense in my mind. I had a game coming together.

I initially couldn't come up with enough interesting mechanics from the critters, so as I brainstormed, I drew art. The rabbits were specifically the animal I struggled with. The birds and frogs both provide vertical movement, and I needed to make sure the rabbits were actually important. My first draft ideas included them becoming a ladder (vertical movement. bad.) or a placeable singing-platform. For people who didn't play me game, the singing platforms are where you can command the animals, so being able to place one would make for interesting puzzles. I assume.

In the end, rabbits making tunnels sounded really cool, but wow that's more vertical movement tools. I guess they can also make a bridge, I don't know. And viola! All creatures got ideas, and wow I spent 5 hours drawing the background while I figured this out, it's time to program stuff now.

Polish as you go.

Call me dumb all you want, but you cannot deny my games have presentation. (and yet I wonder why I run out of time so often)

Once the trees were moving, the tree-pinhole-spotlights glowing, the character moving, and the camera smooth as butter, I got started implementing the woodland creatures.

The big takeaway from my LD52 game, "The Bountiful" was (and I repeat this in every postmortem) "Focus on a single main mechanic, and let the story come second".

Despite "commanding woodland creatures" feeling like a single main mechanic conceptually, it was really 6 individual mechanics that all needed to work perfectly together. Birds need to be solid cubes and double jump zones. Frogs need to be bounce pads and boosts to jump height. Rabbits need to be bridges and tunnels. Then I need to program the singing-platforms and the HUD elements to go along with the animals.

Then I wanted a boss fight akin to Inbox Fool. That game flipped the main mechanic on it's head, but I couldn't find a way to flip the animal commanding into something new. You basically just collect the animals and use them to defeat the boss.

And I wanted 9 levels before the boss. 3 levels for each animal to be in the spotlight.

The timeline of this LD was: Draw characters and all animations, draw woodland creatures, character movement code, QOL features like coyote time and buffered jumps (pressing jump briefly before landing will still jump after you land), sleep.

Draw foreground elements, background elements, shader code, program birds (fun hopping animations, cool patterns in bird-cube-mode), singing-platforms and HUD, program frogs, start writing music, title screen art, sleep.

Program rabbits, make 3 bird levels, I made 1 frog level, 3 rabbit levels, finish writing level music, and sing the acapella music, make the boss room, draw/animate/voice both cutscenes, record a whole bunch of banter dialogue that got cut, make the remaining frog levels (all levels complete!), add code to progress from one level to the next, pressing R to reset a level, implement the title screen code, add the victory screen + speedrun timer, program the boss fight (the barrels are just a copy of the player movement code, you can tell I was panicking!), pause menu, and publish!

The pause menu almost didn't make it. I was rushing the whole weekend.

Reflection

I'm writing this before the results go live, so these are my genuine feelings about the game with no bias towards how the results may ruin my opinions.

I like it. I'm comparing the art from my LD45 game that scored 10th in graphics. It was another game featuring a forest as the backdrop, and just look at the difference!

As for improvements to the art, I think the solid-black parts of the foreground should have been a dark brown. I think the background might be too saturated, and some parts could be confused for solid objects. I've also been told a few times that the background does not match the art style for the playable character, which... yeah. As I become a better artist, I should probably do something about my character art style. I absolutely love the very simple designs (and I'd like to emphasize how quickly I can draw in this style) but if the character does not match the background, it feels weird. Perhaps the real issue is the background being too detailed, ha! I'll try and make the characters match the scene next time.

The puzzles in my LD53 game, Inbox Fool, were poorly tutorialized, and I think that applies here as well, but it's slightly better than my LD53 game. Some other shortcomings with this game include janky corner clipping. You could sometimes clip upwards and reach platforms you otherwise shouldn't be able to reach, which could potentially cheese a puzzle, or confuse someone who accidentally clips up thinking it was intended.

I think the music was perfect with this game.

Reflection part 2, What did we learn?

First of all, let's address all the points from the previous postmortem.

"Focus on a single mechanic, and let the story come second"

It became 6 mechanics, but I think I did a good job. There was a lot more emphasis on the levels and design than emphasis on story. (Story elements were even cut because I ran out of time)

“Get feedback before the deadline”

Okay... so my roommates were both gone this weekend too, ha. I reached out to some friends on Discord when LD started saying "Hey, will you be around to test this on Sunday around noon? (6 hours before submission)" and I got a handful of people ready. Alas, I was so rushed for time I wasn't even able to make a build for testing. I had too much to do, and, wouldn't you know it, that came back to haunt me.

Okay, what would we have learned this time? The framerate issues. One of the puzzles consistently stumps every one of my friends, and some corners were clippable. All of that could have been fixed.

This is something that I will make a priority next Ludum Dare.

“Make sure the camera isn’t jank”

I made a 2D game this time, so that was easy. I actually started with the camera before I even figured out what I wanted the game to be. I wanted it to be smooth as butter, and I can safely say I did that.

"Make another game with an interesting mechanic, broken into a series of small levels."

I took that to heart, and you bet it worked out. This game was a lot more fun to make than my fancy cutscene/dialogue engine with a game attached.

What did we learn this time?

I pretty much want to just repeat the lesson from LD53, about getting feedback before the deadline. To actually add to my repertoire of lessons from each LD, I'm going to say the big takeaway here was test the game on the worst laptop you own. My roommates have computers of similar quality, so the framerate issues present in the game wouldn't have even been noticed by having them test it.

Also, if I'm going nuts with shaders, just don't be dumb about it. Perhaps that's the real lesson.

The Results

• 13th Overall

• 15th Graphics

• 6th Humor

• 1st Audio

Reflection part 3, and Conclusion

Honestly, I'm satisfied with the results. I'm a bit befuddled by my score in graphics just barely not being better than my game from 11 Ludum Dare's ago, but I've noticed LD results are incredibly varied sometimes. Luck of the draw on who rates your game, I guess? But also the frame rate issues likely played a part in losing a few points there.

Honestly, now that it's all said and done, I think I should spend less time drawing detailed background, and perhaps trying to stylize the heck out of things with simpler designs. I spent so much time on the art that the rest of the game was rushed, but if I'm going for cartoony, why not go all in, you know?

And, Woo! Another trophy in Audio! The acapella music seems to work. It's such a shame there were voice lines that didn't make the cut, as that probably could've boosted my Humor score a little more, but oh well. We'll get 'em next time.

All around, this one was a great time! It was fun to develop, which instantly makes it better than a few of my previous jam games. I like the puzzles I made, and the world I built. I really can't ask for more.

Anyway, that's it for Ludum Dare 56! I'll stop myself from rambling even more. See you at the next one!

☃

I'm very happy with my results, especially considering this was my first published game!

Thank you to everyone who played Koi and left great feedback! You're all awesome. :heart:

This was Swan’s first time in Ludum Dare and they left the whole event with such a positive impression of the game jam community. All the kind interactions were very infectious, and they made us want to interact and engage more with the amazing things everyone did in such a short amount of time. It’s very inspiring to see what people can create and everyone should feel proud of what they’ve accomplished.

We are both very thankful for how receptive people were to our first time working together on something like this, and everyone made what was already a very special occasion even better.

Hoping we can join again in April!

-Swan and Boat

Just a quick post to follow in the footsteps of many other teams, and to say a big thank you. :two_hearts: Thank you for your many relevant comments and your kind words. When I write stories, whether for literature or video games, my aim is always the same: to make readers/players feel emotions. And with Tiny Rescue, it seems we've achieved that goal.

It was our first LD, and the end result is a huge encouragement for what's to come (because YES, we intend to go all the way with what we had planned for Tiny Rescue :smile: ). I also hope we'll be there for the 57th edition.

Thanks again, lots of fun and games for you, and a big BRAVO to everyone!

I got 52 comments that were quite positive, but in the end, I got a medium rating in all categories... I'd really be interested to get more data on the vote. For each rater (anonymously) the rating in each category and if the rater let a comment. To get more insight on how to improve (like stats of you receiving a poor overall with people that rated audio poorly, for instance).

I remain convinced that to get a good rating, you should aim for just above a 20 rating, you can get lucky with a subset of nice raters and avoid people who randomly or hastily rate to get their game more rates.

It might appear sour, but in the end, the grade doesn't really matter, commenting and receiving comments is what I love in Ludum Dare. 56 lilypad is one of my favorite entries I made so far. I loved almost all the game I had the chance to play, and the comments I got. I f you want to cheer me up to leave a star on my repository if you can to cheer me up! https://github.com/dhmmasson/lilyFrogs

Thank you to all the raters! Thank you to all that made a game, see you in April!

My platformer where you can't jump, Snail away, did super well! My best results by far!

I even got featured by Mike! Last (or first?) to get featured because 16th, but featured nonetheless!

I couldn't be happier! A huge kudos to everyone who played and left great feedback! I appreciate it :)

I'll try to be back with more awesomeness for next LD!

I had so much fun making this game and seeing what others had cooked up during that weekend. It was really cool to see in what kind of different directions this theme could be taken.

Also, I was quite surprised to see how many of you gave my visual novel a try - more than a hundred ratings is a lot, holy shit! Thank you so much for playing and rating. I really appreciate all the feedback I got <3

Comparing this to the last time I participated, this is such a huge improvement.

~~(Not surprised about the results for "Fun", "Innovation" and "Theme" compared to the other ones I got - I mean, it's a visual novel about grief and depression, how fun can it be haha ^^°)~~

So happy about "Graphics", "Audio" and "Mood". This is the stuff that can make or break a visual novel (aside from the writing, of course). Feels like I seem so have succeeded in that regard :)

Also: 137th overall? Woooah!

Once again, thank you all soooo much. I had a blast!

We may not have been able to finish the gameplay and mechanics of our game, but at least it seems people found the stupid soundtrack funny! Thanks for all the votes and time spent playing our game :)

Here is the second devlog of the post jam version of Tiny adventure
(thanks for all voting and comments, result is not bad :wink:).

Devlog 1

Devlog 2

I continued to work on essentials mechanics of Zelda Like 2D.

Completing devlog 1 next steps : * Manage layer in order to avoid sprite overlapping.
* Add action of launching wearing objects.

Add a shield!
Shield is as essential as sword, there it is!

For next steps, now that the votes are closed, I'm going to try to update the game version on Itch.
I'm just going to try to add a new enemy to diversify the situations a bit.

Hey everyone! I finally finished a game for this jam. It took a while as I was testing out my new C++ game engine, but it’s working. There’s not much to it, but it’s honest work.

Check it out here

Heyo! I started doing post mortems for my jam games and other stuff on my site. I just published the one for the LD56 game i made. 11th Ludum Dare in a row! Check it out if you're interested. We didn't score super highly, but it was still a fun experience.

https://blog.bluepinstudio.com/posts/Save-Nebuville-Post-Mortem/

I'm speechless.. this was my 2nd Ludum Dare and my teammate's 1st one.. and we got to the top 200! (*For comparison my 1st Ludum Dare game got 6 ratings... *)

We got soooo much amazing feedback from you all, thank you! After such a positive reception of our little blobby game, just a few days after the jam we decided to continue working on it. We want to create a combination of Jump King and World of Goo that will be fun to play for everyone, with additional, harder goals for those hungry for a challenge. Currently, work and university are taking all of our time, but we would love to start working on this soon and eventually release it as a full-fledged game.

Congratulations to everyone and don't let the ratings make you unhappy! The single fact that you made it this far and finished your games in such a short time is an incredible achievement on its own! Don't let this experience go to waste--keep on game-deving and pursue your dreams!

If you haven't played "Blob, To the Top!" yet.. feel free to give our game a try and leave some feedback. We are open to read your opinion on the game, and we'd love to know what you would like to see in the final version. We are kinda skilled programmers so we might be able to pull off even the most crazy ideas :D

Hi all! I just wanted to share with you that my game is now uploaded on itch for Windows users.

Play here: https://coltonphillips.itch.io/tiny-creature-support-group

For some reason, my docker instance isn't building linux right now. If anyone is reading this, and wants to build a Linux/Mac version of the game for me, in Rust, that would be much appreciated.

Link to code: https://github.com/ColtonPhillips/ludum-dare-56

Finally, if you appreciate Rust gamedev, or Godot gamedev, please consider following me on twitch where I sometimes stream that stuff: https://www.twitch.tv/coltonphillips

Take a moment to checkout my video of Moldable Monster of Mine, Play With Me, and Fishfestation.

Game links are in the description and below!

https://youtu.be/zKSwIrrLCQw

Games: Moldable Monster of Mine is a creative 2D action art game where you craft a monster by assembling pixels and slaying enemies. By SheWrote(@she-wrote): https://shewrote.itch.io/ Game Link: https://shewrote.itch.io/moldablemonsterofmine

Play With Me is a digital pet sim horror game with lots of charm. By AslanGames(@gord10ahmet) and Merulon(@meru): https://aslangames.itch.io/ and https://merulon.itch.io/ Game Link: https://aslangames.itch.io/play-with-me

Fishfestation is a wild ish Bullet Hell Survival RPG with delightful narrative. By ProStoCupOfTea(@prostocupoftea): https://prostocupoftea.itch.io/ Game Link: https://prostocupoftea.itch.io/fishfestation

I am so proud to be rated among the top 100 of this LD56 !!!

It also made me think about what I created as a whole during my 7 participations. I think I reached a ceiling with this "formula". During my last entries, I tried to produce large levels, too long to produce without good organization and for few results on the gameplay side.

For me future entries I will try a new formula more punchy, giving more possibilities for innovative gameplay!

Thank you so much to the people who rated my game or just played it for fun, it is a true motivation to see people enjoying what I crafted. (And thanks to my amazing GF who managed to secure a 4.15/5 audio score even if she didn't liked her audio tracks!)

I couldn't be happier with the results and the feedback I got. I was hoping to make it to TOP 100 in all categories, and I did! It's always so cool to hear that things worked out, even though I wasn't sure about them while doing the compo. I might even continue working on this game if I have time. :)

See you in April!

But first, a quick word from our sponsors...

A full and expanded version of my LD54 entry is coming to Steam as QuantumPulse 2A. If you didn't get a chance to play it during the jam (or did, and want more content!), add it to your wishlist now!

Post-jam DWARFS Update

My entry for this Compo, DWARFS, was ranked in the top 10 for audio and graphics, my new personal best in both categories, thanks for that! The Fun rating, however, was close to my personal worst (around the 50th percentile) :laughing:. However, I realized that was the case basically immediately upon sitting down to play through the whole "campaign" immediately after the Compo ended. I liked all the pieces of my game, but they just weren't meshing together. Thanks to some detailed feedback and players trying out various iterations I made on my post-jam version, I think I ended up with something way more fun, almost entirely by changing the glue that holds things together so that it feels like there's a reason for you to play the minigame, and that you feel rewarded for doing better in the minigame.

The general changes are: * Progress is saved between sessions * You now get bonus cash for completing the minigame well (4x for being nearly perfect, 2x for being good), which encourages playing aggressively / makes it more rewarding and therefore interesting * Greatly increased the match weighting for which exotic is found and their value (higher weight for DW/ARFS for which/value, and now the square of the match is used for the weight instead of just the raw match), so your configuration tweaks should have a more direct impact * The pattern of danger now loops (about 2 times if you're doing well) when doing the minigame, so if you're paying attention you can use that to your advantage * The pattern of danger is now pre-determined for each Exotic, so you can probably notice which exotic is "on the line" as well and use that to your advantage when hunting a specific one * Cash is now the stated primary goal (instead of just "18 probes launched" to finish a planet), so doing better at the minigame should feel even more rewarding * The Survey Bonus is now given per-Exotic when it gets to 100% knowledge instead of a single big payout, and increases with each bonus you claim * Moved affinities to the seeded random, so everyone should have the same difficulty (only the positive/negatives are flipped in a way that doesn't change the distribution), and ensured a better spread (should generally be at least 1 of each pos/neutral/negative for each affinity somewhere, and the closest two Exotics will never be very close) * If you start mining by clicking, time doesn't start passing until you actually hold down space/mouse again * Improved gamepad controls and informational tooltips

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/dwarfs

Thank you everyone for taking the time to play and review my game! Nobody found my easter egg (or at least commented on it), so that's still out for discovery. There is a hint toward the end of the game's description (and apt for this time of year)...

Well, we took 657th, but 50th in humor is a huge compliment, so I'll take it!

Thanks also to the people who ran the compo; I can't wait to participate next time.

Thanks so much to everyone who played Let’s Eat Grandma!
It was my first Ludum Dare, and my first time attempting audio and graphics by myself, so I’m super happy with the results! 😊
Seeing you all enjoy the game and share your thoughts has been seriously awesome. It means a lot!

For those who haven’t played yet, give it a try here and see if you can save Grandma!

Hello everyone,

I created with other musicians from the jam a playlist of the music composed during the LD56.

We have currently 15 tracks and that already answome. Come in the thread and share the youtube link of your best song if you want to be in!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIjR-zaySirD_JKPtusFdFpzB71Ub-Bfj

Hope you enjoy listening to all those great songs.

Kisses