Hey friends, check out our game! We worked really hard on the graphics, and all the images and sprites were created by us. Our character find himself in his own mind, where he faces his inner fears. He must fight through them and reach the end to wake up.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/fear-unbound
We did it!! This is my second ludum dare and my partner's first ever game jam! We'd love to hear your feedback!
Halloween is upon us and frumpkins run amok. When you find the time, check out our game Frumpkins 2 1/2. It's a action swarm survival game that we pour our weekend into. I'm personally really proud of the work put into the atmosphere and visuals.
Check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/frumpkins-2-12
I went in really wanting to make a swarm survivor game so the tiny creatures theme was so perfect. In the end, we may have overscoped a little and weren't able to add in the smaller polish that I wanted. Maybe next time I'll dial it down. Either way, hope you all have a good time and see you next year!
Congrats everyone ! 
Game is Live!
72h gone so fast!
Wished we had more time
Pretty happy with the result, could have needed 2h more to polish and playtest a bit more
Give it a spin! Comments are highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Heey We're putting together a list of games to play and review, so if you're looking for a chill and casual experience with art that was definitely not made by AI, you should definitely check out our game. =)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/about-crayons-and-my-garden
or at least we ran out of time...
Anyways, please feel free to check it out and leave us your sincere feedback!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/snow-globe-grand-duel
In the end it was a RUSH, but I think it's a success. Please check our game for Jam 56 - Bacterial: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/bacterial You can play as a virus in the human body. There are also gemini, but they are buggy (We'll fix them.)
Maybe the game turned out to be hardcore, but it's quite a funny roguelike, so you definitely should try it.
People eat so much fast food nowadays
And we don't discuss what's going on in the gut.
Calling all composers - I know you're out there... though I won't be surprised if it takes you a few days to come up for air.
Drop your games and/or original jam soundtracks. Super keen to hear what everyone's been up to this jam and a bit of debrief on how you went, and how you went about it. Had a great chat last jam with a bunch of different LD musicians and thought I'd kick the ball again.
As for me - had the pleasure of working alongside @Stead this jam on Will of the Wisp and really happy with how it turned out - but can't wait to be humbled by the things you've all made.
Make sure everyone is in peace with his neighbours in this cool little puzzle game.
Time to finish the 13 levels : ~20 to 30 minutes depending if you're good at puzzle games ;)
NOTE: Don't make the baby cry.
...check out our tiny platformer
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/forest-in-peace
runs in browser and does not require much time. :grin:
They're really fast buggers.
This is definitely one of our proudest jam games. We put a lot of work and attention to detail to Blob, To The Top! and we're super proud of how it came out.
We took inspiration from World of Goo and Jump King and we ended up with something that's (hopefully) very fun to play and quite challenging ^^
Hey friends, check out our game! We worked really hard on the graphics, and all the images and sprites were created by us. Our character find himself in his own mind, where he faces his inner fears. He must fight through them and reach the end to wake up. It was very hard for us, because coding is not our cup of tea... but anyways, we tried! The game will be updated with some bugfixes.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/fear-unbound
We know Unity has its own version control system, but since our team has 5 members and Unity VS is only free for teams of up to 3, we decided to use GitHub instead.
It works great as long as everyone sticks to completely separate scripts and scenes. But the moment two of us touch the same file, things fall apart. Chaos ensues—there’s confusion, frustration, and hours of lost work. We end up comparing branches after each push, trying to figure out who still has what.
Have you experienced this kind of mess too? Are we doing something fundamentally wrong?
This is definitely one of our proudest jam games. We put a lot of work and attention to detail to Blob, To The Top! and we’re super proud of how it came out.
We took inspiration from World of Goo and Jump King and we ended up with something that’s (hopefully) very fun to play and quite challenging ^^
JAJAJ It works in the browser, it won't take you long :)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/restaurant
Maybe seeing so many ants will make you want to leave a review 😋
Congratulations to everyone who spent sleepless nights grinding away at your games!!! It was a thrill being able to join a game jam with wonderful teammates and I hope everyone's jam went smoothly!
If you have 5 minutes check out our game: Oh God Please Don't Kill Me Mr. Frog
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/oh-god-please-dont-kill-me-mr-frog
This is definitely one of our proudest jam games. We put a lot of work and attention to detail to Blob, To the Top! and we’re super proud of how it came out.
We took inspiration from World of Goo and Jump King and we ended up with something that’s (hopefully) very fun to play and quite challenging ^^
Play with Coulomb on a breadboard. A tiny electron will power your circuit.
play here: https://bou-games.itch.io/coulomb
is just a tiny idea but we love it and we still developing
Credits: - Programmer, level design: Jorge Luis Bou-sad (https://github.com/jlbousing, https://x.com/kingbousing, https://co-table.vercel.app/profile/jlbousing)
Thanks for watching
My 8th Ludum Dare is complete, and I'm back at it again with a game where you play as an animal (seriously, I've made 4). I'll probably rate some games tomorrow, but if you like a bit of puzzling, some combat, and even a janky boss fight, feel free to check out Chirpy's Adventure. It was a bit of a time crunch, and there are so many ideas I had to cut, but I'm happy with how it ended up :)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/chirpys-adventure
This is definitely one of our proudest jam games. We put a lot of work and attention to detail to Blob, To The Top! and we're super proud of how it came out.
We took inspiration from World of Goo and Jump King and we ended up with something that's (hopefully) very fun to play and quite challenging ^^
Link to the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/blob-to-the-top
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/im-next
I'm beyond thrilled with the final models and textures I created for Tinygotchi Creatures! 🐾✨ I absolutely love this post-JAM feeling, where we realize just how much we're capable of delivering great ideas and learning (A LOT) throughout the creative process. Do you all agree?
Curious to check out our project? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tinygotchi-creatures
Three crazy days and we made it.
"Auxiliary" - 7th entry to the jam for our team. By far our biggest gamedev endeavour, we even invited an artist this time. It was so fun to work on that game! A bit of stress, sure, but hey, it's part of the jam!
Still, a lot of work needs to be done in terms of fixes, polish and UI/UX, of course. But we are happy how this game turned out.
Check it out, tell us your thoughts!
It was quite tense, but we are very happy with the result. Looking forward to seeing all of yours tiny creature games!
But that will be tomorrow, now it's time to rest :sleeping: :sleeping_accommodation:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/home-place
yummy
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/frogi
You are a vampire hunting zombies in a cemetery at night! Accumulate energy by slaying zombies, transform into a swarm of bats to feast and restore health, and watch out for deadly poisonous enemies
Hope you like it experience:heart:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/blood-crux
P.S. : THE BROWSER PLAY IS CURRENTLY BROKEN! You can either download the game or play it on itch. My PC's, monitor broke, and I probably won't be able to update the game for a while... (I will most likely tell this story in a post-mortem :x )
Hey! Do you wanna play a game about army birbs? Well, I got the right game for you, in GARDEN RUSH you play as a general commanding a war band of tiny bird creatures called BIRBS. In this game, you need to be quick! Because a giant boot just invaded your territory... Play GARDEN RUSH now!
Really enjoyed working on this game! It was most definitely a cool exercise on quick iteration, and it really helped me become a better designer. Also, scope creep is a mfer...
I made a game about being a seal galumphing around in a cave. I had hoped I would have gotten some gameplay in but I spent way too much time on the graphics and the animations. I'm really happy with the feeling of moving around and the atmosphere though. If you feel like hanging out in a cave as a seal for a while, feel free to try it out. It uses the latest version of Unreal Engine.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/the-seal-cave/
Do you like terrariums? Do you like to feed pets? Put them to sleep? Hatch eggs? Sell them for profit? This game is for you! Tiny H.O.C.'s Pro Creator allows you to manage your own H.O.C. (Humanoid Ornamental Creature) bunch and sell them to wealthy customers! Use that hard earned cash to buy stuff for your H.O.C.'s so they live the best life possible (until they are sold, I don't really know who buys them or what they do with them). Treat them well and they will breed, giving you more H.O.C.'s; Neglect them and they die.
Have fun!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$396385
It is my first time participating Ludum Dare. I created a vampire survival likes game in little creature form! I hope you guys enjoy trying it out and thank you all for playing!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/click-them
I decided that I was going to do this literally the day before the Jam started and WOW, what an experience!
If you've got a spare five minutes, check out my game Dr. Shrink and the Horrors of the Infinite:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/dr-shrink-and-the-horrors-of-the-infinite
Platform your way through Dr. Shrink's lab and its many tiny creatures as he shrinks farther and farther into madness!
It's a bit broken and a bit jankey but I'm still super proud of it. Can't wait to play all of the rest of the games!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/multimorph
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/multimorph
Hey all, pretty happy with the results with this being my first game jam. Couldn't get checkpoints in in time though D:
Check it out if you like light horror-survival :D
Usually I end up hanging or crashing Windows 3.1 earlier when I'm making something, but this time it hung while working on the file loading and saving code. After rebooting the VM I've found that after doing the weird song-and-dance I did to prevent losing all my work on my levels in the future, it probably managed to save something almost correctly - I think I was one byte off.
Here's hoping there's no more system hangs! At least this isn't like the last game jam I was in where I was doing something on a real DOS machine and had to hard-reset a few times while writing the keyboard interrupt handler... but so far I haven't managed to hang it due to forgetting to do the GetMessage/TranslateMessage/DispatchMessage loop where needed.
Also, I'll be doing this as an Extra entry now.
A short beat em up game! Had a blast blasting thru the development of this one.
Play here
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/battle-pixie-mixie
Hey, Guys!
hey all, drop a link to your compo game if you see this, on wednesday or thursday i will be going through them all to make a video for youtube :smile:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/misfits-daycare
Greetings M'llards
Are you ready to save Honkville?
Get your bread back by joining the flock in this card-builder roguelike adventure, where you’ll lead a team of plucky ducks against the Evil King to reclaim The Sacred Crust.
Assemble your deck, strategize your path, and quattack and quackle your way to victory!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-ducks
Hey got a second?
You might like to check one of these out, just scan the QR code with your camera, and experience one of the tech demos I made for my game “Metaworld”
It works with your phones gyro/compass/accelerometer/gps to let you looks around a metaworld.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/wallys-woods
Available on Windows AND Linux
this was my third Ludum Dare working with this team I really am growing to love Ludum Dare and the community around it! I Love playing everyone's games and seeing the creativity and passion everyone puts in. Please check out our game we worked really hard on it!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/goo-patrol
Our game was a little too ambitious (my fault) and we didn't have time to implement all the mutations.
See, the idea was in addition to surviving the night, the player could also gain special abilities based on which type of tiny creature they killed. This would change the player's appearance while the boost is active. 3 movement powerups, 3 combat powerups, only 1 of each type could be equipped at a time (ambitious!).
To accomplish this, I thought i'd try my hand at rigging the character in blender as a bunch of separate pieces that could be turned off or on... I'm not great at this part, but I made this abomination.
It was very confusing to animate, and thanks to Blender's ABSOLUTELY STUPID FAKE USER FEATURES (sorry, my blood boils just thinking about it) I had to re-do the animations several times.
For those who don't know, this little icon MUST be clicked and look like the above for every action (animation sequence) you plan to use. IF YOU FORGET TO DO THIS, BLENDER WILL NOT WARN YOU, NOTIFY YOU, OR EVEN WINK MYSTERIOUSLY AT YOU It will simply clear the cache when the file is closed, destroying potentially hours of work.
This appears not to be widely known so I am ending this blog entry with my PSA to please be careful!
Also try out lil game, even without the mutations it's a challenge to SURVIVE THE NIGHT.
There's even a win condition! But right now the game's pretty boring and not resembling the "thinly-disguised lock-and-key puzzle variant" idea I was going for.
And yes, every level is currently called "Untitled". I have a dialog box in the resource for renaming levels but that'll have to wait.
Which now leaves me with these bullet points in yesterday's blog post:
I'm at 1955 lines of code now. This'll probably go past 2000 lines, but I mostly just need to draw stuff and add more logic.
The file-like I/O abstraction I've done will probably be reused for next jam. (Me reusing my code for a Ludum Dare, that'll be a first!)
Also, the levelset handling is, uhh... suspiciously similar to how ZZT does it. Except ZZT dumps stuff into a 20,000 byte buffer and then copies that into a newly-allocated block of memory. But the basic principle of "every level is a packed block shoved into memory and unpacked on demand, and the file is mostly a bunch of length-prefixed blocks containing said level data" is the same.
Speaking of design influences, the level editor pops open a tool window to the side of the window... kinda like how Kye's level editor does it. Except this level editor allows you to edit a full level set instead of a single-board level set. Of course this totally wasn't an influence on the fact that the default level set is called "default.lvl"...
Anyway, this has been a lot of fun and I want to get this finished, and next time I'll be using the same toolchain. I'll probably get some more editor stuff together for some base code though.
H&T is a high-paced action game where you hammer a bunch of evil confetti and try to protect your donut hole (what?)
The culinary world is a dangerous one. Amid the chaos, the bakery stands alone as the most cutthroat and merciless battlefield of them all. It would certainly be impossible to innovate and carve out a niche in such a violent market, right?
Not anymore! With the recent development of the Sprinkmin, biogenetically engineered creatures who are delicious as they are cute, we believe we’ve found the next game-changer for the patisserie industry.
As a flavor consultant, your job is simple: On your workstation you will find one of our patented foodstuffs, ready to be enhanced. We shall then periodically release a shower of Sprinkmin who, following their manufactured instincts, will attempt to bond with the food. It’s up to you to then use the tools given to you to properly sort and herd the Sprinkmin who pair best with the desired flavor profile.
Use your Magnifier, with its space-age display, to find the unwanted Sprinkmin. Then use your Hammer, with its innovative solid and heavy headpiece, to crush the undesirables. Flavor is everything in the culinary world! Show no hesitation, know no mercy! Make all your sweet dreams come true!
Do not attempt to communicate with the Sprinkmin, they are all liars.
We're proud of it!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/lil-demon-game-thing
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/little-fellas
I've released a couple of bugfix versions for my entry, "Snow Flipper" - a fishing tycoon where you play as a penguin!
The game's tooltips now actually reflect the correct pricing for items, and the RNG has been adjusted to be closer to what I'd intended at first.
This was our first ludum dare, and we mainly wanted to try out a full 3D project !
Here is it finished and all
Use mouse or keyboard to play, and buttons on the right are for upgrades between rounds Good luck !
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-grab
01000011 01101111 01101110 01100111 01110010 01100001 01110100 01110011 00100001 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 01101101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100101 01101110 01101010 01101111 01111001 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00111010 00100000 01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 01110011 00111010 00101111 00101111 01101100 01100100 01101010 01100001 01101101 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101110 01110100 01110011 00101111 01101100 01110101 01100100 01110101 01101101 00101101 01100100 01100001 01110010 01100101 00101111 00110101 00110110 00101111 01110011 01101000 01110010 01100101 01110111
The jam has officially closed, and now we’re diving into rating all the awesome entries! We’re really excited to see what everyone’s created, and we can’t wait for more people to try Scrubby Shrimp. The feedback so far has been fantastic — keep it coming!
We’re making sure to give each game we play a fair shot and thoughtful feedback, as we believe that’s a big part of what makes the jam so special. We hope the community will continue to do the same for us.
And of course… Keep Calm and Shrimp On! 🦐
I fear i may be next.
Please help me: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/wallys-woods
available on Windows AND Linux
Not too bad, I think. :smile:
Link to my game, Koi: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/koi Can you survive long enough to see all 7 enemies? What's your personal best score?
try this on line: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-villages
I’m very excited that you enjoy playing this game. It really means a lot to me. If needed, I’ll update more content after the competition ends
In Miku's Minion Madness, playable at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$396587/, you can summon a lot of adorable creatures in your quest to defeat the forces of darkness! Behold, Mipaca, the fire-breathing purple alpaca!
So powerful that using her card only summons a single unit (*for just 3 Miku Points!), this slow-moving unit will mow down her foes with her area effect fire breath attack! Support her with faster melee units or bigger tanky units, and watch her destroy the enemy ranks!
We recently submitted our first game to LD. We ended up having to reduce scope at the last minute, so we had to cut most of the story telling events. Our original idea for the game was that you were playing as usurper ants trying to overthrow the queen of the bug world, Lady Bug. The sprite for Lady bug is still seen at the end game screen, but her boss battle had to be cut. There's a handful of other fully unused / partially complete bug art that we hope to add to a definitive edition that we release at some point after the jam.
Try playing Antarchists in your browser here! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/antarchists
This is my first submission to the Ludum Dare game jams and i'm really proud of what I was able to make in the 48 hour timeframe (I am even considering making a post-jam version of this game with more levels and features)! Please go check it out if you are interested.
Respond to this submission with a feedback or just a comment, and I will be happy to play, rate and give my feedback to your games too!
* Dodge and weave your way around these *tiny creatures and earn your spot on the leaderboard! **
Go into the game and conquer it https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/hungrybob
It’s Halloween night, and you, a fabulously fashionable ghost, are out walking the neighborhood pets! Some may be tiny, but they all have big personalities and plenty of quirks to keep you on your ectoplasmic toes. Each pet has its own unique behaviors, from curious puppies to stubborn cats, and it’s your job to bring them home safely while managing their unpredictable needs.
Inspired by the experience of living with ADHD, this game aims to capture the (sometimes) joyful chaos of being constantly pulled in different directions. Though your attention may be scattered, it allows you to see the fascinating and whimsical world around you. Just like the ghost being tugged along by these quirky creatures, you’ll find your attention darting from one pet’s whim to another, yet always discovering something delightful along the way. Can you bring everyone home in one piece, or will the pets be leading you instead?
Put on your best ghostly attire, grab those leashes, and embrace the delightful mayhem! Happy haunting and happy pet-walking!
This is the first Ludum Dare I participated in with one of my friends, Tom. It was an intense weekend of creating something we both feel quite proud of. Initially, out of the final voting round, the theme was the only one we couldn't really come up with a pre-game plan for, and even when it was announced, we still had no idea what to do. But some brainstorming soon led to this cool idea of Forest Guardians!
The game aims to guide Luminates around a dark forest, finding critters and guiding them safely to the ancient runes. They're only attracted to the light and will follow you when they are nearby. But there are also snakes lurking about, who are also attracted to the light and quite eager to attack critters following you!
This was our first Ludum Dare and certainly not our last!
The game is best played on a desktop browser.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/forest-guardians
How do I rate other games? No “Rate” button or option appears!
We have had some people saying that some of the bosses in are game provide a fun and unique challenge! Well, if you are up to it, try your hand at fighting our mighty FINAL BOSS, STOKEY! Let me know if you end up besting this beast!!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/critter-gang 
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$397465
Come and go inside the dead man.
Check the Hand 🔦 Check the Soulder🔦
You see bottle？You see Bullet shells?
Guess what happened？🕵️♀️
√Four Levels √Collect Different Resources √Build Homes √build Demolition Crafts to blast Enemy Nests
Cute Adventure Strategy Clicker Game Play Online Now! Welcome Comments! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$397465
Short preview into behind the scenes of how I developed the game for #ludumdare 56 game jam, Im planing on recording full #devlog since I recorded enough material and have some thoughts to share about the process.
https://youtu.be/DR3VhzI-mVs?si=_vuqVQULSYxwB5WB
It's here, The Red Beetle Squad is finally live!
🎉 After hours of coding, designing, and animated debates about the exact size of this tiny red beetle 🪲, our baby is online! It's an asynchronous multiplayer game where each character adds their own unique twist. Each of the eight characters has their own gameplay, and every game becomes a little cooperative puzzle.
It was so much work for a team of just two people! But we’re super proud of the final game!
Thank you to everyone who’s already jumped in! 🙏 We can't wait to hear your feedback. 😊 Join us, and let’s find this beetle together! 💪
I didn't outright hate the theme, but I struggled to come up with an idea for a fun game that I could put together in 72 hours. Could think of lots of tiny creatures, but nothing that would make (for me) something fun to play.
Finally got a good idea after about 10 hours, spent the next two hours doing design and a couple of early art pieces, decided to go to bed to get a good night's sleep, hitting the code early the next morning.
Of course, next morning arrives and I'm violently sick. Always wondered why it was called "violently sick". Now I know.
Spent all of Sunday (NZT) in bed, hoping it'd just be a 24 hour bug and I'd recover to do something in the remaining time. So of course, Monday rolls around -- a day I'd taken off work specifically to do LD56 -- and I'm still feeling a bit dodgy, but this time with a migraine thrown into the mix.
All this to say, I couldn't even look at a computer until a few hours before the jam deadline. I'm hoping I'll be able to put something in for the Extra category, but I've got to go back to work tomorrow.
I hope everyone else had fun over the weekend. Even though I can't vote on your games, I look forward to playing through some and offering some constructive feedback.
Just the post of excitement by participating in another LD :) Congratulations everyone!
Here’s our Hop Hop Don’t Stop)
Can you beat 3rd lvl and don’t be eaten by an eagle?) 🐸
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/hop-hop-dont-stop
A small atmospheric game about exploring a procedurally generated hostile ecosystem.
Takes from 5 to 20 minutes to beat. Hope you enjoy! :)
→ https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/metal-antlers ←
Hello Ludum Dare! This is Now Loading from Heptagon Studio. After a long day of class, I am finally able to write up my update!
PolyGone is done! We are replacing the WebGL build with the Windows build due to the video not playing in web glbuild, but IT IS DONNNNNNEEEEE!!!
Play our game and observe the adventure of texture guy!
love, from
Game designers had a lot of imagination for the game we maid, although we didn't make it in time :(
Some of the cards that were made for the game
You can check it here
City building/tower management game where you defend your pumpkin from the bugs!
:joystick: Try Here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/pumpkin-defense-4 :joystick:
This was my seventh Ludum Dare and and our fifth as a team. I've never done a post-mortem before so I thought it was about time. We started with the goal of having something that could highlight my team mates illustration and animation and I'm really happy with how that aspect of the Jam came together. We had a good workflow and it felt like our years of experience was all coming together finally.
I didn't make a final decisions on tools until after we settled on a concept.
Dev/misc: HaxeFlixel, VSCode, GIMP (for minor spritesheet editing), ChipTune, Adobe Animate (for putting together a quick image for the credits screen) and this online sprite sheet generator. I haven't touched HaxeFlixel for a few years but it is feeling really solid. I was impressed with its functionality and it reminded me how much I like Haxe. Phaser is also looking very solid these days so I might give that a try next time around.
Art: Illustrator (for character design), AfterEffects (for animation), Procreate (for some additional assets).
Main character animation preview in After Effects:
Booked in time off work, set up a Git repo and itch.io place holder page and we put together a Bird day Productions splash screen.
I worked fairly solidly from about 8am - 11pm with a few breaks for short walks, etc. This day was focused on getting the character movement feeling good. I was torn between scaling the main character down for gameplay purposes or having it a bit bigger so the art could shine. We landed on making it a bit bigger.
My original idea for the game was to adapt a movement system I put together for an abandoned game some years ago (a two player game with owls in a Joust style duel). I really liked the elegance of this control system which allowed you to move about freely with just two buttons. Conceptually a little was lost with the move to underwater as the gliding functionality where you could hold down a key to open one wing and glide down to the ground didn't make as much sense underwater but I decided to run with it.
I thought about adding a timer to add some time pressure to the game, instead I landed on having an energy bar which chews energy when you tap the movement keys and is replenished by collecting food. When I played around with this it felt like it created an interesting dynamic.
I got a fairly solid night's sleep. I'm too old to be working till the break of dawn these days.
Snapshot below of the game after day 1.
I took a decent chunk off during the middle of the day and got some sunshine then worked till around 11pm and got another decent sleep. I felt energised and really positive about how the game was going.
Snapshot below after background GFX and spikes added.
Reality set in. Lots of work to do and I started to feel physically and mentally exhausted with some aches and pains.
I had another solid day fleshing things out, lots of time spent on little details including an end of level screen and a credits screen. I fleshed out a couple more levels and integrated the graphics. I got the fish working and hurriedly put it in a few levels. It felt like the game needed some more thought on level design but my brain felt pretty fried at this point so I just kept moving onwards. I added a brief ending sequence.
I stayed up to about 11pm to put the final level graphics in and submit the game, I wanted to get everything finalised so I didn't have to worry about doing anything in the morning (Jam close was 8am my time).
As always the title screen was the last thing to get done.
I feel really happy overall with how everything came together and with the look and feel of the game. I would of liked to have more time to spend on level design and to have thought through the focus of the game a bit more.
It feels like it doesn't quite know what it is trying to be. The first level is easy but then the difficulty ramps up quickly.
We have lots of ideas for post jam. I want to focus on putting together some more deliberately designed and focused levels exploring different aspects of the possibility space. Some odd and diverse influences on the game that I could draw out include Joust, Exile (C64) - one of my all time favourite games and Rally X.
One idea I'd really like to play with is having water currents that boost your speed but are too strong to swim against. These could be fun and help build some interesting levels.
You're never going to achieve everything you dreamed in a jam game but I'm really happy and proud with what we managed to get done in 72 hours
Thanks to everyone who has played and commented and to my team mate for her amazing effort on the beautiful artwork. Also a big thanks to Mike for keeping the site going, after a few years in web dev I appreciate what an insane undertaking it is to keep this website up and running.
The full source code of Ephyra is available on GitLab.
The constant theme with those jams is that no matter whether you chill during the whole process or made the game with coffee filled intencity - you will publish last minute. At least so in my experience
Does it happen to you too?
And at what point should I worry I have an addiction to risk and get as close to the deadline as possible? :laughing:
And here's our jam game !
We are quite happy with the result! And in 10+ years of making games, it's still the first this kind of game for me. Never published such a UI centric puzzle game.
Time for my second favorite thing about LudumDare!
come suggest me your game to play:
https://www.twitch.tv/nopogo_tv
We just finished our 6th game since Ludum Dare 50. (We missed one unfortunately). Everytime it is incredibly fun and surprising what you can come up with in such a short time.
Congrats to everyone who finished a game (and almost finished a game)!
This time around we wanted to create something that none of our team had attempted before. One of the reason for leaning in certain directions when we make a plan is to try and ensure there's enough a) fun stuff to work on and b) new stuff to learn and struggle on.
We got a lot of both a and b this jam.
Come and play as Rustle in our first ever in-person game jam as a team (6th jam though!) where you must earn your freedom as a card playing and racing strategy beetle - Deck Derby: Sluglord's Speedway!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/deck-derby-sluglords-speedway
My friend said the game is fun.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/cat-and-box
Tired of playing by the rules? It’s time to go full mad scientist! In Monkepok, you’ll create terrifying, powerful creatures by fusing and experimenting with wild specimens in your secret lab. Splice together their stats, unleash your monstrous army, and crush anyone who dares to challenge your twisted genius. 💥🔬
Start with 3 creatures, evolve them into unstoppable powerhouses, and defend your research against enemies who want to steal your genius creations! Are you ready to prove who’s the true mastermind? 🧬⚔️
🧠 Play Monkepok now—where tiny monsters pack a punch!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/monkepok
Hey guys!
This is our tenth entry for Ludum Dare and we made a game about tiny creatures – bunnies! :smile:
We would really appreciate it, if you take your time and test the game, leave a comment and maybe some rating. And don’t forget to read the tutorial! smile
And feel free to drop your game link in the comment section below, I will have a look at it and, of course, comment and rate as well!
Play & rate our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/the-pasture
Best regards @nivbeth, @fis & @johncoffee
In this bullethell you need to rescue your tiny creatures which have been captured and bein kept in different portals.
You want to be super fast? You can! Dashman joined the fight.
Get some justice and use the Power Ranger skin.
Problem surviving? No worries, the tank skin got you covered!
Look even Vegeta joined in.
Rate: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/no-my-creatures
Play: https://rhewid.itch.io/no-my-creatures
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--> https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/slurpem-all
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In our game Kinder Guardin' you are constantly trying to keep your children inside the classroom. Any opportunity (such as an open window) will be used to escape! Can you keep them all in your classroom?
