This time around i decided for the first time to write a background music soundtrack. It's a cosmic theme. Here is what i have so far: https://wizstaff.com/bgmusic.mp3

Too much brain fog. I blame the unhealthy work schedule / chronic sleep deprivation. Just gotta survive it one more month...

Best of luck to all survivors

Phew, 14 hours of gamedev done!

As a spontaneously formed team of a Developer, Tech Artist and a 3D Artist, we wanted to make something dynamic and action based this time. The following ideas survived the brainstorm:

1) Boss battle where it cuts the space available to the player

2) Pitch dark labyrinth where the only way to see something is to attack or get attacked We decided to merge them together and settled on a Lighting based Boss Battle, where the players visible Space is severely Limited and can only be briefly enlarged with flashes of light during the attacks.

"Deep sea" emerged as a natural theme for the Light based gameplay:

I'm happy with where I've got to, you can now load up the ship and fly around. Tomorrow I need to add more sations, make it so you can buy and sell, and figure out how game-ify it.

I'm aiming for the compo and I think i'll manage it but if not i'll go for the jam!

I'm having a great time!

Here's a gif (sorry about the compression - I think the stars ruined it)

I'll now spend this quiet Sunday writing the story.

Not much of a gameplay yet but at least some of the animations done.

I may be able to match mostly what was in my head when starting, but only if I am able to charge ahead to the finish... !

Im at the point now where I will be adding more and more and more to the game, the simple premise of it is set and done, animations in place, models look good, sounds work, menus work...

I could try and add in an enemy? right now the only threat is time and .... lava.

Not much of a gameplay yet but at least some of the animations done.

It's slowly coming together!

Going decent for first Ludum Dare.

My engine has been fighting me at every step but getting there.

High hopes and fun ideas for a game that will fit the theme and feel cohesive.

However it's been much slower learning some of the specific godot nodes than I had hoped. :cry:

I made a gamble and leaned heavily into doing as much no-code as possible - using control nodes as storage when appropriate and trying to set up as much logic as possible with signals in the editor inspector. I'm unsure so far of how much time I've actually saved, though I'm pretty confident that I haven't been outrageously slower either.

I also made some "proper" svg files using inkscape for the first time in my life! In any case, it's the first time I've felt like I mostly knew what I was doing in it, and felt productive using it overall.

As I go to bed, I'm feeling fairly confident that I'll be able to get most of my plan accomplished before the end of the jam. Hopefully I manage to get enough sleep!

I'm not going to lie, most of today was just me trying to remember how to make platformer collisions work lmao

We've had a very productive first day - a good chunk of the core mechanics down, which is hopefully going to leave us lots of time to polish, and iterate on the specific mechanics.

Quite happy with how pretty its starting to look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEFGLZX81Gg

:D

I started twelve hours late...This is the result of my first day...

Very glad I discovered Blender's Discombobulator add-on so I can cheat my way through the 3D modeling

She can already walk, run, pick up items (like the axe on her back), equip the axe, attack and soon she will be able to cut down those trees and carry the logs around.

Finally got the day/night gameplay loop (kinda) working!
Tomorrow I'll create some upgrades which can be bought with the collected resources.

Also I'll focus on the mechanic of tiles which are eaten by The Sea Monster
(it's those red tiles - each new day the monster will mark 3 of them and will devour them the next day, which effectively limits our gameplay space as the time goes and forces us to strategize)

Time to get a tiny bit of sleep now...

i had a late start, so i'm keeping my scope very small. it's a game where you guide a character through hypnotic rooms by rearranging pieces.

Last time I did this my WebGL build got kinda messed up, this time im trying to get it right... it all looks good from an outside perspective but it runs at like 1 frame a second.

any advice? I am using unity

Concept sketch, 24 hours, let's go.

It just seems like my game is simply falling apart :-D

Oopps I think I just removed that platform you were on buddy!

Making a game for the first time during Ludum Dare 54 with no/very low expectations! I was a bit limited on time today so there's plenty still to do, but it's getting somewhere

Watched a few Godot and Aseprite videos in the run up, most notably Brett Makes Games' "Complete 2D Platformer in Godot 4 Tutorial - Zero to Shipped Game for Beginners"

The source code is on GitHub at yndajas/ludum-dare-54

I also streamed the first few build hours yesterday and today on Twitch at /yndajas (not an exciting stream - I'm not a 'real' streamer!)

Actually, that doesn't even make any sense. https://youtu.be/9idWFvmqoKw

Working with @rsr-studios! Having lots of fun working on this game jam! I hope everyone else is also having lots of fun!

Hey all,

Wanted to ask on here for transparency's sake to see what the community thought.

We're a Jam team, I'm the composer. Have put a great deal of work into the music so far and will continue to for the rest of the jam. Our SFX guy seems to have ghosted. Thankfully, we're making a colony management type thing, and the only desperately needed sounds will be a couple of UI clicks and so on.

I found some ideal ones online to use - I didn't create them though. I obviously don't want to opt out of the Sound category completely having put all this time into the music, but I don't want to be dishonest either. Do you think it'd be reasonable for us to still opt-in for sound and just reference the UI sounds on the game page...? It'll literally be two clicking sounds.

Thanks!

Got a bit of progress with the clutter in this scene. Not nearly where I expected to be tonight, but I'm not giving up. (The player sprite is a placeholder...)

the goal of the game is to collect the flashing green plus signs. i've got two levels currently: https://verysoftwares.itch.io/hypno-room

Found some productivity time today, enough to build a neighborhood, figure out scoring, add a dangly lid, and fine-tune the gripper arm.

1. Deduct points if the trash can gets knocked over
2. Add sounds (doing the compo, so not sure how to do this without freesound for truck sounds)
3. Intro / Tutorial / Score screen
4. Some additional environmental things to make it feel just a bit better (trash coming out of cans, different cars, hydrants to run over, etc)
5. Gripper not detached from the truck :rolling_eyes:
6. Muzak
7. Test web export more, push to netlify

1. More environmental things (angry homeowners)
2. Nicer models (but realistically this one is probably just gonna be Godot Primitives)
3. Something other than "time trial" mode

:

Me and My good friend are a duo this Ludem dare, and i gotta say. its been a blast! The game will be finished soon and weve learned alot.

So Yesterday I got all the basics going and today is left for polish, menus and sounds. It´s a small game about a forklift operator in a small warehouse that is dangerously low on space.

The game is LUDUM DARE SOLID: LIMITED SPACE ACTION

It's a mini stealth game where the levels get smaller, and if you get spotted you lose.

Progress so far:

After this little nap, we are now ready to start our second day! Good morning from Belgium every one ! :smiley:

I never look forward to this moment in any game jam, but I've now reached the point where the process has stopped being fun. Christ I just want to be done already, but with less than 50% of the game done, I'll probably go on for a lot longer.

I only keep going because I'm invested in my own story now, shame I'm never doing a story-based game ever again after this lmao

It doesn't have a name yet, but you play as this little guy that can shapeshift in some specific areas to solve puzzles. This is just a mockup to see how the colors combine with each other.

Making great progress! 10 levels complete!

I added some juice, so things fly onto the screen.

I added the second robot type, who get their own set of instructions. I added a jump which moves two spaces and can cross gaps, but does nothing if two spaces ahead is blocked.

I added some cramped levels with multiple robots to manage, since if they crash the explode and you have to start over.

I have plenty of content and a good range of difficulty. I have one or two more features I can cram in tomorrow, but most of tomorrow is dedicated to music, sound, and polishing what I have.

Good luck all!

Man I sure do love sorting tiles

i think after this one i'll introduce a new mechanic. i've been thinking about lasers.

Hello! Silly question, but for the game jam, if I were to publish a game now using the ludum dare website page, but it would really just be a test, could I still modify the published version by the end of the jam?

Place rooms, beds, mushroom farms, etc. Beds create minions, who automatically run around doing tasks like harvesting mushrooms. Rooms won't be free, so you'll be limited in the space you have to place things. They also need sleep when it's night time - so they'll run to their beds then.

Very much going to run out of time, but my todo list looks like great fun, so I may actually keep working on it after the compo.

LD54 happens to coincide with two festivals in our country. Now I'm going to start making! It's never too late to start! Hahaha! Wishing everyone a happy time!

Due to a wedding I had absolutely zero time for LDjam this weekend, but this morning I came up with an idea that (with some luck) I can probably deploy before the compo deadline. Let's go!

by a happy coincidence we are no longer alone on this journey so we gotta go fast with the help of our programmer

Just woke up and though of how to nicely handle actually attacking enemies, you still probably don't want to do that if you can avoid it but at least you'll no longer be stuck just looking at an enemy about to end the game. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/boxes-and-webs

Next up I guess I'll try to make things prettier and maybe shrink the play area since it feels a bit too large at the moment.

Our first game ever :laughing:

I found a Title for my game, so I made a small menu. This title is in fact one of the themes I proposed. (It fit well my game and the official theme :-)

Hm... I still have a lot of work on the gameplay. I think I will not do the Compo (not enough time) but I hope I will finish for the Jam.

I already see lots of great ideas in the posts around. Looking forward for the tests. In the meantime, good luck to everyone!

This is the first time i am out since 2017 where is first started. Normally i found time everytime but this time i am on vacation.

Maybe i could make an extra game but to be honest - its not the same :).

Best luck to all of you and have fun.

Looking good! :stuckouttongue:

Harold, the Hamster... :hamster:

So, I am in! It took me a really long time to come up with an idea I wanted to do this time. At first I was even thinking of skipping this one, but I finally got an idea I like 14 hours after the Ludum Dare started. :smiley:

I was also planning to use Godot, but ended up still using Unity. I really like Godot, but when I started, I realized I haven't used 3D Physics, Raycasting, Decals, Animation Blend Trees, Gradient Noise Shaders, Web Exports, ... in Godot... A bit too much risk in one go.

Looking good! :stuckouttongue:

So another 2-2.5 hours in, and I finally managed to add item pickup/drop that wasn't buggy. Mostly learned how to use signals for everything, and it all worked out after I cleaned them up a bit and how they were being triggered.

Doesn't feel like much of a difference from yesterday, but it's progress. I also added some UI, and Gold counting on pickup. Most of it is for debugging, but it still helped a lot in figuring out all the bugs in the signals and pickup logic.

Your ship has limited inventory space

Game Name Some Cyber Escape

Its an runner game where you go to the escape portal before time runs out or else you get caught and put back to prison to experiment on again.

here is a preview of the BG WIP !

I think I have most of my core mechanics in place. You can travel between locations, interact with things, advance the plot. There's an inventory and a system for playing dialogue based on what has happened in the game state.

Copilot was very helpful in writing the code fast. But it has no sense of architecture or optimization. Still definitely feels like coding, just with a minion I can have go write simple stuff for me instantly.

I still have absolutely no idea what to do for the plot, but in keeping with my "Use AI in every possible way" ethos, I'll probably have Chat GPT outline it for me.

For my first Ludum Dare I was expecting trouble but oh boy.

I have learned my that if I want to use my own engine I need to do much more testing, so I am just gonna take the loss and just submit what I have.

Have fun with the rest of the Jam, I am out.

I'm probably gonna end up doing a jam entry instead of compo since I'm pretty far behind, but I've got animated a character, finished the bullet system (though I need to spawn the enemies to fire said bullets) and the level's procedurally generated pipe to limit Kelly's movement space is all done.

My first game ever!

Nothing is happening right now, but soon there will be planes and skydivers.

My game will have you mine asteroids. I'm trying to map out the levels to get a grip on what's left to do, here's a snow tileset.

Yea, no...

The theme is not doing it for me and I can't get motivated about anything I come up with.

Started about 4 projects, at least got some exercise in that might come in handy if I want to do another jam in the coming weeks ... So there's that...

Crafting added. Not many things to craft yet but the framework is there.

I've been working relentlessly on trying to get this whole thing finished before the Compo deadline, it's gonna be incredibly tough and probably close but there's still a solid shot. I have the core game mechanics down, now to implement some of the final parts and then work on actually making some music, which will be undoubtedly be my weakest area for this whole jam.

Here's a little teaser ahead of time for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhuNoZtxxws

Things are starting to take shape, but I believe I'm going to have a hard time teaching how all the systems work together. The idea is that you have to keep close to the drill that gives you passive income as long as you keep it running with energy. You also need to stay inside the drilling safe zone to not take environmental damage. Once the drill hits a pocket, the safe zone will momentarily grow and you can pickup a lot of loot that would be hard to get to otherwise.

The other part is an upgrade system (not implemented yet). Every time you hit a threshold of cash, you'll be given an upgrade that helps you. If you survive long enough you'll need to take down a boss.

He's helping me a lot during this jam, it's the last line before the compo submit but don't forget to pet your little creature !

The plan is clear! Today: Levels and Polishing! Join me on https://www.twitch.tv/2thegamechanger

I've finished creating all the levels and adding all the core features, now it's time for some polish!

Edit: I have removed the screenshot as I just realised the lava could be misinterpreted as... something else. I'm going to fix that.

Edit 2: Posted a new screenshot with updated lava.

I was just looking through some games and wondering how to rate them, as I can't see any way to on the pages. I am new to LD so I may just be being a bit stupid. Can we only vote when the Jam ends?

Hopefully I manage to make it look like something soon!

Not entirely happy with the track, but at least it's done for now. :)

https://soundcloud.com/themanabreak/ludum-dare-54-looping-track

My potato laptop keeps hanging, my blender and unity keep crashing and won't even open for the past 3 hours... I am helpless... Yet the clock is ticking fast (it 12 hrs 30 mins remaining 2 mins ago... Now it is 12 hrs 22 mins remaining)... So I resign... Good luck with your games :)

This is very rough but here's a sort of visualisation for how I want my "steal 'em up" game to look. The chraracter design could definitely use some work, but I think it kind of almost works.

Why do you think making a highscore system you never done before is a good idea for a Compo?

I have made a very unpolished game, but for my first LD with a theme I could not get my head around, I think I did good. Also my favourite mouse broke down while I was programming :( --RIP-- Leadsail LX-002 I will miss your tiny click sound...

Its my first time participating in some time and the first time in a while doing so alone. I think the game is coming together nicely so far :)

Come see Fat Rude Bear

https://twitch.tv/alexrosegames

Still need to wrap up the gameplay loop and then polish, fingers crossed!

We have given ourselves the limitation - "Early NES cartridge" and just during the last 24 hours I have learnt soooo much!

I'll never look at a NES-game the same again and I'm in awe of the developers from the time (also, they did a lot of the spritework with pen and paper!!)

I'm not a developer, I just draw stuff, so both my temammates @javve and @nevyn can explain this stuff more correctly - but as far as I have understood:

It turns out that during it's life-cycle the NES console didn't change hardware as consoles tend not to do.

So to get more miles out of it over time the game devs at nintendo hacked the crap out of it later in it's lifetime. And they did this through the hardware-chips in the cartridges.

A cartridge from later in the console lifecycle does a suprising amount of the computational work by having it's own extra computer-chips "secretly" switching between different datasets without the console knowing.

Did you ever save your game in a NES game? Well that was the cartridge working - the console doesn't really have that capability (this is why save-states often where solved through level-codes) instead a memory bank with a small battery is used within the cartridge.

A great exemple is to look at Super Mario Brothers and SMB3 - they are both created on the exact same console but SMB3 is doing so much more. And it does it through all the fancy hardware in it's cartridge!

Google the difference between CHR-ROM and CHR-RAM if you want to learn more.

For our LD entry we wanted to make a NES game with the same limitations as the earliest of games - so no bank switching, no fancy extra sounds, no saving etc.

This meant that I was introduced to some new workflows when it came to graphics.

Simplified, all tiles and sprites shown on screen are defined by coordinates telling the game what 8x8 pixels from the CHR bank (basically the games single spritemap) to show.

So for backgrounds the devs don't need the game tiles arranged in a big image file - they need an array of numbers to show what tiles goes where.

Enter stage left: TilED

When I had finalized the BG tiles in the CHRbank, I was able to export it into Tiled and make the map. Then, instead of exporting a image, I exported it as TMX and from it Nevyn could extract the grid coordinates.

Here are the tiles in TilED V.S. in the emulator:

TilED:

Emulated ROM:

To get some extra colours, the game actually changes all tiles between two different 3-colour palettes between rendering the far background and the ground!

Note also the animated sprites on one of our titular Fire Walls!

In time of writing, we don't have a playable ROM yet, but keep your eyes on our gamepage to try it!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/firewall

Sometimes, when your butt cheeks are about to get roasted from LD jam solo and JP incoming mid course exam, you might think of the rope in more meaningful ways. anyways, GG no re

so, our basic framework is up - late, but we're doing it

I really want to go for Compo this time, but am not ready to give up on some features for the sake of it, and as is the tradition, I had a late Saturday start. We'll see...

Today I focused primarily on art

Definitely won't be able to get to everything I wanted. Will have to see how much energy I have tomorrow. I am strongly considering just entering the Jam instead of the Compo.

Again, I exported the current project as-is to document the progress: https://www.loubagel.com/blog/ludum-dare-54-day-2/

Here was yesterday's, if you want to compare: https://www.loubagel.com/blog/ludum-dare-54-day-1/

Your performace didn't live up to the expectations!

Pick wisely! (You can only steal a limited number of items)

I'm done for this time. :) Did a lot more lax compo this time, didn't even try to pack any more levels into the game. I'm quite pleased with the result, even though it's a short game.

Not going to finish this jam, but at least I learned some fun stuff about using SDL with Emscripten (:

Hello fellow citizens!

there appeared a visitor of the magical, woolly kind.

we should see and find out which occupation he'll find.

In this bustling city, overloaded with sheep

vertical stables are highly in need

our city is busy with collecting ideas

come back, follow the call for smart volunteers.

And the game is feature complete, all the polish is there. A potential release candidate!

I've done a rough concept of the game map, but most of the locations will probably change once I start testing it.

Managed to get the map built, finish the tutorial area (for the first time) and get most of the textures done. Just need to touch some of them up to make it less plain and more interesting to look at. Down to recording my audio, finishing the ending and trying to implement the mechanic to adjust the events in the level. Might end up dropping the event adjustments if I start running short on time.

As I mentioned previously, my goal this time around is to create the right mood/feeling.

Here's a look at what it is like so far:

This image was brightened. I may have made the game too dark.

I'm looking very forward to trying out some the games displayed so far.

Happy jamming!

Who said limited space meant finite number of spaces?!

Long live pseudo-randomness!

This is from the Free Roam mode, in which you do nothing but roam freely forever.

Done (but not all shown above)? Styles, foes in the maze, collectible fruit, level processing!, 2 tunes created in minutes via MIDI composition software + sound fonts!

In the works?: the actual game where you navigate the maze along some hints in it + foes trying to get to you and eat your watermelon pieces ;( . Stitching it all together in hopefully several complete levels (testing and refining takes quite some time).

Previous post: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/$371504/day-1-progress-notes

Do you guys like these characters?