In our game "Back to Life", you have the magical power to listen to the conversations between all different types of objects in your room, but you don't know who they are. To summon them and bring them back to life, your job is to match what they said with who they are. If you would like to find out more about the game, feel free to check out our game!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/back-to-life-bedroom/
Hi folks! Now that I've (partially) recovered my energy after development, I want to provide a perspective on game jamming from the musical end. I've done this in the last couple of jams here and here, and folks have told me they enjoyed the perspective, so I'm here to tell my story again - this time, as part of the Dicey Demons team!
(If you haven’t played yet, definitely go check it out. All of the music I talk about here is in the game, which you can find at: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/dicey-demons)
In both of the previous game jams, I've had the pleasure of working with my teammates on turning a plot or a mood into a musical narrative. I've made music for traveling through space and making friends across planets, and music for hiding in the shadows as you try to escape safely. In both those jams, we had somewhat of a story or vibe built-in from the get-go that gave me a pretty clear direction to work with on the musical end.
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| *Roll dice, summon demons, and battle in Dicey Demons! * |
With Dicey Demons, our process was slightly different. This time around, initial plans around the game that we had the most clarity on were the game's systems. We wanted to build a game where you: - Roll dice to summon demons - Strategically upgrade your dice collection to get better chances of rolling what you need - Battle with those demons
These directions were fantastic (and the team all did a great job to make the game feel awesome to play!) - but they didn't necessarily lead to a clear musical direction at first glance (at least, initially).
The good news was that despite uncertainty, after some good discussions with the team, I knew we would need at least three main components: - General theme music / planning music for the phases where you weren't in battle - Music for when you were in the battle - Music for the shop, where you could buy / destroy dice
And of these three, that last one came with pretty well-defined art; our artist Anna (@peachy) showed me a sketch of a dice-smithing cat wearing a wide-brimmed witch hat and waiting for you to purchase some dice from the shop.
That art became the jumping-off point for my musical explorations. I decided to: - Focus first on the shop music, which could be mostly inspired by that initial shop sketch - Draw inspiration from parts of the shop music to incorporate into themes for the definitely-needed components - Explore and expand from there
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| The shop theme goes here, when Rolly Rascal would like to sell you some dice. |
As mentioned before, this music was pretty much just summoned (get it?) from the inspiration of that one initial shop sketch. I wanted to craft a theme that was jaunty, sharp, and whimsical to reflect the shopkeeper's feline craftiness. But at the same time, I also wanted a theme that that felt cozy at the same time; the shop would be the player's main "safe-house" or "save zone", where between battles, they could reconvene with a familiar face (the shopkeep, who we later named Rolly Rascal).
The end result was Rolly Rascal's Retail (https://soundcloud.com/hanadulcet/rolly-rascals-retail-from-dicey-demons), which was the first song I completed pretty early on. The piano in this piece starts things off with the main theme, a staccato-filled and slightly wandering theme that (I hope) reflects Rolly's spry and slightly silly attitude. I also brought in some piccolo to add a slightly "military band" rigidity to remind folks of the upcoming battles (while maintaining that same sprightly energy).
But the second half of the piano part adds in that comfort that you get once you get to know the shop and its owner. It's richer, mellower, and hopes to evoke that feeling of a cozy home away from home. With an additional melodica countermelody backed up by some upright bass, the second half of the theme adds in that wistfulness that I'm hoping to evoke with the theme, in spite of the playful first half.
After finishing up the shop music in Ableton, I started exploring how I could take parts of the shop music and integrate them into some new ideas (for some sweet, sweet leitmotif bonus points).
And of all the components, it turned out that the piccolo was my best friend.
When writing the player's main "planning/adventuring" theme, I realized that I could draw from the "reminder of battles to come" that was part of Rolly's theme and make it the driving part of a new theme. That reminder comes in the form of a piccolo. In Rolly's theme, we have something like this in the piccolo part:
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| Rolly Rascal's Retail features this piccolo lick! |
In the main theme, I tried to run with that - using the same octave jumps, but with a brisker tempo and a slightly different melody, in the hopes of driving the player upwards and onwards. That piccolo melody in the main theme looks something like this:
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| The main theme includes similar octaves, with a different melody. |
Once I combined the piccolo with some orchestral plucks, some xylophone mallets to evoke the dice made out of "bones", and a piano part that continually reminds the player of their hopes and dreams (yet undefined at this point, but still hopes and dreams nevertheless), I ended up with Overcoming the Odds (https://soundcloud.com/hanadulcet/overcoming-the-odds-from-dicey-demons), a brisk main theme that surges the player into action!
Then, when it was time for the summoned demons to battle, it was time for maximum intensity. I brought in some taiko drum beats that marked the drama of battle, and layered deep bass and cello spiccato (rough brush stroke bowings) to puncture any foes with a beating rhythm. And of course, the piccolo provided its battle-ready octaves once again in Fighting Fearsome Foes (https://soundcloud.com/hanadulcet/fighting-fearsome-foes-from-dicey-demons):
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| The fight/battle theme brings back that same piccolo theme, in a different scale mode. |
All in all, working from the knowns and using that to develop the unknowns worked out great in creating the pieces that we knew we needed. But better yet...
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| From the code: my favorite battle phase (thanks to @ukulelefury for naming it as such). |
As I was working with all of the three themes that I knew we definitely needed, the parts inspired me to imagine: what would it look like to have a big, bad, evil guy in the game? A final boss or final challenger of sorts would be a fantastic climax - and the right music could make that final battle feel epic.
So this time, I went ahead and just made the most boss-like music I could think of, making sure to bring that piccolo part back yet again. (Thankfully, it turned out that even in high-octane rock music, filled to the brim with crunchy guitar and funky bass parts, the piccolo could still find its use!) The result was Guarding the Gambler's Gate, a rock anthem that you can reach by making it to the final round of the game (https://soundcloud.com/hanadulcet/guarding-the-gamblers-gate-from-dicey-demons).
Once I had this theme finished, this time around, rather than the music fitting the needs of the game, the music ended up pushing the boundaries of the game. With the theme in hand, I ended up working with the team to try to add in a final boss - which we, against all odds, managed to sneak into the game with only an hour left before we had to publish the game. The end result was that you get not only an epic battle theme, but a nice narrative reward for making it to the end of the game!
Yet again, I had a great time taking part in this game jam. It was definitely a challenge to work outside the bounds of a pre-defined story/narrative, but it was actually a great exercise in learning to define the direction of the music along the way as I didn't have a very specific and narrow directive in advance.
As always, big kudos to every member of the team: Diego & Diego (@diego-teran and @dgo), Natasha (@skoprimon), Anna (@peachy), Seth Johnson (@seth-johnson), and Levi (@ukulelefury). With each jam, I'm reminded of just how great it is to be able to work with these folks and make something truly cool in just 72 hours.
If you made it through all of this, thank you for reading it all! <3
Here's a trailer of the game as your reward (go play the game if you haven't!):
https://youtu.be/nRomWI3wxOg
One more thing: this time around, I got to improve music manager code for the game yet again! This game's music code will "remember" your position in the main theme whenever you leave that theme, and playback from the start of the nearest phrase just before you left the theme. This way, you don't just have to hear the beginning of the theme over and over again. I'm pretty proud of this upgrade, and I'm hoping it improves your gameplay experience with the music!
I've been having some really good fun trying out games! Lots of different takes on the theme! I love how people can come up with such different and good ideas on mechanics, art, music and everything in between to build a game in such short amount of time! Great job! Have great jam!
If you want to give our game a try:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/summonpalooza
So it's a Saturday night. I'm a software and gamedev streamer (no I don't do gamedev). One of my chatters pops in and says, hey, you seem like the type of person who would like doing voice overs. I'm like I AM, within 6 hours I'm launched into the world of LD... it's a mad world for sure. But what I didn't know was how talented the team I was working with was. The game is Seance, it's gorgeous, the artist(@lowri-bowden) is incredible, the dialogue was made by the gamedev (@alexrose) who frickin killed it and put together a beautiful game, and the music was made by the chatter who invited me and ended up being incredibly talented(@atmospherium)... these people, this amazing team put together something that even though I somewhat knew the story I was still floored by how gorgeous this was and how it came together.
I contributed my voice, I helped, but this is not self-promotion, not when the weight of the work was really on the shoulders of some insanely talented people. I was in a group of incredible voices. (@sonnybone)(@loriston4shoriston) I don't know if I'll ever have such a cool experience again, but I'm really grateful. Thanks for welcoming me into this world.
edit: I don't know why my links aren't saving but /events/ludum-dare/55/seance should get you there <3
https://alexrose.itch.io/seance
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/seance
For my game, I wanted to make something with racing. I was a little fixated on that, since I made an arcade racer with the theme sort of shoehorned in. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to make tracks, manage progress on the track, record laptimes, etc. Fortunately, I had a really good place to start.
I watched this video from Sebastian Lague years ago and was enamored. The ability to dynamically generate road like curves on the fly in unity was exciting, because at the time, I really had no idea how to make roads for a racing game in unity other than hand make it. This showed that it was possible to do all sorts of fun designs and dynamic tracks. I wrote code that used his Unity plugin several years ago and made a little demo that allowed me to generate tracks from a JSON file.
It's great and all to make a mesh that looks like a track, but there are no rules for how that road should work. How do you know if you're cutting corners? how do you know if you completed a lap?
I updated the code from Lague's generator to add a game object along the path created. I created a prefab with a trigger box collider and fence pieces and named them iteratively.
This created a sequential list of trigger box colliders along the route that I could then use to check the user's progress along the track. I track the player's progress using an OnTriggerEnter function. ``` csharp void Generate() { if (pathCreator != null && prefab != null && holder != null) { DestroyObjects(); VertexPath path = pathCreator.path; spacing = Mathf.Max(minSpacing, spacing); float dst = 0; int cout = 0;
while (dst < path.length) { Vector3 point = path.GetPointAtDistance(dst);
Quaternion rot = path.GetRotationAtDistance(dst);
var temp = Instantiate(prefab, point, rot, holder.transform);
if (isFromFile) { temp.transform.localScale = new Vector3(1, trackFromFile.roadWidth / 2, 1);
temp.gameObject.name = cout.ToString();
if (cout == 0) { var finish = Instantiate(finishLine, temp.transform.position, temp.transform.rotation, holder.transform); finish.transform.localScale = new Vector3(0.02f, trackFromFile.roadWidth * 2, 0.2f); } } dst += spacing;
cout++;
TotalCheckpoints = cout; } } } ```
With the following script, the player can't progress unless they hit each trigger sequentially. In the future, it might be more fair to give a time penalty instead, but with only 48 hours, making the player hit every single one was all I could really do. ``` csharp private void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other) { int checkpointName = int.Parse(other.gameObject.name);
if (currentCheckpoint == placer.getTotal()) { //lap completed Debug.Log("Lap Completed");
nextCheckpoint = 1;
currentCheckpoint = 0;
RecordLapTime(); } if (checkpointName + 1 == nextCheckpoint) { nextCheckpoint++;
currentCheckpoint++;
Debug.Log("next: " + nextCheckpoint + " current: " + currentCheckpoint); } if (checkpointName == 0 && !startTimer) { startTimer = true; } } ``` This was how I created the tracks for the game. I inputted a JSON file with the coordinates for the bezier curve, drew the mesh, installed checkpoints, and viola! A racetrack.
Check it out for yourself! Let me know if you have any other improvements I could implement. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-game-with-forced-financial-competitions-featuring-wizards-and-demons
Heya there! We finally did a bugfix and now the balancing should be correct. There is a Little twist in the end and it seems that Nobody Managed to play through our Game so far which is a Bit sad for us. We would be happy about Feedback if you are now able to reach the end! :)
Thank you so much. Also if you have any suggestions for us to play, feel free to leave them in the comments! I Like Games with Retro feeling very much!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-unholy-rise-of-catthulhu
Heya!
As I mentioned previously, this is my first ever game jam (as well as my first ever work on a game)! Man has it been a blast. You guys have been so great supporting my artwork and I wanted to show you a bit on my character design process.
I was asked to create monsters in the style similar to that of Adventure Time. The team new they wanted the following creatures:
Obviously, I went for the Succubus first but had a lot of trouble with C'thulu. How do you even draw Lovecraftian creatures in that style?
I eventually cut C'thulu from the project but added a modified version of him in the last few hours before the submission deadline. He's still not my favorite but we were on a time constraint, so I try not to be too harsh on myself.
Which Demon is your favorite or rather what sort of creatures would you like to see added to the game?
Relax yourself with 20 levels divided into 5 themes with its own soundtrack
Play it here :smile_cat:
Furriend: A Paw-some Summoning Odyssey
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/furriend-a-paw-some-summoning-odyssey
In Stellar V you play as V-chan the Celestial nurse. She done messed up and spill some precious Celestial plasma unto earth. Now, the normally cosmic viruses underwent mutation and became more powerful!
Help V-chan cleans up her own mess by exterminating these viruses and recollecting the plasmas!
Behold the awe-inspiring might of our most formidable spell: the Summoning of the Kraken. This majestic beast is a colossal asset, to be wielded with both caution and strategic precision upon the battlefield. None can withstand its wrath as it emerges from the depths, sending shockwaves of terror through the hearts of our foes. The very earth trembles beneath its immense power, and as its tentacles rise from the abyssal darkness, even the bravest of priests will falter in fear.
➡️ Discover S.H.E.E.P by playing directly from your browser (⌛ but be patient, it takes a while to load), or by downloading the packs provided.
Enjoy ! https://shenoit.itch.io/sheep
S.H.E.E.P > https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/s-h-e-e-p-sheep-hell-emissaries-eradicate-purity
❇️
Our developer has always dreamed of playing with an isometric view. Before that, we drew all our games in a frontal projection.
I said: "Okay, but the ship will be painted by Gosha!"
Who do you think drew it in the end?
Увидеть готовый корабль можно в игре https://ldj.am/$390106
This is my favourite mutant! U can see other mutants in our game - https://ldj.am/$390106
After making a game about burgers all weekend I just had to make a real one yesterday night. If you want to make a burger and summon a monster you can do so in our game:
https://jorbits.itch.io/demonburger
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/demon-burger
First of all, I'm not blaming the entries, it may be something different with my setup, but I always have to drag the headphone's volume down to 1% (and even 1% is louder than I'd like).
Under normal use (YouTube, gaming), it's usually set between 15% and 25%, but the games submitted are blasting my ears.
Again, I'm not faulting the games for these, I don't rate them any lower for being louder, as I said, may be a setup difference. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same problems. And it also makes me wonder whether my game sounds too quiet for other people, because I adjusted its volume based on my setup.
Summoner Clicker reach the 20 ratings required to participate!
I haven't had time to test many games yet, I can't wait to see what you've done :wink:.
This something we can proudly say and this is of course thanks to our simple but hopefully innovative indirect controlling of the Towners!
Seriously, it's not about the votes, just about the damn 25 xD I'm having a ball
All I need is 600 more ratings and I can summon a demon.
I built a high score server for my game, so I thought I'd share some stats.
Average score: 2478
Number of players submitting a score: 35
