Being in top 1-2% in main categories is nice! And even more so doing it consistently over the last couple of LDs. And especially because it was my first time creating a deckbuilder and balancing complex systems.

The podium will need to wait a little bit longer, but this time, I got something even more precious: nice basis for full Steam release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2954010/BurnWithMe

What we are currently cooking:

• A secret companion to guide you through the mysteries (and to introduce new ones)
• Polished graphics, animations and sounds
• New cards for new strategies
• Branching paths and mini-bosses
• New game modes
• Ways to bend fate in your favor (at a cost)
• A dark story to reveal

Hope some of you will be waiting for the full release, because I can promise you, it will be much wilder and cooler than current version 😉

Results

Wowza, what a jam!!

If you haven't played INVERSIO NEGOTIUM yet, go ahead and check it out :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/inversio-negotium

I'm proud to say that not only we've managed to finish the game, we got our best results so far!

Here's how INVERSIO NEGOTIUM compares to our previous jams:

Quite an improvement, eh? We're received a lot of positive reactions from you guys, and tons of constructive feedback, and the whole team is pumped to keep working on the game. So what's next for INVERSIO NEGOTIUM?

Post-jam update

Right now we're working on a post-jam update for the game. This will include: - :crossedswords: An unspecified amount of new bosses (one codenamed "Swordsman". Yes. He uses swords.) - :videogame: Gamepad support - :scales: Balance improvements - :keyboard: Better input configuration - :floppydisk: Remembering user settings (in the Jam build, they weren't persistent across game restarts) - :pausebutton: Pause menu - :1234: Chapter selection screen - :trophy: Better win screen - :book: Small text intros for bosses - :v: ...and more!

What's next?

After releasing the post-jam update, we're planning to experiment with roguelike-like mechanics - unlocking sigils, choosing a set of sigils before each run, modifying candles to e.g. enhance specific sigils, receiving new abilities after beating bosses, as well as introducing "active items".

Will it be fun? Well, we'll see. A lot of playtesting ahead of us!

We'd love to release the final game on Steam - and after seeing the Jam results I think this dream may very well become a reality! :smile_cat:

Thanks so much everyone, and see you in Ludum Dare 56!

It’s time! A postmortem ^ ^ This is a personal note dump, not on behalf of our entire team.

Recap

We, in a team of four, crafted a puzzle game about bees in porcelain gardens spreading pollen. It’s titled Nectar Nexus.

It ranked at ~10% in Graphics, Innovation, and Mood, ~1/3 in Fun, and ~1/4 overall. It’s nothing shining impressive, but I crunched them together with everything I’ve run into during the past two weeks, and I think I now have turned nectar into honey — and here’s my food for thought.

Key Takeaway, or TL;DR

It’s understanding. Look through the eyes of players, of a specific person since even before they play the game, and most importantly, look into one’s own vision. What kind of game do you intend to offer? “Qualem ludum vis dare?” That may not be as apparent as it sounds in LD.

If you’re interested, the string of thought continues. To avoid occupying excessive space, it continues in the comments section.

Table of contents - Tutorial, or How to Have Others Understand - Feedback, or How Others Understand - Intent, or How You Understand - Murmurs, or How I Understand

And we forced flames out of more than 50 random heads around the world, what’s not to like! ^ ^

Well, here we are, the end of the Ludum Dare Jam! I appreciate everyone who had played my game and gave it a rating. I skipped a couple of jams, and I had some fun with this jam. After receiving my scores, here were the results:

Looking at the results, it seems like I did a lot better in some categories, while others were a little weaker than before. My strongest was the "Mood" category, and I nearly ranked in the top 20! This is the highest I've ranked so far in any category. Graphics and audio ranked much higher than the previous jams I did. And the overall section ranked much higher than the other previous two games. Fun, Innovation, and Theme did rank pretty poorly though, but I'm sure my next game will be stronger in these categories.

Thank you everyone, and I'll see you in the next jam!

These past three weeks I've been working on the postjam version of my game, The Great Witch, and now that the final results are in, it's out now! Summon familiars and fight against hordes of robots in this short survivors-like!

Since the jam, I've added new enemies, new upgrades, an ever-escalating endless mode, and a tie-in to my next game... :eyes:

I had such a great time working on this game, check it out if you're so inclined! :smile:

https://lectvs.itch.io/the-great-witch

Results for my Ludum Dare Compo entry Bone Train.

Not the worst considering I made this in a total of about 8 hours on the first real "day" of the jam in my timezone and an hour after submitting it I was waiting outside with my father for the ambulance crew to show up after he fell.

He's been recovering decently considering the circumstances but has been resting up a lot, which is not a surprise considering the head injury plus age to have an accident like that. 😔

Link to the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/bone-train-for-ludum-dare-55

It took me until the compo was over to figure out how to export all the entries.

For anyone out the loop and not terminally online, this has been something of a meme this past month or so with AI generated images

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your or someone else's game :)

Improved general quality, Tweaked mic, organized OBS better. Slowly improving ^_^

Please stop by and say hello :heart:

Don't know if there's any plans to make the data available as excel/csv/xml etc. but I've exported for LD55

https://johnnysix.net/Ludum55stats_all.xlsx

What's quite interesting is the skewness of the data, particularly for graphics and mood, where mood tends to have more negative impact vs graphics.

I guess where a game may not have a 'mood' element, and people forgot to opt-out of mood ratings, a lower-vote may impact the overall disproportionately?

Ratings frequency vs overall

Ratings frequency proportionally

EDIT: FIXED LINK FORMATING

EDIT2: Fixed discrepancies! Thank to people pointing it out. Ex: HUMOR and MOOD categories were swapped, and a few games recieved high marks for AUDIO/GRAPHICS/MOOD but not enough to score.

I put together a list of games that have a specific category that stands out amongst their peers based on overall average.

Using @johnnysix's XML spreadsheet I made a linear regression trendline for the categories.

I did this for HUMOR, MOOD, INNOVATION, FUN, GRAPHICS, and AUDIO compared to their OVERALL rankings. I then separated out the games that stand out in each of those categories compared to their OVERALL ranking and therefore deserve a second look.

I am interested in seeing what is special about the few dots that are high above the curve. Even if the overall game was rated so-so, they did a specific aspect very well.

This is the tip of this sharp S curve

I further broke up each category into strata sorted by highest standout first. Again, these aren't the best in their category, we have the results page for that, but the best at a specific thing amongst their rankings peers.

If you don't care too much about a certain category only play the top group for example. Let me know if you find anything interesting here! I will be playing these myself now :)

MOOD

1. Escape from zoo

2. Morth Obscurum

3. Trace of guilt

4. Amareica
5. SUMMON THE COLOSSUS

6. Bendirat

7. Bergmål

8. WALLS THAT TALK
9. The Ghost of Leo
10. Witches Brew
11. Horrors from Beyond - The Bayou
12. A Long Hello
13. Summoning Instructions
14. South City Worker Exam
15. Ultimate Mage Fighting
16. Paralax, Cats and 22 snacks
17. Cast
18. Midsummer Maiden Massacre
19. Fausto
20. Vlesu
21. Triumvirosis
22. Infernal Covenant

HUMOR

1. SUMOning - Power through Angel
2. Ramen: Beyond Two Balls

3. I found my brother's old cartridge!

4. Slumlock the NEET Summoner

5. Billy's Band
6. Real Time Demoning
7. Magical Michael's Summoning Salon
8. Summon The Waiter
9. Salmoning Time
10. Who's My Boo?
11. I got lost in Finland and a local man invited me into his home to teach me how..
12. Sumo-Moaning
13. Some Munnings
14. What The Duck?

INNOVATION

1. Replicate-You

2. Voiceborne

3. Helloons

4. Contracts of Hell
5. Circle cloner
6. Spectral Fingers
7. I Call Upon the BEES!
8. Cat Good, God Bad

9. Summon & Summoff

10. Code Summonary

11. The Quacking Hour
12. Succubi Slayer
13. Summoning Detective
14. Songbird Symphony

FUN

1. Succubi Slayer

2. Big Fire Restaurant

3. Billy's Band

4. Necro Riot

5. HOUSE MAN

6. SacriSquare
7. Amazing Gamble Life
8. Dark Lord's Revenge
9. DESTROY THE WIZARD
10. SUMMOLIO
11. Birb World Tour: Royale
12. Sumo nin': Demolition Experts
13. Trash Panda Mafia
14. Some Munnings
15. Sumo-Moaning
16. Ramen: Beyond Two Balls
17. Corrupt Cult: Underground
18. Crimes Against Carrots

GRAPHICS

1. Escape from zoo

2. Morth Obscurum

3. Duel of the Summoners
4. Elemental Island
5. Infernal Contract
6. Path Of The Nature
7. DegeNerative Dungeon

8. SPELLBINDER

9. Summoner's Clash

10. POLLY
11. Cat Good, God Bad
12. Obscure Proxy

AUDIO

1. Duel of the Summoners
2. Star to Dust
3. Salmoning Time

4. Fury Duty

5. SUMMOGON

6. Phoenix Delay
7. Datema
8. Monster Legion
9. Summoning Arena
10. Ramen: Beyond Two Balls
11. i can be ur angle or yuor devil

If anything, I am happy with the amount of magical numbers the game got

We got 31st place overall! and 3rd place in Graphics!! Very happy with our first ludum dare entry. Thank you guys for playing our game! Here's the link in case you want to catch more rabbits :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/manku-the-magician and also, devlog! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzMsl7P4ek

Hey, just wanted to share something I've been thinking about lately. It's easy to take results from a single Ludum Dare (or ANY point-in-time measurement of your skill) and view that as something that reflects your value. But growth is hard to see and even harder to measure, it's slow, and it's not linear. My team has just had our most successful LD entry ever with our game Seance. But, while I'm proud of our results, I'm more proud of how this reflects my long-term growth.

Don't measure by your peaks

I've been doing Ludum Dare since 2013 and have participated in 34 entries (I've doubled-up a handful of times, doing both Compo and Jam). I had some early success, getting an audio medal in my second-ever game, but quickly realizing that it was a right-place-right-time scenario. I would get frustrated each jam at how WILDLY my audio ratings would fluctuate. It was really hard to accept for a while that, while my best was excellent, my average wasn't as good as I convinced myself it was. It took 5 years for me to get another Gold (which I had originally convinced myself would come easily).

It's easy to view circumstantial victories as indicative of your quality. But the truth is that ALL of us spend more time at our average than at our best. So I've made it my goal over the last decade or so to raise the floor of my work, not necessarily try to boost the wild peaks. And, if the floor gets higher, your capacity for those bigger jumps increases as well.

Don't measure by your valleys

On the flip-side, some days even your average skill will feel out of reach. I'm coming off a pretty long stretch of this. It's really easy to feel like current lows won't let up and it's really easy to let a less-than-successful endeavor ruin something that you otherwise enjoy. Take the lessons you can from the lows and work your way back up to normal.

Put the work in

It's REALLY easy to view an individual victories as success, but the point for LD (and life in general) should be about the process, not just one-off validations of your skill. Consistent effort in a targeted direction gives you momentum and gives you experience. Not every time out is going to be your best, but if you can learn something from it, it can be valuable.

Get objective feedback

Surround yourself with people that make you better. I've been collaborating with @alexrose for most of my LD career, and he's never one to mince words. If something isn't good he'll let me know. If something IS good, he'll also let me know. I have a handful of other trusted collaborators that I know will point out the things I tend to gloss over. Get some of those people in your world as well.

Final thoughts

I'm including a graph below of my year-over-year rating improvements. I have some peaks in there. I have some valleys in there. But the progress is clear. Find a way to measure your own progress and give yourself enough time for the fluctuations to even themselves out before viewing the peaks OR valleys as a complete reflection of your skill.

Thank you all again for amazing results and feedback. I have been working on a post jam update of my game, as during the jam I was not able to really create what I wanted, which was idle-clicker game. Now I have a core of the gameplay ready for anyone whou would like to try it. Now I just need to regroup and fill it with music and a lot of art. Anyone who would like to try it, you can download it here itch.io link Thank you all and see you around

Stay a while and listen...

Fate hangs in the balance, teetering on the edge of darkness. That's why we made some shiny updates to the post-jam version of our game, that will help you stand against the encroaching evil that threatens to engulf our beloved Tristram.

Leap into the fight with new effects & animations

We've recently made a lot of lovely new animations and effects for: - Giving and receiving heals - Hitting and being hit in melee - Casting a spell and getting hit by one - Gold drop and pickup animations - Gore and splatter effects for that real dungeon feeling

Keep an eye on your heroes with the new Group UI

We also added a new Group Interface to keep track of the exact health and morale pools of your heroes whilst standing in the face of evil. Now it's easier to get excited when the fight is on a knife’s edge, and it's unclear whether or not your heroes will be victorious.

Unwind in style

Relax and rejuvenate from fighting in the all-new spa, adorned with splashy water animations and soothing sounds (also the armor no longer gets wet either.) All under the watchful eye of the mayor, who has received the most important update yet - the “shining” staff. ;)

Revamped Expedition Summary

To celebrate the adventures of our heroes, we felt that it's also important to give some love to the Expedition summary. It shows up after every run and summarizes what has been gained. It even shows that the mighty C-tier wizard “Deimeph”, first of his name, was annihilated by the horrid Skeleton King. How cheeky!

“You will be avenged Deimeph” :)

So the doors of the cathedral stand open, beckoning you to venture forth and confront the sinister triumvirate that lurks within.

Your adventure starts here

May the light guide you.

The Mayor of Tristram

Wow!! I have been away from the computer recently, but I was absolutely blown away when I saw 3rd place for my little rat game! This was a very pleasant surprise for my first Ludum Dare game. I played and saw many fantastic games in this jam, so I am super happy to see my game among them. Thank you guys so much for playing the game and for all the kind words and comments. I especially appreciate the criticism I got in reviews and from streamers :) I'd love to make this a full game, but I think in terms of gameplay and my artistic vision, the game is already mostly a complete experience. I plan on pushing a small postjam update addressing some of the issues and bugs when I get access to my PC. Check the game out here if you haven't already: https://pokerdf.itch.io/pied-piper

Version 1.4.1 is out! Worked up some balancing issues with the gameplay loop along with fixing some bugs found with gameplays of the game.

Here are the Patch Notes:]

• BUG FIX! Early Hours - Fixed a bug that allowed players to get Upgrade Zones during easy difficulty.
• BALANCED! Reinforce - Minions damage fot reduced from 25% of base damage to 20%. -BALANCED! SMG - Initial cooldown between shots changed from 30 frames to 45 frames. Furthermore, Attack Speed upgrades got nerfed from decreasing 10% of the current cooldown to 5%.
• BALANCED! Power! - All upgrades now got a value to not completely overpower the player. The values are DMG: 3 - ATKSPD: 30 Frames - MAXREINF: 12 units.
• NEW! Pause Screen - Now during gameplay you can press ESC to give the action a halt, and the come back to it without repercutions.

I hope these changes don't change too much how people play my game. These were just some minor fixes I thought they were needed to keep the game stable and fun!

If you wanna play the game here's the link for the updated version on Itch! https://crootr.itch.io/danger-zone-by-crootr

Stay safe!

A month on and my little Ludum Dare game has expanded to include level select and dialogue features, as well as a short narrative - not to mention a shiny new name.

Thanks to all the folks who played and rated my game during the jam.

Check out the updated version here:

Littleberry Fires by patchware

I've been busy with other game jams but now that those are over, I could come back to this game and upload post jam version to itch.io page. It should have more stuffs and better than jam version.

Here's a shot from updated version:

Come on in

https://twitch.tv/squuuidly