I have been summoned.

Now that the theme is done it's time to sleep a night over it and let the brain work! See you tomorrow!

I HOPED FOR "IT SPREADS"

Get ready for a pile of games about summoning a bunch of zombies or whatever to fight for you or smth.

Hello everyone! It's great to see so many creative minds come together to compete and share their passion for game development. Best of luck to you all and may your games be a blast to play!

As it's 4 am right now, time to sleep and let that passive brain magic work! And the theme sounds pretty magical for me, so I am excited to brainstorm the ideas tomorrow.

It's going to be a jam for me, so I have around 3 days. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And the main objective tomorrow is to come up with the game concept, game design and decide on an engine - and, of course, start writing and drawing! :)

How is everyone finding the theme? Can't wait to check out all the different takes on it in a few days time! <3

In the past couple years, since my sons have been born, my wife and I've started to grow an appreciation for simpler games, more focused and casual games.

Not, mind you, mobile shovel ware where you match things in order to, I don't know, organize your house or whatever

I'm talking about things like Stardew Valley. Things like Animal Crossing.

And so, in an effort to give back to the meta-genre that has given us so much pleasure and relaxation over the past few years, I would like to contribute my own cozy game to the world.

This will be a pretty big departure for me. I'm pretty good at the sort of tangible aspects of game development. I can write a physics system with the best of them. What I don't have a lot of experience with is abstract play.

So I will be stepping outside of my comfort zone for this Jam. I don't think I'm going to have time to make my own assets for this, but fortunately Kenny has lots of fantastic assets for making cozy games.

Now I just have to figure out how to make a cozy game about summoning.

Good luck to everybody!

Thanks to everyone for voting and I hope you guys have an inspired Ludum Dare weekend!! <3

Lets go!

8th Ludum Dare.

Second Ludum Dare using Godot.

First Ludum Dare using my Steam Deck as my Game Dev machine.

Check how I use the Steam Deck for Game Dev if You are interested https://youtu.be/POg8f8xvyg?si=yF3mtCmWvZjfp-0

As usual, the theme sucks - looking forward to play and rate your games. :dvd:

Instead of developing a game that you don't enjoy, just don't stick to the theme and create something that is fun.

Alright, I bailed on ld54, but I'm gonna give it another go! Summoning is a decent enough theme to make mechanics around; I'll be using javascript for a browser game aand maybe i'll even add sound this time. no promises on graphics tho XD Good luck everyone, I can't wait to see what you make!

Hello everyone!

We are proud to announce that CL🤡WNWORKS is back once again for more WILD Ludum Dare action.

THE TEAM

THE PLAN

THE TOOLS

How many boring one-word themes are we going to have to suffer through before y'all dictionary-lovers go back to Itch.io?

"It spreads" wasn't great, but at least it sounded like a classic good LD theme...

:weary:

It just had to be one of those themes where there are only a couple real ways to interpret it....

Hope it works out! Write anything into a magic notebook and it'll pop up in front of you!

We're brainstorming ideas and creating mechanics, we're not going to sleep :)

Usually I'm taking too much time selecting the right idea and when I do there's little time left to make it, and then I get carried away anyway. This time I decided that I either come up with something sweet in a hour or I'll pass.

But for whatever reason "Summoning" instantly clicked.

Hopefully I'll be able to make a finished and polished game in time. And this time I'll be doing it 100% solo too :)

I wish good luck to everyone and happy game making! Can't wait to see your games ^_^

Yours, XpMonster

Hey, so I want to keep a score board for my game, where people will be able to view their score v's all the other players.

Anyone have or know of a Leaderboard website that I can use for this? I don't really want to write my own, but I will if I have to.

Still brainstorming ideas, we're not going to sleep :)

With the theme now out, I can finally determine the epic ending to the story I've started in NaNoRenO 2024. The theme of summoning, the cog, and the background of the title screen will all have in-story significances. Plus, I've come up with the final title.

We really enjoyed the more chill deadline of extra; but didn't see any reference to extra when creating our game entry. Is Extra still a thing? (ref: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/test-node/celebrating-20-years-of-ludum-dare-on-april-1st)

Sunnoning is the theme?

I was expecting "Mutation" or "Fishing" :<

The good news is that I have a great idea for this theme (I think). The bad news is that I have to ditch the base code I was prepping for the 2D platformer and start from scratch. But that's OK. It'll be worth it!

We’re still brainstorming ideas, not going to sleep :)

Ok, hear me out.

A deckbuilding game. You have 4 resources: lifes, coins, diamonds and points.

You also have a hand of cards. You can play a card for its effect for free. You can also summon the card by paying its cost, which makes the card leave your deck, but it will do its effect automatically every turn or so.

There will be progressively stronger monsters getting into your deck with effect that remove your life. You can defeat those with an effect of a card, or banish them for a cost of coins and diamonds, earning you points.

You can get new cards into your deck by paying coins.

I can see myself putting a prototype together in 3 hours or so, then will see whether it is worth pursuing.

I was having trouble concepting stuff that sounded fun when looking at the full list of votable prompts, but given just one of them, I actually came up with something I think might be decently fun to play and make pretty quickly. And it's light on the controls and animations too.

I might end up having to learn how to SFX in 1 hour, but I'll do my best to put out something playable for my first attempt here. Looking forward to maybe making this a regular thing for myself.

just some funny screenshots i've got so far

I'm taking this Ludum Dare in particular to test if I can make a game using the engine I'm working on for my commercial game.

The engine is pretty barebones still but should support everything I need: 2D sprites, audio, scenes, collisions, input.

This will also require me to keep the scope extra small.

Repository: https://github.com/jesusmgg/summoning-ld55

Draw symbols on a runestone to summon slimes for a fight.

We're so excited to get things started, peeps 🔥🔥🔥

We're aiming to build an awesome Narrative RPG by the end of the jam. How's that for a plan?

For some reason, I keep getting strong Super Smash Bros vibes from the theme - but I won't be doing a fighting game. Let's see how this goes!

First model textured! :smiley:

Sat opposite @wisstopher having brewed a hot cup of tea and an even hotter game concept! "EYE SEE DEMONS"

More to come...

Here is a little art to show the principle of this team, we are looking for a robot theme... I don't want to say much more, thank you for being part of this team!

Streamin gamedev now, come on in for gacha fun :D

https://twitch.tv/squuuidly

This guy is my "Wannabe Warlock", the working title for the game concept I've devised. Elevator pitch is "summon and maintain demons to protect you from enemies". Working on fleshing out some basic mechanics tonight, then I'll sleep on it.

This seems to be how all my first nights of jams start out. Triangles and circles :D

i have acquired scuffed movement (idk why the gif looks like that)

Since this is the first time actually creating a game with my new engine and editor I'm pleasantly surprised nothing major went wrong yet. This jam will be a great test to see if it's capable enough for a simple game! 😄

It's been a while since my last time, but I'm ready for a new challenge. And I love theme!

I'll be using Godot this time. I'm thinking about doing a 2D game with magic duels. Or something like that.

Best luck everyone!

gnome

Gotta concept I like. Summoning wildlife, starting with bees.

Procrasticoded a bit, fixed the full screen handling in my little template.

Already having doubts about c++. No doubt I'd be more productive in Godot, but I know that when things go wrong in godot, it's a mistery to me -- not a recipe for a good time when the chips are down. More work, but less secrets. I guess time will tell if this is the right call or not.

Time to make some programmer art.

Super excited! Very satisfied with the menu drafts I've got going.

The idea is to play a cat that needs to kill his time/boredom outside until food is ready, catching birds, mice and fish in the process. Once food is ready, the owner will yell out "Fooooood", and then the player needs to traverse the level back (platformer), to get to it's food asap!

So excited to participate! We've been doing this since 2015 and love it!

Time to sit down and get some ideas going.

Maybe I'll use Unity ECS and DOTS to "summon" lots of things?

Come check it out!

https://twitch.tv/squuuidly

Making some good progress a few hours in with our magical summoning style word game. We're also streaming our progress if anyone is curious.

https://www.twitch.tv/baguettimonster

Best of luck to all!

Slow progress with Rust/Bevy, but getting somewhere.. The wizard can run away from the goblins, but needs to start summoning some support!

A testament to Bevy/Rust that this is only ~150loc!

Theme kind of took me by surprise because I've been thinking about a project that I've been calling "summoner cards" for a few weeks. Haven't actually started designing it or written anything down or anything but I've got a little pile of ideas in the back of my head. It's probably too ambitious for a game jam (especially with an unfamiliar engine) but it feels like the universe is telling me to give it a shot.

Going to try to use Bevy this time. I've been slowly learning rust/bevy, have done some tinkering with it but nothing big yet. So far I've modified one of the hello world 3d sample to display cards (I'm using card images from my LD41 entry "Shufflefish" but these will be replaced).

Good luck everyone!

Little late on this. Last week my desktop got wrecked by a small dose of lightning riding through my ethernet taking out my mobo and router (don't run cables outside on the ground). I'm trying my best this jam with just my dingy laptop.

I'm excited about my idea and game titled "The SUMmoning"

This is my first game jam, hope it will go well. I will use Unity game engine

:)

Summoning teammates: Programmer's Emotion Soother.

Well, I got some kind of progress done tonight. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this one mechanically (which I hope will be interesting...), and I got a character sprite with basic movement implemented, along with this fun particle effect for casting a magic spell.

I think I'm setting on a Galcon-esque game, where you need to sacrifice some of your resources to summon monsters to do the fighting. I feel like most of the game mechanics should be 'easy' to do within a weekend, the biggest issue I can see at the minute is getting some kind of AI to play as a competent opponent. There are alot of holes to fill, but I'm hoping once I can move units around in a nice mechnical way, I can devote some more time to the actual gameplay.

I guess we'll see how it progresses..

Not sure what this is yet, but its certainly easy to stare at for hours. Don't stay up too late.

Hopefully

I'm already behind schedule (my CEST time zone is less than ideal) but super excited to get started. Aiming for something as KISS as possible, I have too many unfinished projects already :smile:

Anyway, here's my setup:

Will also potentially be streaming some of the way (depending on my sluggish tower's performance):

https://www.twitch.tv/ovid27

(can't post links yet it seems, same user name as on here)

Best of luck to all of you!

"Early this mornin'
When you knocked upon my door
Early this mornin', ooh
When you knocked upon my door
And I said, Hello, Satan
I believe it's time to go"

Me And The Devil Blues - Robert Johnson

Hello everyone! We've already kicked off here, and in these first few hours, we've defined our concept and mechanics. We are going to create a game based on the legendary tale of Dr. Faust and Mephistopheles. We've established our first concept art and are now focused on developing the first playable version by 6 AM (-3 GMT). Happy Game Jam to all!

I woke this morning with the feeling that LD was running ! So I checked the website an it is! I am in with: - no preparation - at my parents place with the two kids - my birthday tomorrow. So not a lot of time. - no idea yet

If I produce something it will be small

We have a genius idea on our hands. Just trust us.

It's our first Ludum Dare, we are so excited!

This is what we have so far:

The arena, where two teams of elemental golems will fight each other to destroy what they are protecting

The main character, a warlock capable of summoning golems using their (flying) machine

The arena in Engine

Team LaMaSan is excited to participate! 🦙🕊️🐘 Happy to see how many great ideas have already been SUMMONed in this forum. 🤩

Have a fun and happy time everyone! 🎮

I am overbooked this weekend and still have to finish the taxes, but... here we go...

I haven't joined Ludum Dare for a long time, so it's time for a comeback! Any ideas? Not yet and 6 hours has passed. Hope I have one in 3 hours...

So far using the engine has been a very good experience. The game compiles in ~0.85s after changes (~5.5s clean) and runs super fast. Of course there isn't much happening yet. But that time includes the entire engine and dependencies.

Implementing RTS controls (still 1 unit but should work with multiple already) was also very enjoyable with the current framework.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vOdvKm8MU

https://www.twitch.tv/iluvatargreat

trying

Not as far along as I would like, but some progress.

Drawing tablet would be a good investment. Making do by sketching on my e-ink tablet, and then colorizing in gimp. It's not great but it's something. I'm going to lean into the art style.

Using Godot, got some assets in the game. Not sure the direction we are going yet with this though >.< I am thinking Summon Memories to solve problem?

Good morning everyone, I just woke up and in a while I will start with the Compo, my first Ludum Dare! First a good breakfast and some exercise to think of ideas. Remember that staying hydrated and resting is important! The game engine I have chosen is GDevelop (we'll see if I don't regret it), and most likely, Krita or Aseprite for the graphics, and LMMS for the music, I will let you know if they are good choices.

I have to say, even tho summoning was not on my list i actually got my idea quite early and so started strait with some graphics - be aware, its programmer art x) I did my very best tho :3 Got the UI done, and basically anything else i think i need :D

I think its time for some sleep, been up for ~24 hours now ^^, After that its finally time to start the coding, looking forward to that :>

-Soon to be summoned by you ;D

How do you all do so far?

Trying something here

im in

Kind of a rough start this time. After waking up in the night to check the theme, I got a bit embarrassed ; I had no idea what to do with this one, I don't really like the theme. But hey, it's part of the challenge. I wanted "You're not the main character", because I immediately had an idea.

The rest of the night was a bit hard for sleep, and dreams didn't really helped me get an idea.

So two hours ago in the morning I started pondering. what if I adapted my idea for not the main character to this theme ? It could actually work. But it loses a bit the spirit too. And an idea working for two themes seems a bit less compelling, all of a sudden.

So I kept thinking while taking my breakfast. And I decided, after four ideas, to go with a game where you are a witch trying to stop an evil force, in a horizontal shmup gameplay. The twist : you summon not only your bullets, but also thunder and crows to help you, and even health refills and power up ! Want to activate a bullet time mode ? Summon seconds to Time itself ! But everything has a cost : summoning something asks for salt. And salt is not naturally found airborne. Solution ? Avoid the ennemies bullet with timed dodge to absorb their own, and extract the salt in their summoning by catching them in your summoning circle. Nothing too hard for a witch really.

Absolutely no idea if I'll be able to pull this off because it's a bit ambitious, and I actually can't commit full week end to the LD. But I'll try to do a Proof of Concept at least.

Here are the first drafts :

Once again, I find myself pondering the meaning of the words "Luwdurm Dawre". As many nights before, I've rolled around all night in bed, my mind filled with strange incantations and questions. The number forty eight floating by my consciousness... All alone... I need to start my sketches, need to scribble down what my minds eye is telling me. I'm hoping I'll survive long enough to see another day.

(I've started with mockups of what I want the game to look like. Soon it's time for code)

This thing has manifested from a series of confused clicks.

As have these relatively interactive things!

I'm going to catch some Zs now. Will continue clicking tomorrow. Good luck all, happy hacking!

This time I'm going with the usual art style (and usual method of doing "final" art before almost anything else).

Prototyping is getting quicker and quicker, especially because I'm borrowing a bit mechanically from the platformer I did as a warmup the other day.

This is the story of a giant ant who appeared in the London suburbs. You're the only one capable of stopping it. They often laughed at your job title: not anymore.

The ant will have a hat.

My favorite programming attire...

As per usual MO, I'm writing the story first before acquiring the necessary assets and coding them all in. The Gundam Astray Red Frame that's sitting below my monitor is my entry to a local model kit contest.