And I’m in. I’ve been off-and-on working on a small avoider game in Haxe for the past week or so, and plan on taking it to success on the Google Play store. It’ll also probably be on Kongregate too, because, hey, cross platform.
Anyway, that’s my goal. Good luck to everyone who is participating!
Hey, I made other games later and published to the markets, now I will expand the business lines and use more markets.
The game is called Egypt: Hack & Slash, it’s in dungeons and crypts inside Egpyt, mummies, demons, orcs, skeletons,…slay them all! 
Tools:
Tags: 1, challenge, dungeons and crypts, egypt, game, hack & slash, money, october
well…a game that lets you build a star….close enough
We’ve got a central idea to work around and we are really motivated to succeed this challenge. Actually we think that we’ll make a great survival game. Follow our progress at this link http://dwaarphdevblog.tumblr.com
*edit, I had to change the link to our blog so this is the right one
This may be just the push I need. Why would I pass that up?
Plus, if I succeed, I’ll be a whole dollar richer!
Anyways, no idea what I’m going to do yet, but I’m in.
-Matt
the game to be ported/published shall be the last LD entry, Chicky And The Cats: Dorobou Neko! In fact, I uploaded a lite version already in BlackBerry AppWorld to hunt for comments
the full version shall have a level editor, wayyy more levels and several other game modes
Also, if you saw PoV’s post about how to start: i also plan to take part in the Marmalade thingie because you GET A FREE PLAYBOOK! for the fun of it 😉
Good luck to everyone!
I’ve been lurking around for some time, idling or reading around about game development, but no more, this challenge is exactly what I need to stir things up. Therefore I’ll be making a simple action game with RPG elements while abusing procedural generation. At least in theory 😀
Since I’m terrible at drawing I intend that even your character, monsters, weapons and abilities be created using PGG (Procedural Generated Graphics).
For this I’ll be using:
Any hints and tips are welcome ^.^
Last year I released my puzzle game Captain Backwater on Windows, Linux and OS X. To be honest, it wasn’t very successful. But a lot of people told me the gameplay would work well on touch devices. So one or two months ago I started to port the game to iOS and Android. Now with the october challenge in mind I will bring it to the market THIS month.
I’m using MonkeyCoder which is a great cross-platform-language, that I like a lot.
For the monetization I decided to go the freemium way. It’s possible to play through the whole game for free. But to unlock the later levels the player need to collect coins. So if he has to less coins to unlock a level he can either go back and play for more coins or can buy some via In-App-Purchases in the shop.
Finally, here you can watch the old trailer of the desktop version, but the mobile port will look very similar.
If you want to join the “beta-team”, feel free to join me on Tesflight: http://tflig.ht/VTMHhq
Allright, I’m really pumped for this. I got a basic idea, some mechanics and a monetization concept. One problem is, that my graphic card is currently quite broken, so I hope this gets fixed soon so that I can get into overdrive.
Basic idea: Audiovisual game with emerging Web technologies (Web Audio API and WebGL). I know, it somehow limits the audience to Chrome Users but on the other side it might attract peoples/blogs to look at the tech and what’s possible.
Basically there are multiple stages (at the beginning maybe just two), each in a distinct musical style (probably the first two will be Chip Tunes and Acid Techno) and a distinct visual style. On each stage there will be some mini-games (each about 2 minutes) which will have it’s own musical patterns/melodies. Visually it will be a blend of club visuals and gameplay. Think along the lines of Bit Trip Beat. Both visuals and music react to the gameplay in different ways, so each time you play the game the song will be different (I’m thinking about an export option, to export the audio of a replay as mp3). Achievements will keep you playing but off course you need to sigh up with Facebook first.
Monetization: Google AdSense first, later (and if it really works) In-App purchases for additional content. I also got some other ideas but I will first concentrate on get the game running and attract enough folk to earn some $ with AdSense (already got my account running and producing some $ on YouTube, so at least this is not a problem).
So, these are the basic ideas. If nothing works at least I’ve tried out these two techs that I wanted to try out for a long time :-D. So, let the games begin.
Hi there, everybody!
I’m excited here. I’ve refined my concept just a bit and came up with this: A remake of the GBA-era Castlevania games in HTML5.
I’m going to market it on Flash Game License, which is taking HTML5 games now.
It’s going to be really cool, I can tell you that right now! 😀
– Henry <3
With the October announcement just behind us, I’ve been looking at three payment processors. Paypal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments. Deciding between them is extremely difficult, and information is sparse. All I want to do is release my game as donationware, nothing fancy.
PayPal:
Paypal has it’s problems. That being said, it has the easiest way to do what I want it to do. A neat little donation button that I can just paste into any old website (more on that later). No bank accounts required, no complicated payment options, no funny math on monthly paychecks. I’ve used them before for other things and they’re alright. But the question remains, are they worth using when I risk all the money I’ve made.
Google Checkout:
Google Checkout, like other Google services, has a motto of “Don’t be evil”. While I have no doubt that it’s not perfect, they don’t have the reputation of PayPal. I’ve used Google Checkout a few times, and it’s pretty good. Unfortunately, they require a website that you own the root directory to (no xxx.no-ip.org/xxx.bitbucket.org domains). How you are payed is delightfully unclear, and I’m continuing to research this for what I can get. Furthermore, the whole setup seems to be configured towards selling physical products, which I won’t. I’ll simply be charging $5 for the same download that everybody else gets for free. On top of that, there is no Pay What You Want setup, like there would be with the PayPal donate button.
Amazon Payments:
Amazon Payments is run by the same people that run Amazon Inc. I have no doubt that they know how to process a lot of money quickly and efficiently. The “one click payment” option sounds pretty good for what I want, but hardly anybody uses them, and as such, there is even less information than on Google Checkout. Amazon does not have a PWYW button either.
Conclusion:
PayPal has been in business the longest, and knows just how to make a deal, sell goods, and pay people. Unfortunately, they also know just how much they can get away with, so using them is a gamble.
Google Checkout seems to be a decent payment provider, but they are fairly new to the scene, and as such, there could be some bumps going down that road.
Amazon Payments is unknown. While they have a great deal of experience selling things, they are unproven in the indie sector.
Of course, this is just donationware, I don’t need download links or DRM or anything of the sort. I’d have no idea how to even begin on website development anyway! If any of you have used these, or have ideas on what to do, I’d appreciate all of your advice.
…maybe I’ll just take bitcoins instead 
Tags: amazon payments, compo, google checkout, october, october challenge, oldtopman, payment processors, paypal
Hey, remember when I said that McPixel is coming to Commodore 64? Well, it is!
And I’m going to use this month to make this happen! I am going to misinterpret the simple 3 points to my disadvantage! Here’s the plan!
1. Make a C64 game!
2. Take it to a flea market!
3. Monetize!
Wish me luck! It’s been some time since I made something for C64!
I’m in!
I start from scratch, and alone, but I have time and motivation!
Been thinking about this for a long time, but now is the time to make it.
Island Warfare is going to be a massive multiplayer web based game where people battle over islands.
Sign up on the website for email/rss/twitter development updates.
Cheers,
Rob
I recently (as of last week) made my first sale of a game which I build with impactJS, ported to android with cocoonJS and then uploaded to the market. The entire process took me less than a week, I did however have some minor problems with the cocoonJS port.
If you want any help during October wtih ImpactJS or CocoonJS and android (I don’t have an Ios device yet…) Then I am here for you and your questions.
Usually I am lurking the #impactjs IRC on freenode on the weekends and week nights (eastern US time)
Just send your questions to my twitter if I am not in IRC http://twitter.com/stalkjimmy
If it is impactJS related post in the impact help forum so your thread can be used as reference to future people.
Thanks a ton for reading this and GOOD LUCK!!
Here´s a little Screenshot of my current stage:
It’m my first time meeting the October challenge. I don’t think I will participate, but hey, it sounds really cool! I imagine markets having over 9000 games in October every year. And wondering why.
I am neither familiar with markets, nor with online payments at all, but I will at least try to do something cooool. Who knows, maybe I’ll succeed? Although I never made a serious game. (Wait, I have something to start with. *Thinks over some evil plans*)
Good luck everybody!
Hi, how’s everyone doing?
I don’t know it this could be considered to the October Challenge since I started work on this some days before but here’s the post any way.
This was a different week for me. It’s been a long time that I had the chance to work on a small prototype or a 48H competition because of my other work so I decided to stop for a couple of days and do something else.
Also my cat’s been quite sick, and between the Vet and taking care of him, working on a fun project gave me more time do everything.
Since I love shump games I decided to do one. The idea is simple, you are in a arena with your ship and you just blast enemies away.
Initially I worked around 6-8hours on this back in August but had to drop it because of some much other work I had, so it wasn’t until this monday I grabbed it again.
I decided to make the game for iOS because it’s easier to make prototypes there and I can carry them around everywhere, playing them, to see if they are any good.
Actually the first 8 hours where quite productive and this is what I had after that time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sfxpNnfoZQI
So during these past 5 days I polished it a little, grabbed myself a notepad and hand-drawn everything. It’s not much artistic, but I’m not a designer.
Had a few problems with iOS 6 due to some deprecated stuff but in the end it all fall into place.
Also some tweaks performance-wise on the Engine where made since with a lot of stuff on screen things can get out of control pretty easily specially on these portable devices.
iPhone 5 just came out and I even took the time to add support for those extra pixels, actually I just increased the viewport, no scaling.
I probably named it poorly but it’s Puwang.
Also added some Leaderboards via Gamecenter and as I write this I’m starting to receive some feedback of the early beta builds I sent to a couple of testers. So ff people like it I intend to release it on the App Store.
If you want to participate in the beta test use this link: http://tflig.ht/SRB5aP
Hey now that the October challenge is upon us, I thought I would share the story of the my October challenge from last year.
I started on “Planet Minesweeper” way back in February 2010, for a Mini-LD that I never finished. Over the next few months I poked at the code a little but every so often but didn’t really do much with it. Then for the 2010 October challenge I resolved to finish the game. As you can see, it hadn’t progressed very much past the first prototype.
Unfortunately my strategy for Oct. 2010 was to “Add a bunch of stuff to the game” to complete my vision. I literally had a Campaign mode planned! I wrote a script for the cutscenes. Cutscenes! For a minesweeper game! How insanely stupid is that? YEAH I KNOW!
So, needless to say, I didn’t finish the game. It crawled back into hibernation. Not to say that I didn’t work on it, but I just kept messing with it instead of going towards a focused goal. Fast-forward to October Challenge 2011. By this point I had a bunch of cool artwork, awesome musics from HyperDuck Sound Works, and the game itself was totally playable. It just wasn’t finished.
I was determined to finish it. This time I would adopt a new strategy. That strategy was “DON’T ADD FEATURES JUST FINISH IT”. This served me well and I worked my butt off.
Unfortunately, I failed again. I did not make a dollar in October 2011.
But all was not lost! I rode the momentum that the October challenge and kept going. I switched to a new strategy, “CUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN”. Working through the next month, and in early December 2012, the game was finished. After a week or so waiting for apple to approve it, it went live in time for the holiday season.
So did I make a dollar? I did. I made just over $1000 so far! That’s almost as good as Minecraft, right?
And the momentum continues. Last week I knocked out an update to support the new iPhone 5 screen, we’ll see if that makes a difference with the hordes of new iPhone 5 owners. I’m also playing with the idea of releasing a free version so people who like ads and stuff can play it.
So even though I failed (twice!) with this October challenge, I ultimately finished a game and released it and made a few dollars.
So, TLDR i would say here’s what I’ve learned from these Octobers:
I accept the Ludum Dare October Challenge.
I have been working on a game for a few weeks now and I want to see it published.
I am building a sidescroller-adventure-physics game. I do not have a name yet.
More details and some screenshots will come in the following days.
Tags: 2D, android, game, october challenge, physics