I figured I’d do a round up of my 3 favourite games so far from this Ludum Dare to make sure they get the attention I think they deserve.

The Epicly Short Adventure – by JaJ

This is a really neat metroidvania with great pixel art and two endings (Which it is very worth getting both of)

Game page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=5496

Factory Consultant – by namuol

This game has a unique concept of passing blocks under spray painters to make them have the correct pattern before sending them to the receiving tile of each level. The puzzles are very well designed and give a great feeling of satisfaction when completed.

Game page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=12236

Potato Dungeon – by Ziryf and Rilem

This is a great platformer based around the positioning of your sword to defeat enemies. Everything from the graphics to the gameplay is absolutely brilliant, especially the boss fights.

Game page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=18340

It’s far from complete, but I’ll be updating it everyday until it’s a real game. I know what the game is, but I can’t explain it yet…I’m tired.

“Play” this “game”: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=10666

So, yeah. With family and such I wasn’t able to pull together the basic movement system until today. I set a reasonable expectation for myself, a one button Pac-man. However the delay cost me not being able to add more levels, smooth the movement or find all the little bugs in the movement. Still for my first LD I think I managed all right.

Without further delay, I introduce:

MINI the MALISM Potatoe Beetle

Tools: Game Maker Studio (only because of the notice of 3 hours before it started) and some MS Paint.

Tags: #one-button, minimalism, pacman, Potato Challenge, Potatoes

 Last Shot

(We actually finished it yesterday, but I only got time to write about it now)

We survived our first Ludum Dare! This is our third game jam, but the first we enter as a couple rather than a huge team – me as the artist and Buri as the programmer.

This time around we were trying something new we weren’t used to – Actionscript instead of Construct 2 that we used in the previous Jams – so a lot of the time was spent in trying to figure out basic stuff. I think the next time around things will go smoother, but then again we might experiment with something else altogether!

The minimalism theme was hard to work with. We decided to go with the “maximum effect with least resources” concept – which in itself isn’t bad, but it feels like it got lost a bit in the end result. The De Stijl / Constructivism visual inspiration definitely got lost along the way, and I feel sad for not spending enough time on the concept art.Overall we had fun and learned a lot, but there are a few things we should focus on the next jams:

• Doing simpler gameplay / game-design, such as mini-games or infinite games.
• Getting used to our tools a bit before diving into the code.
• Spend more time concepting the idea, even if it seems we’re getting nowhere – don’t start making the game until you’re in love with that idea!

This is really obvious stuff but when the clock is ticking we always forget about everything!!

Well, that’s it for Ludum Dare 26! Thanks for the attention, and I hope you enjoy the game!

Our game was Geometry Wars, a real-time strategy game where you play with geometric shapes!

Tools

Languages: JavaScript / HTML5 / PHP
Frameworks: Node.js, Kinetic.js, Howler.js
Soundtrack: GarageBand

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=6821

The Good

IT WAS A LOT OF FUN! This was our first Ludum Dare and I’m looking forward to the next one. Making this game was awesome! The music works (sort of), the sound effects are nice, and all in all I think this concept had a lot of potential. That moment when we could play or first death matches was simply magical! Wooo!!!

Streaming to Twitch was also an interesting experience, now everything is documented! (http://www.twitch.tv/udnozor)

The current version is (un)playable on the web: openfu.com/ld26/current/client/ – it doesn’t really work, but it’s there.

The Bad

The game is not playable as it is. The server crashes literally every 10 seconds.

There are a lot of bugs left in the game that we didn’t have time to fix. As it is, it hovers just below the edge of playability. Multiplayer combat actually works pretty well, so it’s possible to have actual matches between two or more players. The single-player content (this is what the Evil Potato base is for) simply does not work. It broke during the last minutes before the deadline.

Lessons Learned

Team development comes at a cost, and this project was no exception. Working in a pair requires a certain level of coordination that we did not apply consistently.

Eric was doing the Node.js server backend, whereas I coded the frontend. Of course we coordinated often, but over time it became clear that having two separate data models (one on the server and another one on the client) was a decision that cost us a lot of development time and broke the game on a deep technical level. We talked about our data models only after it was too late by about 2 hours. In hindsight we should have scrapped those two hours, because the cost was even higher during the rest of the development effort. It was a very bad decision to build something on a cognitively dissonant data model. Poor Eric had to maintain a translation layer to talk to the client and adding features became very painful over time.

We definitely got more done together, and the experience itself was an absolute blast, but I have the feeling that each of us would have been able to deliver something more complete if we had worked alone. For our next project, I think we need to focus a lot more on actual technical specification.

Going Forward

I’m exhausted now, but I am also determined to invest one or more days during this week in order to put a bugfix release together, even if nobody should care 😉

Oh man was that ever fun. So I finished most of the stuff I wanted to, but I had to cut two levels because I didn’t have enough time, and even though that hurt a little, I’m still proud of my finished product. Evidenced by my twitter feed and timelapse, both of which can be found at my compo page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=20256 I did not get much sleep. So this was the first time I made a point and click, and although it seems easy, it was actually pretty difficult, and riddled with annoying bugs. To top this all off, I was using Slick2D, which I was new to, and the Slick2D website went down on saturday, so that was mostly guess and check work. Although I did not get as much as I had hoped done (which lets face it, this phrase lines most LD posts), I was still happy with my McPixel style game, and after looking at my timelapse, a feeling of pride and happiness overcame me. This plus the fact that the GMU at Ryerson was GREAT. SO MUCH FUN! I hope to see all of you participate in LD27 (and lets hope for a half decent theme this time :P). Till then, signing off.

PS. Be sure to check out my compo at http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=20256 and rate on gamejolt if you can. Also, I know I wont win, I entered this for the feedback, so please please please give me some 😀

We’ve finished our jam entry. Was hard to find time, but we made the most of what we had – and it probably forced us to stay true to the theme.

Play PLOG: 

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=15389

Looks like some amazing games have landed for LD26. Time to start playing and voting!

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

Here’s the idea: 

• Up to 128 players chase and shoot each other. IN SPACE.
• Weapon upgrades are per-shot.
• PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

Here’s the point:

• Leave a multiplayer server running for the duration of the judging.
• PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW
• Have the server spit out logs and give out pointless awesome LD trophies.

Here’s how it was done:

• Forget about fancy lag compensation and cheat detection
• Three thousand lines of C
• Two original songs
• One person jam team
• “Minimal” scale testing.

Best moments:

• It works!
• No it doesn’t! But it’s broken in awesome ways!
• Particles!
• PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW etc.

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

This was probably my favourite LD since my first. Once again I spent all of my time on a technical prototype instead of polishing, but you know what? That’s okay! I think Ludum Dare is the perfect place to take risks and try something new. And judging by the other entries, lots of my comrade contestants agree.

I had a blast. I’ll try to rate as many entries as I can, and I’ll also try to stay on the UltraPew server as much as I can so everybody has somebody to play against.

Thanks everybody! See you in the comments sections of your entries, and I can’t wait for LD27!

P.S.: OpenGL coder looking for artist for next Ludum Dare or earlier. @justinbowes on Twitter.

Zzzzzzzzz… What? Oh! Yes, Submission! So after sleep deprivation, unhealthy snacks and lots of cheesy music, our bodies are about to give up. But with our final breath we present to you our Ludum Dare #26 jam game submission: Wizbo Chambers, Master Magician.

As we explained before, we took the Minimalizm theme and applied it to game mechanics in addition to the simplistic pixel art style. There are 4 rooms that represent 4 different elements that have their own mechanics. As you clear rooms, you simplify the game by eliminating features but the consecutive rooms get progressively harder as the remaining mechanics are intensified. Depending on what order the rooms are cleared, the rest of the game will change, so the players can clear them in the order that suits their skills.

P.S. The prize for finishing the game is also minimalistically impressive too…

P.P.S. We might have forgotten to take out something, can’t recall what it is…

Also, here are some pretty .gifs we made, unfortunately not all of them made it into the game:

Team Mischief

Managing Mischief since 2012

Libelle is finally operational, and I’m pretty satisfied with it. Libelle is probably my most successful ludum dare entry to date. The multiplayer works pretty ding dang well, which I’m surprised with my self considering this is my first time writing a real server/client system. My friends actually thought it was pretty playable even when they had 230-300 ping (they are in NZ while I’m in california.)

Libelle is a game where you are a box that shoots other boxes. The first box to 5 kills wins the round and the next round begins! Here is some game play footage.

You can download Lieble here, Windows and Linux are supported!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=10665

I’m currently hosting a server at: 67.188.172.220:6080

come play with me, and others!

Minimalism: The art of releasing a game with placeholder graphics =)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=6633

This was my 4th and my best LD by far, as I managed to bring Alien Raid to very close of what I planned from start.
The theme was a real challenge but the idea came quickly: Simple 2D RTS with crude graphics (despite my lack of artistic talent forced me to put more details in sprites that a “minimalist” would like).

The use of the new version of CrossDoc (shared at LD start) really helped to keep features in “possible” realm.

This is my first game at LD that used full Unity physics. Took me a time to tweak it for 2D-frenetic-lunar-battle scenario what prevent me from submitting Alien Raid for 48 hours compo. It’s done for the Jam at least.

The music was composed literally on the last hour.

What went right

• To have a solid idea from start and a clear path of work
• Like in last LD, gameplay base was ready by Saturday night. This leave the whole Sunday to graphics, sounds, music and to balance rules.
• Unity 3D once again proved to be an invaluable ally.
• Alien Raid code is heavily based on component pattern (like Unity). Things that would be hard to implement other way came free from this.
• Music (I liked it =D)

Bad things happens

• Graphics could be better. At least better suited for the game atmosphere.
• This game is too easy when you learn to play (quicker alien re-spawn will solve) .
• To play it well one must be in full will to figure it out.

Thanks! See you at LD 27

Towers of Rage is a minimalistic beat ’em up game in style of Double Dragon & Streets of Rage. Just in case that wasn’t obvious from the title 😉
The game was largely inspired by one of our own games “Pixel Towers” (look here) in which you build skyscrapers filled with little 3-pixel people. We looked at that and thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to walk through these buildings and beat the crap out of everyone? And so we decided to make “Towers of Rage”.

Here is an ingame sceenshots:

Click through here to get to the game: Towers of Rage

We hope you enjoy playing the game – we certainly enjoyed making it. Really looking forward to playing everyone else’s games!

Cheers,
Stefan & Simon

Folding is a puzzle game where you ‘fold’ a simple structure into a even simpler form. Precisely, a straight line or a loop. Though the concept is not complex, some puzzles may be trickier than you expected.

Try it and wake up your minimalist inside!

Post Mortem

What went right

• Simple but concrete design.
• Unique(as far as I know) mechanism.
• Use computational geometry.
• Did design on paper.

What went wrong

• Use Haxe and Haxepunk. They are the kind of immature technique I will not want to use again.(at least in game dev)
• Not enough instructions. Some players got confused at first.
• Not enough visual feedback.
• A little (minor) bugs.
• Tried to go streaming but failed. FMLE slowed down my laptop too much so I had to close it.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done any video editing before. In any case, here’s a quick trailer I made for The Sentient Cube.

Tags: cube, Katamari, Katamari Damacy, sentient, The Sentient Cube, trailer, youtube

It is done.

play

First game finally up!

First Ludum Dare Complete!! Well, mostly 😉

Gawdamn Aliens

——————————————

Controls –
WASD to move
Mouse to shoot
Hold D to bypass obstacles

Fend off the Gawdamned Aliens as a True American Hero.
Never stop shooting!
Guzzle sixpacks to shoot better! (Like real life!)
Infinite lives till they take your trailer!

——————————————

For my first Ludum Dare attempt I recruited my good friend Ryan64K to help with the graphics and sound. Unfortunately, Ryan had a root canal on the last day of the Dare, so sound got largely pushed off to the side..

When the theme was announced, the first decision we made was that this was not going to be an excuse to make all our gameplay objects into squares and circles. It was going to be an excuse to get rid of any gameplay element that didn’t implement properly on the first try.

We decided to take the genre of platforming wasd-shooters and express minimalism in terms of gameplay and level design. Most platformers use a set of sequential hazards and obstacles to keep things interesting. Hazards in our game exist in the form of a constantly descending stream of enemies, but our game uses a small, flat area with wraparound edges; not very interesting.

To remedy this we made the terrain destructible, giving the player an evolving landscape to platform around on. We gave the enemies powerup drops so the player would have a reason to move around. We did away with lives at first in order to serve the theme, but honestly every idea we had to replace them with made the game more complicated. We finally settled on infinite respawns at your trailer. Also we gave the hero a trailer. And a truck. And suspenders.. And just losing your powerups didn’t seem like enough punishment for dying, so we gave the player an accelerating firing rate that resets when you die.

In our first builds, the trailer and truck were destructible and took damage from enemy shots, but could be pushed around with yours. This turned out lame, both in terms of gameplay and adding unnecessary complexity to the game, so we went with more of an abduction interaction with the trailer, whereas the aliens will simply eat the truck if you give them a chance. The truck can, however, be used for cover.

Just woke up from the best sleep of my life after posting the game around 6am. Having been my first LD i had a great time, even tho i only had around a day and a half to make it.  Enjoy.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=23166

My jam entry is up for downloading.

It was a crash course in learning how to use Construct 2 this weekend. The game is short and simple, but it works!

Hey all!

New blog post about my game! Check it out at http://rainbladestudios.blogspot.com/

Thanks everyone! I had a good time developing along with all of you. Congrats on another successful Game Jam!

Jordan

Tags: external blog, post-mortem