I got a lot of good comments about mood and audio but ppl gave me approx 2.5 stars I don’t get it T_T

how 2 stars matches a comment that says “amazing audio” ? T_T

I thought about three stars T_T

Hi guys,

So I was thinking of changing my default programming language to something web based, as it seems to be the most versatile and useful career opportunity I could pursue at this point. From what I’ve seen, a knowledge of HTML, CSS and maybe PHP and Javascript would be the most useful things to know in this regard.

I have a few questions which I’m sure some of you web developers here could answer if you have a chance:

HTML4 or HTML5? A tutorial site (I’m thinking w3schools at the moment)?

Also, my main question would be as to what development tool. I’d be mainly interested in something which can do most of what I’d need in terms of running it without me needing to constantly re-open the document, and could integrate fairly well with the language (such as, maybe, highlighting of keywords of the language?)

Thanks in advance

-Topaz

So, my first (actually completed) Ludum Dare is over. For all the fun I had making Robots Save The Day, I knew it right away it wouldn’t rank very highly as soon as I saw the other entries. There are simply so many amazing games that came out of LD27.

That’s a good thing, it’s a seriously high bar to aspire to. I didn’t make the top 20% (not by a long shot) this time, but I’m going to keep trying and having fun along the way. Making games is something I never really considered doing before LD and now I’m hooked

There is one thing that irks me about Jam music and sound effects though, and I realized that while rating the other entries:

I’m definitely not a musician, and it was becoming obvious that audio was my game’s weakest link when commenters started putting “music” in quotes! However, I tried. It might sound considerably worse to other ears than mine, but in the end it’s something I made myself. Many other entries don’t have a sound track at all, or just dropped in some professional music, and it’s obvious why.

You get higher ratings for something great somebody else created, compared to something mediocre you did yourself. I’m not sure that’s a good stance, both from a rating perspective as well as the general development experience is concerned. Of course this sounds like I’m complaining about something I failed at, but I’d like to see more emphasis on things LD devs actually crafted themselves (even if the result ends up being put in scare quotes).

This LD I made TickType (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=1078), a combination of a typing game and a
count-the-seconds game.

What went right:

I actually entered! – This was my first serious compo entry since LD18 3 years ago, it was nice to at least make something.

I learned to use AS3/Flixel! – I’m amazed how easy it was, I felt like I spent most of this LD actually making the game instead of trying to figure out how to make the game.

Innovation! – People who understood the game seemed to find the game quite innovative. Probably more than I did, really, given that it’s the second time I’ve made a typing game and there’s been a couple of TV gameshows lately using this kind of ‘count the seconds’ thing, but the combination seemed to work well.

In-game instructions! – actually, see What went wrong. 😀

What went wrong:

In-game instructions – So, I added an in-game tutorial. It wasn’t perfect – it was a bit rushed so there were a few points that weren’t explained properly – but it did its job and I was pretty happy with myself for managing to include it. However, having watched one video review where the reviewer didn’t have time to watch the tutorial or read the instructions (making the game impossible to play), I get the feeling that there were probably others who did the same. Partly this is my fault – for future games I think I’ll probably try to make a tutorial that automatically appears while playing – but still, it’s pretty sad that my game’s scores might have suffered a bit just because people can’t take a minute to read/watch how to play.

Not appealing enough as a game – with the above said, it’s also likely that my scores suffered because it’s not a great game. 😀 I’m really happy with the idea and confident that I could develop it into something better, but the end result – while I was happy with it when it was finished – is disappointing in hindsight.

People didn’t even play half of the game – TickType has ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ modes which play very differently – unfortunately, most players seemed to ignore the hard mode completely, and although easy mode was the default (to make it easier to learn how to play), I’m surprised that so few players tried the hard mode which was the way the game was originally intended.

Scores don’t quite represent comments – As I’m sure many others will have noticed too, you can get fairly positive comments but end up with a poor score. I think this is because people think it’s bad to post any negative comments, which is ridiculous – constructive criticism is essential. Unfortunately this, combined with not being able to see individual scores, makes the final results weird and disappointing.

Overall though, this was a pretty standard LD – the game making community experience is great, it’s great to get feedback via comments and especially via videos/streams, and we all got the chance to play some really awesome new games, but the scoring is almost entirely meaningless and depressing and should just be ignored and removed.

I never imagined I could make it. #8 in Audio and #26 in Mood. Thank you everyone, I’ll see you next time!

I made a quick and dirty userscript that displays a “Performance” graph on all user pages. For example, mine looks like this:

The script can be found here.

To install in Chrome, download the script, go to Tools | Extensions, and drag the downloaded script into the page. To install in Firefox, use Greasemonkey. To install in other browsers, do something else.

Let me know how it works for you guys.

Tags: browser, script, utility

I really don’t like how some people judge other games. There are bascially two categories of judges i don’t like:

-The Hasty

Why wasting my time playing your game? I’ll just open the menu and see if there is music and the graphic is cool, then i give you 2/3 stars on everything so you’re average and i can quickly move to next. Eventually i write a comment by mixing up words i can find in description and/or other comments. The theme is ten seconds? That is the time i use for rate one entry.

-The Pimp

I’ve played your game, it was a platformer with strange and unrelated colored pixel that jump without following any physics rule and move very strangely with pointless thing to kill. Totally unrelated to the theme. I’ll silently give you very little star but i don’t write anything on comment so you can’t understand what’s wrong and grow up. Occasionally I’ll write “Amazing!” or “Very nice entry!”

To all Hasty voters out there: Why you do that? Just to have more coolness and subsequently more rating? Is all that matters to you? If everyone vote like you, every rate you gain using this method will be completely pointless. Nothing to learn. Take your time. Fix a minimum of Five minutes to judge a game. Even if can be finished in twelve seconds, replay it. Analyze it. Five minutes is not so much, and the developer of the game you are judging deserve some respect.

To all Pimp: You’re not a bad guy. I know, you don’t want to be rude. You understand how much effort is needed to make a game in so little time and probably you perfectly know how bad can make you feel a negative comment. But hey, we’re there to learn how to make good games. If noone tell me where i was wrong, how can i learn something? Constructive criticism is the way.

P.S. I’m not referring about any particular case happened in this edition of ludum dare, I’m sorry if someone is offended by that thought. If you disagree, you can write a comment. That’s how constructive criticism work. And I love it.

So here is my ratings

I’m very pleased with it, I knew what was my weakness so I’m not surprised. Last (and first) time I entered an LD, the 23rd, I was 26th on Graphics, and even if I really think to have done a better job this time, the competition was really stronger. So congratulation everyone ! I’m ready to do the next one and try do be better.

Never played it ? Here it is : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=10985

Tags: graphics, LD #27 - 10 Seconds, question, ratings

It’s my third time participating in Ludum Dare, and I got second overall! I’m ECSTATIC! Thanks so much everyone who played and rated my game, your kind comments mean a lot. ^^

Clockwork Cat has 40,000 views on Newgrounds, and a bunch more views and comments on a bunch of sites that rehosted it. I never would have thought the game would become so popular. Watching videos of people playing the game and hearing their reactions was heart-melting. And it was great playing other people’s amazing games too. Thank you guys so much for your support, I’ll definitely be back next time!

What went right:

Using tools I’m familiar with – I was already very familiar with AS3 and FlashPunk, which really helped me work quickly. I’ve also programmed tile-based collisions before many times before, so a pretty big chunk of the code I wrote was very familiar to me. I had also worked with Ogmo Editor before. And also Paint.NET and FlashDevelop on that note. I did have to learn the basics of Linux MultiMedia Studio very quickly at the end to make the music, but fortunately that went really smoothly.

Picking a style I’m confident with – I’ve made many small games in the past, and almost all of them have been pixel-art-style 2D platformers. I stuck with what I know and love. I do have ideas for future games that aren’t 2D platformers, so that will help me branch out and hopefully be refreshing.

Great working environment – I feel this is worth noting. I’m staying at my parent’s house over the summer, and everything was quiet and relaxed, so I had nothing to worry about except working on the game.

What could have been better:

Level length, mabye – I made the level really short because I couldn’t think up any interesting puzzles without having to introduce more gameplay elements, and didn’t want to put in any filler to drag the game out. Originally I had planned for a bunch more elements, like picking up and moving gears to connect certain machines, but I ran out of time and decided to keep it simple. But I think the game could stand to be a bit longer.

Jumping leeway, mute button – The blocks have 16×16 px hitboxes, but the graphics are a bit wider than that. This resulted in players jumping when they still looked like they were standing on the edge of a block, but had just fallen off. I played the game so much that I must have gotten used to it. Adding in a bit of leeway would have been nice. Also, I didn’t think to include a mute button. Things to do next time!

Thanks for all the love! <3

P.S. I tried to draw the cat rocking out on the wrench like a guitar, but I couldn’t get it just right.

Hi everyone,

I don’t submit to the last LD for vacation and I got a too ambitious idea. I see great games and I will try again the next LD.

The studio where I work do a crowdfunding campagn for a project that is not a LD entry. I don’t know all the rules of the community  for blog posting and I want to know if I can post for this campagn or not on this site.

Thank for your comment.

It only shows the coolness rating for my game, why is that?

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=8717

Give me all your animals!

Quite some people were aided by their pets during this LD. I made bookmarks of all cat pictures and videos that I found during the LD but I was somehow busy creating a game so I might have missed some. Also I would like to extend this to all animals not only cats!

I am planning to do a collection of all animal images, videos and stories that have been created during this LD.

If you did a somehow animal and LD related post or picture or video during the LD please post a link to it in the comments of this post so I can add them to the collection. I will post all of it here once it’s done Thanks in advance and meow!

My game, Time Wizard, is something I’m legitimately proud to have in my portfolio.  This game, made in 48 hours, reflects my skill very well.  It shows my strengths and weaknesses as a programmer.  Because of this, I know what I should embrace in my games, and what I need to improve.

View my results here : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=6412

I almost broke top 100 with my theme usage.  I also got pretty close with fun, which makes me very happy.  This being my second Ludum Dare, I’m just glad to have a playable entry that people enjoy.

I hope your entries went well, and see you next LD!

I guess I should post-mortem my game now that the ratings are out.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=7956

Well, basically, my game wasn’t very good, but wasn’t particularly bad either. In fact, it got a 2.50 overall score, so I guess the word that comes to mind is ‘average’ or ‘mediocre’. I can deal with this.

What went well:

Haxepunk and my dodgy engine that’s slowly forming over the top of it:

There are some parts of my code that aren’t sensible and it needs a lot of tuning, but I can make things fast and slot in code from other games and it just works without lots of copying and pasting and awfulness. In general the programming went very smoothly – sure, there were a few instances of getting tripped up for an hour or so while some stupid bug caused by my own stupidity wouldn’t die, but generally speaking the code flowed freely.

The music:

I certainly didn’t expect to put this in the ‘things that went well’ section, and I feel kind-of bad that people liked the music because I spent about a minute in Otomata making it. It literally took no effort on my part and it was the very last thing I did before submitting and crashing.

What went poorly:

Time management:

I had flat-zero ideas for the theme and if I hadn’t woken up and found it a rainy miserable day I probably would have given up. I started a full 24 hours late. I also spent a few hours at local festivals that were going on in the neighbourhood, though I don’t think that had much effect. I started work at 10am and submitted around 4am the next morning (deadline being 10am my time) – I probably should have used the remaining time to polish but it was playable and I didn’t care anymore.

The ‘features’:

I tweeted around 3am: ‘Alright, there are no more bugs – only features!’.

Which is all well and good, but unfortunately no one else appreciated the ‘feature’ of the collision detection breaking 30 seconds in. It’s not as broken as most people thought, I think – you can still kill them with some effort and getting them to cross the hand a few times, but … yeah, it’s a bug that I decided not to fix because it was really late and I knew it would be really hard to fix. Plus it adds some challenge to the game so you can’t just sit in front of the hand … which is a stupid excuse. As my sister commented: ‘It’s really hard because at some point there’s so many guys breaking the rules that you can’t keep up’.

The movement bugs were well received though. There were actually no movement patterns besides ‘chase the player’, but when I changed a few values it appeared there were anyway. This is good, because that was part of the original plan that I didn’t get around to implementing.

The graphics:

I can’t believe I went with a shit-green-and-grey colour scheme. Anything would have been better, and it would have taken ten seconds with the paint bucket tool.

Anyway, enough navelgazing. It’s a miracle I released anything, so I’m not complaining in any case.

I timelapsed webcam footage and screen recordings, chronicling our team’s participation in the jam.

Do not watch if you are offended by the following:

• Nocturnal teenage boys.
• Excessive alcohol and caffeine consumption.
• Procrastination.
• Smooth Jazz.

Our submission Ten Ticks ‘Til Termination placed #1906. Not great, but this is the first time I’ve been able to submit anything. I’m looking forward to next time.

thanks to the feedback I received, I’m now making a new version of my LD27 entry!

more images:
http://abload.de/img/1fuqld.png
http://abload.de/img/5vyp7e.png
http://abload.de/img/4crr87.png
http://abload.de/img/3wjqyp.png
http://abload.de/img/2xkpjq.png

for now I’m adding better controls (WASD+mouselook), new types of shots and snakes, redoing the sound and stages (this time, more than one… xD), and little improvements here and there

it will take a time, but I couldn’t resist to show you this news! ^^

that’s all for now, and thanks to everyone who had played my game!

(sorry my terribad english xD)

Fleeting Reality

tl;dr I liked the look and atmosphere of my game. I hated everything else, or lack thereof. I’m currently making a post jam version that is completely different.

Fleeting Reality was my second attempt at Ludum Dare. I think I learnt a lot more from this one.

What went right?

– Graphics:
I liked what I created in the time, and I made a lot more that I never used.

– Atmosphere
The limited sounds and camera distortions created a semi creepy atmosphere I was aiming for.

What went wrong?

– Mechanics:
The mechanics worked in my mind, I translated them horribly. I didn’t give the player clear enough instructions either.

– Music:
If you’ve played the “game” (don’t if you haven’t not worth it) you’ll notice there is no music. I actually spent around 3 hours trying to record and edit eery piano music. My mic was screwing up for the first couple of hours then I decided it really didn’t fit the game at all.

– No fun:
The game simply was tedious to play. Part of this is not getting solid mechanics. Also I forced the theme into the game too much.

Tips for myself for next Ludum Dare.

– Find the fun, before anything else.
– Code more, draw less.
– Be better with tools.
– Invest in a midi keyboard and/or learn to make music on computer.

POST JAM VERSION

So as I said I like the atmosphere. I made a lot of assets so I’m currently making a post jam version.

Everything is different, everything.

First 10 seconds will be a thing of the past, sorry theme but you gotta go.

Next you won’t actually control the patient directly. There will be two forces of “unreality” trying to manipulate the reality of the room. The player and the computer. Reality will slowly crumble. You need to manipulate the player to make your version of reality victorious.

The patient is meant to be creepy insane, so I thought having the player actually controlling him ruins the concept. The gameplay is a lot more involved.

Also the patient now zaps stuff when reality is distorted enough.

I wrote a small test game (tetris clone) in TurboC while I was trying to get comfortable with writing games for DOS, I’d be happy to try and answer any questions if anyone is intending to target the same compiler / platform for the upcoming low-level MiniLD. I found this to be an excellent resource.

As I’ve just been using emulation and don’t have the actual hardware, I was also wondering if anyone has a 486 that they’d be able to test it out on? Assuming it runs you can hold F12 during gameplay to see the FPS. The game is over here. If you want to play it on a non-DOS system it should run on 32bit windows, dosbox can be used to run it on any other platform.

The prototype was created for Ludum Dare #24.
It definitely deserved a video feature for my portfolio.

What do you think? What’s the game’s potential?

So, a few weeks ago, I made a post talking about making my game as a more full game, in it I set a release date for myself, which was the 20th. I planned on making that, but I just don’t think I can. So, I will be releasing it as a more full game, I just don’t know when. (Not that anyone cares.) I fixed some of the biggest problems today. I might add some more levels tonight. I don’t know if it will have ten levels, but I will try. I am playtesting a lot to find bugs that I can polish. I am taking away the 10 seconds theme, because it caused too many bugs and really just made the game not fun. This is about making a game for myself, not the compo anymore. Thanks guys!
Stay tuned!

~Blade