Ok, tough decision, I decided to forfeit and abandon this Ludum Dare.

Here’s what I had : http://cubertoy.free.fr/LD30/index.html

The story was that a person had an accident and, once in the water, try to get out of the car. When he wakes up, he can hear his own voice on the radio. The goal is to get all the item necessary to escape, switching from both world (both parallel earth, different dimensions) to get them. Three to make some kind of oxygen tank, and the others to break the glass. At the end, you would be able to get out… only if you undo the security belt… and only one of them would escape.

As I said in my previous post, missing the crafting, dialogue, abbility to swith cursor to “look” etc… I can’t deliver something good enough. Plus it’s missing sounds and tons of other stuff I’ve planned to do. I had enough and it’s no longer fun or anything, just painfull. And if it’s painfull, ther’s no point in doing it any longer.

It was my third LD, quitting is a first.

Tags: end, quit

I finished making my game. The graphics are not as good as I wished them to be, but I guess at least I managed to maintain a consistent style. Music isn’t there, as I’m terrible at composing, but at least there are some generic sfx.

Now I have to export everything then upload it and I’m done.

Unity, ~300 lines of code.
Other tools: Inkscape, GIMP, Sfxr.

What went right:
For my 2nd Ludum Dare I wanted to be more adventurous, thinking harder about the theme interpretation than I did for LD 29 (where I just made an arcade game which vaguely used the theme). I did not use my first few ideas, or rush into it. I went away from my desk to think. Finally, I decided on a genre new to me; a slower-paced puzzle/adventure based on dreams, with some narrative elements and a real ending.

Overall, I’m fairly happy with the end result, and I enjoyed working in a different genre. I think the game successfully conveys what I was aiming for, and uses the ‘connected worlds’ theme in multiple ways. I took some inspiration from games like Journey and Dear Esther (walking simulators..?), and even the ‘P.T.’ teaser — all those repeating doors and riddles!

The controls are simple, no complications there. The graphics took a long time to make, but I was aiming for a dream-like style. However, some of the filters are used to simply hide my dodgy drawing . I did not attempt 3d models this time (next time!).
There were no major problems in Unity, except my general lack of experience and a few crashes. The scope of the game was correct for the time available, I didn’t feel too rushed on the 2nd day. I only wasted a bit of time on mechanics that didn’t make it into the final game.
I created just 2 sound effects, but I thought it was enough (less is more??). Bad music would just detract from the game.

What went wrong:
I originally planned to use a range of interactions, e.g. having the player’s controls transfer to the other people/items in the scene. However, my initial attempts just didn’t look or work right, so I had to re-think it all on day 2, which is never the best idea.
The creation of the graphics was both good and bad; its not quite as nice as I would like, but it has a mostly cohesive style. The colors and shapes could’ve been stronger. The game doesn’t really use full 3d, all the graphics are flat sprites in the 3d scene.
Didn’t get a chance to get much feedback from players before submitting the final game.
Finally, I slept really badly on Saturday night (ironically enough), so I wasn’t exactly feeling 100%.

Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=36950

** SPOILERS!! Play game before reading! ** The stages in the game are of course a metaphor for sleep stages and trying to wake up. The other figures are memories of friends etc in your dream, or perhaps other dreamers. You cannot trigger the final stages by passing through the windows/portals alone, you must enter just after another figure has passed through from the other side, i.e. whilst you are both still glowing (‘connected worlds’ again). Who knows, maybe this process helps you sort out your memories, then finally conclude your dream…

Hi guys!

Sad news, but I don’t want to finish my game about a depressive girl.

With the Jam day ahead I still would have enough time and energy to finish.

The thing is, that I don’t feel like I’m enough into the topic of depression, to give actual advice (what the game is about).
I feel like I could misinform people and thus make the  situation for some depressive people even worse instead of better.

I think I suffered a slight depression multiple times in my life by now, but I never seen a therapist or anything, so I’m not sure.
Other than that, my main source of information was basically Wikipedia. I wouldn’t say that’s a good base.

I’ll write a post-mortem these days with some learnings. I had a lot of fun drawing the levels!

I’m also eager to play some entries and give the creators helpful feedback.

A huge thanks to all those who talked with me about the game!

Choo choo!

…But I won’t release it until tomorrow, because the main “music” theme will still need to be improved (currently it is an annoying drum-only track). Here is a GIF animation that shows the title screen. I have also added the ‘Game Over!’ -screen and two other bulls (one with two heads and another with one eye) but they are not shown in the GIF.

The game still has some balancing issues I’ll fix tomorrow. If you want, you can play the current version here: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/multidimensional-bull-slaughter/32983/.

Well I just submitted my game “Tinker Maze” here at Ludum Dare. This is my first game jam I have taken part in. I really wanted to see what it was like to have to get a game done in 48 hours. I took part in a little contest on IGM a year ago but I had a week to get my game done so doing a game in this timeline was new to me.

When I saw the theme connected worlds I wasn’t sure what I would do. But I saw my kids toys on the floor and got an idea to do a game about Tinker Toys. I decided to use Game Maker 8 as my engine it isn’t as fancy as Studio but it has some nice features and it compiles quickly on my computer.

I modeled all the wheels and sticks etc in Anim8tor that took  me a couple hours.  Then I built my first room and the idea came to me to make a maze game just moving the pieces around the other pieces that join to it.

Level design was pretty much the bulk of the project designing the 8 mazes was not unlike playing Tinker Toys with my kids. The mazes I made sure were not unbeatable but challenging enough.

The greatest challenge was getting through the day after staying up til all hours of the night working on a game. Good thing it’s the weekend but weekends are usually for recharging yourselves.

Phew, that was a stretch. Two days coding hard with C++ / SDL / OpenGL / Box2D.

And I am happy with the result, even managed to squeeze a menu in there! (that is hard with only those libs)

I still didn’t the title/gameOver/theEnd screens, but will be the last thing. Time to code again and make it works.

Running against time! :¬O

6 hours left to go, and I have almost all of the basic game in place! Docking mechanics are working, player can die if they take too much damage, player can speed up by holding down shift, which also affects the “fuel remaining” and “distance to goal” calculations. game can be paused with spacebar, and there is a main menu.

About to start coding a very basic menu for getting a transport mission while docked. I wanted to have lots of other dock services, like repair/refuel and upgrades but for now I’ll just try and get the core gameplay finished to allow the player to choose from a few different transport missions, then fly to the next station to deliver the cargo. Other features, like random encounters, deployable attack drones for the player, pirate ambushes, etc. will have to be added after Ludum Dare #30. I just don’t think I have time to get those in, but I really want to after the competition. Feel free to follow me on twitter:   www.twitter.com/axebane  for updates about my game, including release info if I end up making a full game out of it.   😀

Oh, and the title is still undecided. Working title is:  Bald-Faced Space Truckers

Been really enjoying this event, and I’ll be looking forward to the next one!

I don’t think I can make anything else today and so my “Two Worlds” game is out. Yay. It’s even playable and fun (sometimes). You can check it on compo page.

In a few words – it’s a text-based strategy about two worlds, connected through the Portal. One has food, another has fuel and they trade with each other each month. But their resources aren’t infinite, so one Realm will fall at the end. You can choose a Realm to play with (and actually you can control the other realm if you want – buttons are clickable). Also there is an “automate” function – it will produce some goods and select trade option for both Realms – you just need to enable it and click on “Open Portal” button. Also there is a restart button in the top-right corner. Have fun

Tags: LD30, ld48, progress, screenshot, Two Worlds, unity

Second Day of Ludum Dare went quiet well for us. While we had barely anything to play in the morning, Shit Ahead is now in a state to check out balances etc.

Here is the Mainscreen and a Scratch of it, and a Ingame-scene. The Character got Shot by the evil NoShit-Protesters. I’m going to create a Soundcloud Profile to give you a preview of the Soundtrack!

Good luck and Work to all the Compo-guys!

Kristof, Philipp, Anna & Nico

Finally, after 1 day of wasted work and another of some work, for my first Ludum Dare I have a retro space game where you have to avoid the CONNECTED WORLDS!

I think it might be a bit loosely connected, but it’s all I’ve got 😛

See it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=39482

(also, there’s no sound because I have no sound equipment at all)

Current WiP: Unity Web Build

I’ve got the core of my re-designed mechanic in place, need to fill in some of the more interesting stories and extend it to include the win condition. Don’t think I’ll manage any major graphical or sound improvements now, but I’m pleased with the gameplay I’ve managed to build.

The idea is that you start on one world in a galactic network of stars joined by jumpgates – but more than a hundred years ago, the network fell and every world was cut off and forced to fend for itself. Your world was the first to develop a Pathfinder key – a way to force each gate open again and explore the galaxy. As you explore, you find major systems – centres of trade and manufacturing – surrounded by smaller, satellite systems. Each smaller system has its own story, and a way to feed back into the major system it “orbits” – get the major systems back to their full potential, and you can start reactivating the hub gates to explore more of the galaxy, and eventually the central hub of the whole network.

But not everyone wants to play nicely, and you may have to make some hard decisions to get the galaxy reconnected.

Oke here we go for day 2!

Only 5 hours left on the clock and I’m ready for my second day.
I’m pretty happy with my progress so far and the thing I have is actually somewhat fun and a playable game.
Not sure how far I will come polish wise but I’m sure it’ll be pretty neat non the less.

Good luck all with the final hours and have fun!

See you soon at the finish line!

Was doing some playtesting and noticed this generated planet:

My first Ludum Dare, happy that I was able to submit a “working” game.  I struggled to find good ideas for the Connected Worlds theme, and I didn’t want to go with worlds==planets. So the levels/layers in my game are goods producing worlds and jobs, connected to a chain. There were more lofty goals of course, and the theme is not that apparent in the game. Graphics are crude, I knew from the beginning that I wouldn’t have time to do anything with them really, so they’re mostly just colored boxes.

My main idea to make the thing a bit more cool was with the sounds – but that didn’t quite pan out. The different workers and boxes were supposed to produce different kinds of sounds in a rhythm, creating a semi-harmonius random soundscape. There are sounds, they are somewhat in sync, but it just didn’t work like I wanted it to. Surely could’ve spent some more time on tuning the sounds though.

Positives: working game, can be finished, some sound aspects are working

Negatives: not much – my goals were quite humble since this was my first compo entry. Ran out of steam towards the end, couple of hours of tuning would’ve made it better.

not going to be as polished as I like but oh well, tell me what you think!

The Idea is that the player “Shifts” to different worlds to complete puzzles and reach the end of the level. I have a feeling I will not make it in time but I do plan on finishing this game, and have been doing status updates on my Blog.

For the first time of all james I participate we finished the game very fast. Well, really really fast.
On 24h our game was done.

This was new to me, usually a few minutes before end the jam we are making the game. And finish without finished.
Normally is three days without sleep, or eat good food… and in this Jam, 24h after start, we finish.

Intriguing.

BUT, today I start put flavors!
yeah… a lot of flavors… We planned a experimental game, with sounds and easy way to play. Some thing we never made before.

I like the result.

Now we are hunting bugs (we never hunting bugs before on a jam) and soon we finished we will publish Universal Feeling!

Tags: DevThought, LD30

Okay, so our game is about texting your partner whilst waiting for your connecting flight in London Heathrow.

Our interpretation of the theme of ‘Connected Worlds’ focuses on interpersonal relationships, taking ‘worlds’ to mean somebody’s private world, and connection being the means by which that private world intersects and interferes with other people’s private worlds through their relationships. So we have three types of connection at play here – we have the airport location which acts as a point of connection between two different places, the personal connection to your partner, and the connection between you and a mysterious third person who becomes the subject of conversation.

My friend Sandy is doing the art for the project: here’s a look at the phone from which the player interacts with their partner:

Isn’t that good? And having it done makes the whole project feel more complete, more doable! Speaking of complete, here’s a view of the Twine node map of the 90% done script!

What this is an experiment (?) in is presenting the player with a situation without giving them prior information on it. The game is essentially asking the player to roll with the punches, to take in new information, use it to adjust their view of the scenario and make a response accordingly. You are essentially blagging your way through this dialogue tree – we don’t expect it to necessarily be fun per se, but hopefully it’s interesting.