My jam entry is rooted in board games, which makes it more complex than some people may be used to.  Since the in game help is limited I thought I would make a quick tutorial video.  If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Play Icarus Crisis

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=29998

Tags: board game, icarus crisis, jam, LD30, strategy, turn-based, tutorial

After some much needed sleep, I realized I forgot to put up the link for Realmskeeper, my LD30 jam entry (I linked directly to the webhost, but not the Ludumdare game page) .  So here it is.

Postmortem+stuff to follow.  Need to sleep more.  In the meantime, please enjoy (and maybe rate)  Realmskeeper, a game of Connected Worlds made with Twine.  Comments are much appreciated!

Live long and prosper, dudes.

-Markman

Has it developed self awareness? Well, maybe… But before worrying about whether or not a game jam entry could become the next Skynet, you should try playing it : it’s a fun and colorful RTS in HTML 5

Project page
And tomorrow, I shall write the Post Mortem of this great adventure!

Meteor Merchant – Freudian – Jam Entry

The last upload i made had a faulty version and you were unable to progress due to the autosave feature saking permision into an encrypted file. The issue has now been fixed but the installation meathod is a little different.
Enjoy!

Mouse control supported, Keyboard controls are Arrow
keys or Left Click to move and Z and X to interact (Or Esc and Enter). Shift allows the player to sprint whilst moving.
Game produced in RPG MAKER VX ACE. Produced within 72 hours and submitted to the Jam.

You play as a Rogue Artifact Hunter.
In search of riches you set out to explore the galaxy, venturing far and wide. After your last expedition you took near fatal damage and returned home safely. Get your ship back in order and explore the galaxy once more and search for minerals and Artifacts of both Rarity and Value.

Please rate and comment! 😀

Hi guys, this is a post-mortem of : Must to be Invasion

For those who have not played I recommend you play, to better understand what I mean. I will cite references in the game to practical examples.

What I used:
– Unity 4.6 (2D project)
– Photoshop
– Audition
– Google

Time-Lapse
Day 22/08 – Start: 23h – Total work: 5 hours
– 3 hours of brainstorm
– 1 hour enhancement concept
– 1 hour prototype
– Sleep (4am day 23)

Day 23/08 – Start: 13h – Total labor: 16 hours
– 2 hours drive to implement player
– 3 hours collecting the web assets
– 2 pm Lunch / Dinner / Rest / Play / Chat
– Implement person 30 minutes
– 1 hours Implementing player commands (shoot, abduct)
– 30 minutes Implement cars
– 1 hours Implementing fake-physics
– 1 hours tidying bugs
– 1 hours rewriting code to be more readable
– 2 hours placing and arranging scenery animations, camera
– 2 hours writing fake-AI for helicopters
– 30 minutes implementing the helicopters
– “Breakfast” 30 minutes
– 1 hours testing and correcting bugs
– Sleep (15h day 24)

Day 24/08 – Start: 15h – Total labor: 7 hours
– 4 hours Rest / Eat / Play
– 1 hours tidying bugs
– 30 minutes implementing life cycle (person dies -> turns ghost -> abducts -> turns zombie)
– 1 hours Fixing problems in resolving
– 1 hours recreating scenario
– 1 hours and adding difficulty leaving the way I think it has to be the level
– 30 minutes implementing sound
– 2 hours doing input screen and other screens
– end

This was my first ludumdare, but not first GameJam. So there are some things I had in mind when I decided to enter:
– Make a game that I already have in mind how to start (like platform, running, football, etc), ie, not risk on land that I have no idea where to start
– Use an engine and language (programming) I understand and used before
– The clear concept is the key
– Eat well
– Sleep well
– Know what your potential. Ex: not necessarily choose the first idea that comes to mind after seeing the theme
– Know the difference between technique and what can be done in 48h / 72h. I often fall into the trap of thinking you could do a game in so long only because I had already had done and know-how, but unfortunately time is needed, not only to produce but to fix things that do not work, improving among other aspects. Ex: Make a spaceship game
– Do a post-mortem of the game and numbering (if possible) what were the failures and what happened as planned. This also applies to personal growth

What I learned and / or should have done
– I need to learn more about other areas (art, sound). Ex: Scenario
– I need to stop spending so much time on things that will not change the player experience, or enrich the game. Ex: animation of the input screen
– Structured better the game, from beginning to end before starting. Ex: no end, and in the middle of the project I thought of putting an end, put two players
– Having planned my time better. Ex: I overslept and spent time playing and doing other things

What will never be satisfied and always will think that I have to improve (for game jams)
– Learn more about the tool
– Structure the game before you start
– Polishing, polishing and polishing. I know it’s not possible, but I feel well and is not too bad.
– Mechanics and Design Level

Do not know if this will help someone, I found it necessary to share with you what I went through.
There is a saying: what good is an education if you do not pass along?

For the last, I encourage you to write and share your post-mortem, I would love to read.

I hope I have been as thorough. I swear I blacked out many other details to spare you from them.

Comments, criticisms are welcome.

Thanks for reading this far.

Images – More images here

Tags: 2D, game, jam, Must to be Invasion, post-jam, post-mortem, postmortem, unity, unity3d

Hello everyone! Adrián here from the PinkNinja team, already rested from this intense weekend. Man, what an experience! It was our first Ludum Dare and I now see how these things can be pretty addictive. It is indeed a great experience and I feel like I have learned a lot of things in very little time. I feel like I have just leveled up in my game development skills xD

So, before I start my little analysis of the event and the things we did I have to thanks everyone who assisted, the other two teams Cosmonautas and Unicorn Madness whose members also helped us with some advice and bug cleaning, and of course, my team, the Pink Ninjas because people you are the best team ever. I was going to write a small general line but hell, you all deserve more than that: Thanks to Jonatan for his willingness to work and move forward,to Natalia for giving the name to the team and being a one women army (she thought she wasn’t gonna be useful to the team and ended being the hardest working member),to Javi  for his great watercolor art that gave life to the world of “Erithacus Link” and his patience when re-doing stuff,to Andreass for his imagination, giving birth to the characters and of course bringing up the idea which later made the game possible, to Rayco for his great resolve, not showing any doubts working with new technology and working hard until the very end, and last but not least thanks to Alberto Cruz, your last minute addition was a key element in finishing the game. Once again to all of you, Thank you, Thank You, Thank you!

So now lets star with our post portem. As with the Ludum Dare 30, this is also my first. What went right? We finished the game. It may not seem much (especially to those who did not participate) but the finishing only is something great that was accomplished. If to this we add that only I had game development experience and that we only worked for about 28 hours… Well I think we did something pretty amazing. I look back and I get chills just thinking about the weekend.

Getting into more detail: the brainstorming all teams did on Saturday was pretty good. We good out all the bad ideas first and suddenly we started just spitting better and better stuff, pitty we could only develop one idea The time management was well planned too. We knew what things we needed to cut out when time got short and we knew how to change our game accordingly adapting it to the new schedule. Others would failed at this point we… evolved. The Learning curve: Natalia and Jonatan learned level design, Andreass and Javi the needs and the art of a videogame, Rayco learned Unity in one day… Have I said that my team was amazing? There where many other things but I’m keeping this short

What went wrong: I can only talk for myself, as an individual, this time. As time got shot I may have gotten a bit stressed (specially Sunday) and snapped fast responses to some of you. Sorry about that. Also I need to work better on my communication skills. I don’t think that, as a game designer, I achieved to transmit the vibe and sensations that I believed were important to the game. Also we had some misunderstandings due to the last too points. I probably should have explained things better because although it was my first ludum, it was not my first game. So basically what I need to work on:

• Knowing your team: What they can do, what they can’t and HOW they do things.
• Relax, chill and have fun. It was only for a couple of minutes but I let the stress get the better of me.
• Communication skills! Relax and explain things as many times as they are needed.

Again, there sure are many others but 658 words so far are sure a lot of words

I hope that you like our little game tribute, if you haven’t played it yet please do so There is a lot of hard work behind

Have fun everyone!

Hey there!

I just wanted to post my game, Spayce!

It is a self-procedurally generated dungeon crawler in space!
except very dumbed down because 48 hours

HERES SOME COOL SCREENSHOTS

WOW LOOK AT THAT

yeah. timelapse coming soon! and post-mortem.

Thanks for playing!!

Can Confirm All In Working Order Now 😀

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/1i2r1kbwoky5ppf/LudumDare.exe?dl=0 [DOWNLOAD]

Heres the working game-play trailer, please consider checking it out guys I really hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXQhaXfB4I&feature=youtu.be

[AUTOSAVE ERROR FIXED, SMALL ENCRYPTION PROBLEM. DIDNT TAKE LONG ALL DONE :D]

Mouse control supported, Keyboard controls are <^> Arrow
keys or Left Click to move and Z and X to interact (Or Esc and Enter). Shift allows the player to sprint whilst moving.
Game produced in RPG MAKER VX ACE. Produced within 72 hours and submitted to the Jam.

You play as a Rogue Artifact Hunter.
In search of riches you set out to explore the galaxy, venturing far and wide. After your last expedition you took near fatal damage and returned home safely. Get your ship back in order and explore the galaxy once more and search for minerals and Artifacts of both Rarity and Value.

Please rate and comment thankyou!! 😀

I had a lot of fun this Ludum Dare, I used my own engine this time which I’m very happy about and Pyxel Edit was awesome.

My game is call The Torment Isles, you can play it here

I’m having a lot of fun playing all your games, good job everyone!

Well, my first comment is that it went well. This was my first LD, and to be honest it was as much about making a game as it was to discover whether I actually enjoyed that — that is, to work hard on a game.

I enjoyed it. There is a certain satisfaction in seeing the accomplished work (no matter how far it is from what we expected it to be at first, no matter what we had to scacrifice in order to get it delivered unto the audience ere the deadline) which I was lucky enough to experience and which I hope to experience many times again in the future.

Things that went well:

• When deciding to participate in LD, I had one goal in mind: finish a game, no matter what. That’s exactly what I did. I woke up at 3am (South Africa yay!) to look at the theme and start thinking about it. I had to decide what engine to use, and ended up choosing Twine precisely to be sure to finish my game (technical difficulties might have arisen with Phaser, given my relative inexperience in computer programming).
• By the end of the day I had written a big part of my game, or rather story, because it lacked any kind of real branching or player agency. My goal not being for the player to just click through masses of text, but actually be puzzled and perhaps try to understand what was at work, and what was questionned by the game. Given some of the comments I received, that goal is achieved.
• I made the good call ( I think) to scrap all the art that I drew Saturday morning, because it weakened any impression the game might have on the player. Though this meant throwing away a few precious hours of work, I am convinced the game would be ridiculous with it.

Things that could have gone better:

• Preparation: not enough sleep during the week, did not go shopping for food beforehand (though I have to admit that going for groceries at 7 in the morning while all my housemates are still passed out from too much partying gives one strange of empowerment).
• Ambition: Obviously, next time I must make a graphical game, not that a Twine game is not a real game, but simply because I have to get out of my comfort wone (writing). Get those sprites going!
• Player agency in the game: even though some people found it interestingm I wish I had had time to really give more possibilities for players to interact with the story, give more repercusions, more connection between the worlds…

Things I learned:

• About text games: just because it’s text does not mean it is easier, because to implement a new mechanic you have to write it in, which can be a problem if inspiration is not here.
• About games: for the first time I actually found myself realising that I had to think about how others would approach my work, and interact with it. This is totally new to me, and a great lesson learned.

And now, back to rating stuff!

Ludum Dare 30 was a success.

The prototype we made, as specified in one of my personal blog posts, is a modern retake on Shockwave game Spybot: The Nightfall Incident.

Gameplay Screenshot

It features two abilities inspired by the “bug” program in Spybot (I forget the name): Add tile and remove tile. The basic idea is that enemies are scattered on different ‘islands’ and you have to build paths to get to them or remove paths to block them off.

PLAY IT HERE

The prototype was developed by four people, although sound effects were created by audio composer Rich Douglas from the previous 2D version of the project mentioned here: http://www.exeneva.com/2013/08/cohack-a-reimagination-of-spybot-the-nightfall-incident/

Ultimately, the jam went very well. I’m going to keep this postmortem short and highlight the main points of what worked out for us.

Team Logistics

I believe the key to teams is having a manager. When the team is more than three people, having one person who is in charge of overseeing the project is important. This keeps people from sending a file to all team members or not knowing who to turn to when something is in question. This manager would also be in charge of logistics and balancing the work schedules of other team members. I was the team manager for this project, and here are the things I did to keep everyone together:

• Brainstorming. Since I was working with two people I found on Reddit, it was important for me to find out what timezones the team worked in. For this LD, the team was scattered all over the world and I’m pretty sure I sacrificed the most sleep to keep things together. For me, it was important to know a.) timezones and b.) general ‘work hours’ since everyone was doing this on their free time.
• Kickoff Solidarity. We knew that ‘Connected Worlds’ was the most-voted theme leading up to the event, so we started brainstorming ideas a few days before. When the theme turned out to be what we expected, we made a quick Skype call to share ideas and come up with what we considered ‘core’ and what is considered ‘extra’, this way everyone knew what we were working on first and what the bare minimum of our submission was intended to be.
• Prioritizing. This is my third time participating in LD, and one of the things I’m personally good at is maintaining scope. The first LD I participated in was a heck of a mess in the first hour, with people putting down ideas without really solidifying what the ‘core game’ was going to be. For the last LD and this one, I made sure the team remained focused on agreeing upon a ‘core’ and then voting on what ‘extras’ were most important. For example, the minimap at the bottom right was the most agreed upon ‘extra’ in a big list of ideas, and because we had a list of priorities we were able to incorporate it and keep the project as a whole from ever getting sidetracked.
• Wrap-Up. The final 12 hours of a jam can be very stressful. Team members who aren’t programmers are generally worried whether the project is going to be finished because they aren’t a part of the final building process (creating the executable or web-playable version). Again, this is where the manager comes in: I was able to tell team members ‘Ok here’s where we are, here’s what I expect by the time you wake up, which will be after the submission period’. I think everyone on my team who had to sign off before submission did so without any worry.

There’s not a lot that went wrong with this jam and I’m very confident that the December jam will be just as smooth. We plan to continue working on this game after the jam, renaming it Cohack: Nightfall in reference to Spybot: The Nightfall Incident. If you’re interested, feel free to follow us on social media:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/cohacknightfall

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cohacknightfall

We also have a working design document that anyone can comment on if they would like to give suggestions for the game: http://goo.gl/OWtsgb

Please check out our ludum dare entry and tell us what you think!

Hey All. This was our 1st ludum dare, And i am very glad to say that it was an awesome experience. Its crazy to see how fun some of these games are.. And i would like to say good job to everyone.  We will be entering the next one for sure :P..

So… Our game..  I would have to say our scope was very big.. and we did it in a nick of time… Nevertheless we did it.. The game is currently in a demo phase, And we will continue to develop the game into a multiplayer survival game based on another planet.. There are a few kinks in the game as we did not have time to put it into a testing phase..

Please feel free to test and rate our game..

Download Here

Here is a map you might find helpful..

Please enjoy..

Kind Regards

Wiaan “Slikker” Oosthuizen

Alright, having played some other games a little, I think I can write that thing somewhat menacingly called “post mortem”. For the reference, the game I made was Collision. The tools I used were GameMaker: Studio for general engine (along with earlier declared PARADIGMOSIS framework in progress thing), OpenMPT for soundtrack and Audacity for OGG conversion, SFXR for sound effects (I admit, it really *is* an awesome tool, especially in such short jams). It was for the 48 hours competition, but in the end I feel it ended up better than my earlier games for other 72-hours competitions.

What went right:

• first of all, I guess the preparations; I ended up using pretty much all features I made beforehand, one of them very much so, and I feel it really sped things up or allowed details that I probably couldn’t bother with otherwise; it seems the system I came up with works and is worth further development
• I decided not to bother with the interface too much, knowing that this beast takes too long to make compared to results (especially when time is much needed); instead, I focused on creating the core mechanics and ended up having them done by the end of the first day. The fact that these mechanics didn’t require elements like pop-up windows or anything similar helped a lot, too
• I managed to throw in some music (that people apparently like) and sounds, as well as their respective mute buttons; also, I even succeeded in making the twist with soundtrack changing, even though it kept desyncing for me (interestingly, no one else reported it so far; perhaps it’s something local? O.o”)
• I actually made a game that can be completed; sure, it’s very lacking and most areas are pretty empty, but still; I hope I made the ending screen rewarding enough ^^”

What went wrong:

• my sleeping patterns… u_u”
• game’s source code (as expected for quick application coding)
• wasted some time trying to get audio right
• didn’t add other characters to talk to, or maybe obstacles to avoid
• ran out of time to add proper abilities rather than barrier keys; though I didn’t really had high hopes about that
• possibly the game doesn’t explain things properly, though reports about that aren’t very often so far? O.o”

What I’ve learned:

• all ideas are equal, but some are more equal; and they might be faster to execution
• game development can be insanely quick indeed, especially with proper tools ^^”
• I really am a coder… I can’t do graphics nor music… I really am a coder… I can’t do graphics nor music…

Overall, it was quite fun participating in that compo, though I guess the next time I’ll prefer to participate in the Jam instead; I’m not overly fond of sharing my entire general codebase with everyone else, and 72 hours is still longer than 48. Plus, I don’t like coding the same functionality over and over again. ^^”

I’m curious about what the results will be… I guess I’ll need to wait quite a bit. Still, I probably will do some additional voting every now and then…
(on a side note, whoever came up with the coolness rating and it affecting the order of suggested games to play was a genius; it really seems to work!)

I guess that’s it. Need to work in fixing my sleeping patterns… probably won’t touch the development itself for a little while… ^^”

My Ludum dare this time was different from any previous entry. Earlier I had pretty clear ideas about the outcome, each theme was suited for me… but this time…. this time my 72 hour jam went pretty differently. Here’s some thoughts.

Day 1: “I think I just start drawing some pixel dudes”

• Realize the theme Connected Worlds gives me zero ideas
• Mind blank. Resort to plan B.
• Plan B: draw pixel vikings with a mighty beard
• Pretend that the theme is “Isolated” and start developing a survival game !!! POST-MORTEM REFLECTION: THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP. I WOULD NOT HAVE AN LD48 JAM ENTRY IF I HADN’T STARTED WORKING ON SOMETHING !!!
• Realize vikings don’t live on an isle. They will live in a woods. Now. They want to build a settlement, a viking long house. For some reason.
• Get some ideas about the gameplay mechanics.
• Draw more pixel vikings and stones and whatnot.

Day 2: “I think I need to start coding…”

• Read bit of viking mythology, realize that Midgård and Valhalla would be good… realize that drawing new art has a great impact on where this game is going
• Work on mechanics: building, characters, long term goals (viking house), short term aid (food). Plan conflict (Valhalla creatures could attack them…?)
• Start writing code (it was very strange that I started writing code on the second day, I drew art and planned the concept the whole first day and half of the second day or so.)

Day 3: “Leeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooyyyyy!!!”

• Concept is clear: Vikings want to build a long house settlement. They will encounter conflicts, bad weather and valhalla creatures. They will need to mine raw resources (wood, stone) and turn them into tools, buildings.
• Realize there’s no way all that can fit in
• Go on full LEEEEEEEEROOOOOY mode and get all the most important items in.
• Cut features.
• Forget UI. For example, selecting the “next item to build” was done using key E. I thought about that for like 2 seconds.
• Cut more features. Write code. Draw viking move animations. Finish strong.
• Who cares that Class instance of CameraHolder keeps track on resources which BuildingObject asks after receiving a message from some 3rd connected object. Also: Characters are now items too.
• Skip in-game instructions. Skip testing. Hope scoring works.
• SUBMIT THE ENTRY!

…and realize that right mouse click opens a context menu. That’s a pretty bad idea when right click is supposed to command the selected character.

But at least it’s done. I couldn’t get Valhalla creatures, nor bad weather, nor ice giants in… but it’s playable. Has goals. Some thinking. And those mighty bearded vikings.

And the most important step was to start working on something.

If you wanna try out my LD jam entry “Midgord Vikings”, feel free to play the web version or download here. If you have time, please test & comment. Thanks for reading.

… and a regular from now on.

What an amazing, creative and refreshing experience this Game Jam was. Despite not being happy with my game (a lot of things didn’t made it to the final version) i had a lot of fun and learned a LOT. Working with so little margin is a great way to take out the best of you, even if the result is not the one you were expecting. I think i never have been this involved with a personal project before. You can check the final version here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=36181 Criticism is welcomed!

Can’t wait for the next one!

Well, here we are.  End of our 3rd Ludum Dare and more tired than ever. Our Jam group stood strong as we lost our third developer right out of the gate and two of us continued on with a game concept waaay to ambitious for our diapers.

But no excuses and no regrets! we have paved the foundation for an awesome game and we want to continue at it.

I present to you: Gimbal Fighter

Losing the battle against an invading armada of battleships, you are tasked to turn the tables of war by flying into enemy territory and deploying a newly designed Warp Gate. Your tiny space ship “Gimbal Fighter” is designed to warp in, drop a warp beacon, defend it till construction is built, and wait for reinforcements.

The game play was designed around a rotating spherical cockpit that would allow you to rotate freely, shoot in any direction, and maintain flight path… Great for guerrilla warfare bombing runs.

We certainly did not get as far as we wanted to in the development of this game, but at least we had fun doing it and we’re definitely going to keep going till we finish. Keep an eye on us, give us some feedback, and check out our other games here:

Team Dingus’ past submissions

Best,

Kumoi

Here is my entry for LD30. Switchboard Connection: Connecting worlds, the old fashioned way! This is my third Ludum Dare entry to date.

This is my first project ever made in Unity. I have always developed in HTML5 and Javascript. There were quite a few ups and downs, but overall the experience was great.

Play as a switchboard operator, connecting calls as they come in. When a slot flashes yellow, pickup a red plug by clicking on it. Then listen to the caller to see what number they want to be connected to. Numbers are plotted on a grid, like battleship. Then pick up another red plug and place it into the caller’s desired slot. When they flash red, you can unplug the call.

Enjoy!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=11823

Hi everybody!

Well we did it, we set out to make the most complete game possible in the time frame of the jam and we’re super happy with how it turned out.

Here it is! Planet Jumper!

Become Larry the Astronaut and explore a world of colliding planets!

Don’t get hit!
Don’t fly into space!
Don’t stand on a planet too long, it explodes!

Do post your score to our online leaderboard and become Ultimate Planet Jumper Champion!
Do Listen to our lovely soundtrack!
Do collect coins and visit more planets to increase your score!
Do enjoy the scenery as planets collide and merge making all kinds of weird shapes!

If you play in the browser, make sure you try fullscreen mode!

One Love,
Hot Box Games

Starlight is an experimental story-based experience that explores the story of a mysterious being known as “The Cosmonaut” and the fictional past, present, and future of our own solar system. Oh, and it has voice acting, which we think is really neat. Why don’t you give it a try? You can play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=34877

It’s worth noting that due to the nature of the game, the file is about 48 MB, so we don’t have a web port available. However, we do have ports available for Windows, OS/X, and Linux.

And finally, if you’d prefer to search for Starlight, keep in mind that this particular game is created by PixelFeet. Stephenhaney made a game for the compo that is also called Starlight and it’s worth checking out, too.

Play and rate Starlight by PixelFeet here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=34877

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2014 at 9:03 pm and is filed under LD #30. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Last night we published our game at Gamejolt to make it easier for everyone to play it 😉

You can check it here – >http://gamejolt.com/games/action/the-forgotten-day/33254/

And to give us some feedback(pleeeease?), the link for our compo is this -> http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=22691  

We’ll be posting a little postmortem tomorrow with some ideas for the future off The Forgotten Day