Since there were a few people that liked my music for Galvatross, I threw it up onto my SoundCloud for people to listen to and download. Enjoy!

P.S. – you can check out my other music here: https://soundcloud.com/mrshoestore/

and play Galvatross here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=20984

For our Ludum Dare 31 entry, Duran and I made Coinslot, a socially constructed Rube-Goldberg invention toy. The idea is that the resulting machine is what really happens to coins when you put them into a vending machine, or arcade game, or whatever. Hey, it was a good idea, at least.

How it worked

You create a pipe machine using our tools:

Then once you’ve built the machine, test it to watch the coins go through:

Then, submit it to our online database where it will be linked in with other contraptions to make a giant rube goldberg machine!

It’s a lot smoother than in the GIF.

What went right

• We completed the client and server in time, only partially thanks to the tools we used.
• The game actually did WORK, if you consider immense load times and buggy javascript working.
• Ultimately it was really cool to see all 23 of the machines in action.  (Of the 53 that played, only 23 submitted. Sorta leads me to believe that most people didn’t even play the game. ¬_¬)

What went wrong

• The server required almost constant maintenance on the first 5 days or so because it kept breaking down. My javascript was to blame.
• It takes ages to load, thanks to our excellent “store giant PNGs on the server” technique of data storage. (like, multitudes of minutes.)
• The database itself is just a laptop sitting next to my router.
• Clickteam Fusion wasn’t the best game making tool for this job, really. We wrestled with the collision detection for a good while before getting it finally working.
• There weren’t enough parts! With the work on the server and the problems with Fusion, we only had enough time to make a few good parts. The rest is just bland default pipes.
• Only 23 people uploaded their machine. That means the other people didn’t even give the game a fair go. Since it only takes a few minutes to actually make a machine, that means some people must’ve just quit and given it a hasty rating in the first few minutes, which sucks. I can’t really blame them though, since upon loading the page it tends to freeze thanks to my horrid Javascript.
• When I say the game takes ages to load, it takes AGES to load. Also, it might freeze your computer whilst doing so because my code sucks.

Even with all of the stuff that went wrong, I’m pleased with the game and with a little more work it could’ve been a gem. Alas, we’ve got other games to make, and it looks like Coinslot will be on the shelf for now. Thanks for making the competition a good one, everybody!

Play the game here

Hello!

I’m not going to write a long post mortem here, just a quick report with few pictures.

It was my second LD. I haven’t made any games between of them, but my gamedev skill still somehow improved. 😀

I think, graphics is a lot better this time. I haven’t paid much attention to it, I just did it as always, but it’s better than before. (Looks like it’s the only way to emprove yourself – to make as many games as you can. :D) Just look at it:

Sound feels better, but it’s still not that good as I want it to be. (It’s sfxr, making good sounds with it is hard.)

Gameplay is better and easier, there are more checkpoints, but it’s still too hard for some players.

But it’s a plaformer again. And it uses same (slightly improved) engine as my previous entry. Art is better, content is nicer, but it’s still a simple plaformer with few unique features.

I’m not sure, maybe I should make something completely different next time, not a platformer, without this old engine. Maybe even 3D. (When you make 3D yourself, on pure GL4.3, it’s not that easy. :D)

Anyway, things that I should certainly do next time:

• If it will be 2D again, I should add particles, maybe screen-shaking effects. Probably some fancy GLSL shaders.

• Make more interesting gameplay, longer and better story. After all, it’s the most important part.

I am satisfied with my game. What I’m not satisfied with is the fact that I haven’t made any games except the jam ones since Apr 2014. It’s 6 monts! I need to do something about it and quickly.

Also, it’s my last chance to advertise my game. You can try it here. 😀

Thanks for reading.

hello everyone,

this was my first ludum dare entry. I had 5 hours to complete it due to personal constraints, which added a bit more to the fun.

i wanted to do something quite funny for the theme and this is the idea I got:

you live inside a screen and you can change channels and travel through all kinds of TV shows, like Twiny Pikos, a TV cult classic about coffee, pie and the murder of Lamma Balmer.

i am not a person with much experience in drawing and graphics, so the graphics are a bit lot paintish, but i think it adds to the charm.

i wish i could have add more channels and shows to the game, but since i am so happy with this proto-prototype i think i am going to try and make this a full game, with more TV channels, like the Y Files: The Truth is Out There. And, of course, better graphics!

all the comments people made on the game page are super cool and full of great suggestions for me to try, for which I am very grateful!

you can play it here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=46897

Dedicated server up and running! Join now!

Post-Compo, we set up a dedicated server for our game, GridCars. Check it out here!
You can join the dedicated server by using “germanunkol.de” as the IP-Address.

Make sure to send the link to your friends and play it with them for the most fun!

It will stay online for the time being, and we, the devs, will be online every now and then to play the game with you, if you have no one to try it with.

Screen of a 7-Player-Match on the server:

Make your own maps!

On another note, we’ve create an IndieDB page for the game. Track it to stay up to date with post-compo updates…
It also features a tutorial on how to add your own maps. If you come up with a cool one, make sure to send it to us (gridcars [at] gmail.com)!

First of all, I want to thank all of you lovely people who took the time to play my game. I create games for the act of creating itself as well as for people to enjoy themselves and forget about their daily woes, if only for a little while. So just by playing my game you have already done me a favor. Thank you for that!

I’m not sure if this post qualifies as a post-mortem or not, but I just see it as a quick behind-the-scenes look on the making of my entry for this LD, GraviFlip.

Now, this was my first LD (and the first Game Jam where I flew solo, not counting #1GAM) so I didn’t really know what to expect. When the theme was announced I admit I was a bit bummed…”Entire Game on one screen” didn’t sound like a challenge for me at all, since almost all the games I’ve done up to this point took place on one screen. Also, virtually all 80s arcade games took place on one screen and there’s hundreds if not thousands of them. However, I swore myself I’d join this LD and so I set to work on finding an interesting way to use the theme…which eventually led to GraviFlip.

The underlying question was: “How do I make the most of the one screen I am given?” However, the additional and actually more important question was: “How do I do it without driving myself mad?” The answer to the second question was “by doing stuff I know how to do,” which means no experimental forays into unexplored genres. I’m kinda boring like that. However, I did decide on adding a bit more spice to the proceedings with my choice of technology.

The Language / Framework

For GraviFlip I used Haxeflixel, a framework that is basically an enhanced port of Flixel to the Haxe language. It was a somewhat daring choice, as I had just begun to learn Haxe and had only completed one game using Haxeflixel before LD began (the game being JettyCat, a FlappyBird clone.) However, I’d like to continue working with Haxe in the future so I just decided to take this as an opportunity to gain some more experience. And things actually went really well! Within the first two hours of the first day, I had already whipped up a basic prototype of the game:

Isn’t it beautiful?

From then on out, it was all about the graphics, adding features and polishing the whole thing.

The Game Mechanics

The idea of flipping gravity came to me while pondering the first question I posed above: How do I make the most of the one screen I am given? I knew I wanted to make a sort-of platformer where the player could run and jump and I also knew I wanted to create an arcade-type game since those (theoretically) allow for endless replay value, even if there is only one screen. My first thought was to simply fill the screen with platforms that the player could traverse but I couldn’t make the gameplay different enough from Mario Bros. so I scrapped the idea. The next idea I had (which was the one I then went with) was to allow the player to traverse all the edges of the screen, not just the bottom one. Allowing him to traverse all the edges however reeked of fiddly coding and design issues, so in the end I just went with the floor and ceiling.

It was only then that I realized that this general idea had already been done in VVVVVV, but since my focus was on creating an arcade experience limited to one screen, I was sure I could make it different enough to not seem like a ripoff. I hope I succeeded.

The Setting

Well, if you’re talking about flipping gravity you don’t have that many options if you want it to make some kind of sense. Space was the obvious choice for me, not just because space is awesome in general but also because it’s relatively simple to do. I kinda sabotaged myself when I started doing the background art though, as I kept getting more and more ambitious and adding more stuff to the background, until the space backdrop was only visible through a relatively small window. Oh well, I’m quite happy with the results considering I’m not an artist, so I’m not gonna scold myself for that one.

The scrolling space background visible through the window, originally meant to make up the majority of the game’s background.

The Art

As I’ve said I’m not an artist, so I have to find ways to simplify the art in my games without them looking too ugly and unprofessional. While working on Coaster Surfin’ I realized that I was able to create reasonably pretty graphics using a Game Boy-inspired artstyle. Since you only have 4 shades of the same color to work with you don’t have to worry about palettes and such, and since the resolution is so low (8×8 or 16×16 per sprite) you can get away with some rather crummy animation. Plus, you get the added bonus of not having to have kickass music or sound effects. Long story short, the GB approach was a good choice for me since it’s quick, easy to do and looks rather good if done correctly.

The player spritesheet. See what I mean by crummy?

The Problems

I actually didn’t run into too many problems with this project  mainly because I tried to keep it as simple as possible, especially since I didn’t have much experience with the framework I used. Nothing is more frustrating than running into a hitherto unknown quirk shortly before a deadline…

The only issue of note that presented itself was (as it often is) the collision code. Usually checking if a player has jumped onto an enemy is rather easy: If the player is moving downwards, check if the x-value is inside the enemy boundaries, then check the same for the y-value. However, since both the player and enemies could be either on the floor, on the ceiling or in midair at all times, things became a lot more complex to my tired mind. It took quite a bit of trial and error until I’d arrived at the current solution, although that was probably a sign of weariness as looking back, the code isn’t actually as bad or complicated as I had thought at the time.

The code in question. As you can see from the comment, I did not have much confidence at the time of writing.

At this point I have to thank Haxeflixel for providing many examples and good documentation which kept me from butting against issue after issue. I never struggled with the framework (or the Haxe language), only with myself and with the underpants gnomes that appeared while I was working. Although that may have just been a stress-induced hallucination.

What now?

I will definitely put out a more complete version of the game that addresses issues raised by the LD community and adds more features. I can’t yet say when that version will be available, but you shouldn’t have to wait too long for it. Some of the stuff I will change/add:

• Global high scores
• Restart the game by pressing a button on the keyboard
• Tutorial will only be shown if you haven’t seen it before
• More polish, like more satisfying feedback when you kill enemies
• A better mapped out difficulty curve
• More enemies, obstacles and features

You can follow me on Twitter @ohsat_official for updates and progress reports but I’ll also post an update here once there’s something to show.

Thank you for reading! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

I really appreciate written comments, especially from those of you, who have stuck through the voting period for this long, and still play and rate games.

While I appreciate every star-vote I receive, I would much rather hear what you have to say, so please take a look at my Doll house game and tell me what you think. Of course I appreciate positive reviews, but would really like to hear what problems you see, and suggestions on how to fix them.

Doll hosue: q-Be or not q-Be

Thank you for your comments, you are awesome! 😀

Play here

* – a penny will not be given, sorry.

Rate My Game!

Tags: ld31

Only one day left so it’s time to summerize our thoughts and experience. It was a great fun to work on this project, we hope you also enjoyed playing with it. You wrote positive comments and we got many useful ideas – thank you for them. A game is never really finished, we already have a lot of new ideas how to make it more enjoyable. And last but not least, thank you for your votes and support!!!

Play it in your web broswer or on your OUYA console.

Only one day left to the end of judgment process! And we have rated and played more than 250 games so far! It has been an awesome Ludum Dare with such original entries ! If you haven’t played AZOR yet… DO IT NOW!

Also you can check AZOR POSTMORTEM, just if you want to know more about our game!

PLAY AZOR 1 DAY LEFT!

Title Screen

And we want to thank you all guys for playing our game!!

– HelkeGames team

When the snowman theme was going strong, I thought it was pretty lame or… well, something that didn’t feel right. I drew this to express my thoughts:

I wanted anything but snowman.

But… once the real winner was announced “Entire game on one screen”, it hit me that “snowman” is actually a great theme compared to the winning theme. In this light, “Snowman” theme had some potential, but this new theme was not… such a real theme to me. I still don’t quite understand the theme nor have seen (yet) a super unexpected/creative/innovative way to handle it in any of the entries.

So I did what I always do in ludum dares: ignore the theme and do whatever I want.

And “snowman” theme was lurking there in the shadows. And that thought grew… and here’s what I came up with:

I put together an online multiplayer game in less than 72 hours. Plenty of axe hitting. Plenty of melting snow. Plenty of nasty snowmen.

Eventually the entire screen was filled with snowmen who try to bite off your head.

That’s what snowmen do.

You can play Limberjacks here (invite a buddy to play the game for optimal experience)

Thank you snowman. You saved my ludum dare.

That’s right, I have an android game on sale:

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/881715

And you can download my other android game (It’s made to be difficult and addictive)

http://www.mediafire.com/download/7658v77z7888z89/Bouncing_Box.zip

And my LD #30 entry, T.E.G.O.O.S.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35464

P.S. Pls, don’t be mad at me for the game put on sale 😉

It was my buddy’s idea 😀 !

Debug.Log(“I remain, Tosic”);

Application.Quit();

The greatest of 2014.

This is a game is a retro style platform game, that can cause a sudden urge to rage. Play my game.

Play It Here:   http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=39898

Hello Ludum Dare community!
First, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ludum Dare 31 was my first Ludum Dare, and I made a game called Defender, a simple game about defending a tower.
As I’m only 13, I find it inspiring that many real game developers played and rated my game
All of the games I played so far are great 😀
Be sure to play and rate my game here if you already haven’t

Here’s a timelapse of my third Ludum Dare game named SnowSwarm.

Entry page

If this embedded video doesn’t work here’s a link

Tags: timelapse

First Ludum Dare entry (first game I’ve made public actually), really fun time making it, and I think I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. You’re trapped inside a “screen”, and you have to fight very chompy fish to escape.

It’s built in Javascript with the HTML5 canvas, features some audio effects when going from land to water or onboard, and even randomizes your character on each play.

Try it out and rate it here!

Any Suggestions or anything you would like to see, just comment below. I hope it will run on the off months that Ludum Dare is not happening. This is no where complete but would like to have it done by February.

What went right:

-Deciding the idea

The idea creation process was very efficient, we used 2 hours and came up with around 9 possible ideas for our theme. Many which were more interesting in a game mechanics perspective but Ludum Dare is about giving a laugh for people who have about 30 second to test your game and move to test the next one :). We chose the game idea which had inspired our artist the most. Also having combination mechanics means that when you add 1 asset, the combination amount grows to the power of 2!

-Warm-up

We agreed with our programmer to do the whole jam process twice on Thursday. I went through the design of 12 random game ideas,, used 15 minutes for each. We then picked one, made a proto in 3 hours then picked a second idea, made again a proto in 3 hours, this time including the artist to the process. We got all our tools ready, version control, animation software, unity etc… We ran into troubles that would have been infuriating during the Jam.

-Art style

The idea we picked up had the art style almost defined in it. It was efficient to create a lot of assets yet still be original. Our Artist delivered on the whole thing and our Jam entry ended-up relying almost entirely on his art! A big plus for his quirky sense of humor! Not only the art style is great but it is so interesting that we have to reuse those assets and try to make completely different games out of them! The universe, the brand, the moneeeee, muahah!

-Post-Jam dev

Now, this is were things get interesting. We run a small indie studio and wanted to see what could we publish in 3 weeks. This was a perfect occasion to try. Having just worked 1.5 years on our previous game, we felt so good about just going for it. Not worrying about every single details. We just want it out there by the time the Ludum Dare voting closes. We managed to implement pretty much everything a minimum viable product needs and we know that if the engagement is at the right level, we can push the development further. If people don’t like it, then we move on, no harm done.

What went wrong:

-Game play added last

We knew what we want to do, we made good progress the first two days but we didn’t put any game mechanics, as we were focused on all the assets that were coming at us so fast. Making nice scenes with little animations here and there… The second day went for me me all into animating the animal, not very optimally. The third day was supposed to be 100% for the game play but even then… the first time I played the game we had discuss doing was about 4 hours before the deadline and then all the animation imports were corrupted by unity and there was either no challenge at all, or way too hard to get anywhere.

So like always the game was impossible to play, and if you master it, you’d discover maybe 4 animals out of 11 we used all our time on… Which bring us to our next point.

-Too many assets for a concept

The animals looked so cool combined strangely, that it became a game to invent new animals that would come out interesting… The we had to have a clown, then we needed a toucan… We ended up having animals that needed custom animations.. Some had extra neck parts, some animals have knees, some have elbows, which inverts totally the way they walk and I had never animated anything walking!

-Discover the limit of you tools

Making the animation was half of the trouble, because, of course, the first one you make, works perfectly. Then you start duplicating and replacing assets and the file grows and you start to run into those little bugs of pre-alpha libraries have tons of. Unity would always corrupt like 75% of the animation, having double heads on the dash animation, some animation missing big parts of the corpse… It was unwanted chaos after a full day of animating. It felt devastating. It was supposed to work like a charm.

-Game Design

We wanted simple, easy to understand. We didn’t play in the Jam spirit. We didn’t explore any wacky game mechanics. We did some +1 design. Take a runner, bring one new aspect, try how it turns out. We wanted to see what can come out from those combined animals but we never really focused on the game design itself. This would have to wait after the jam. The next prototype will make use of those asset and will explore new game mechanics, but for now, that would be all from me. Thank for reading so far!

TRY IT, our post jam version is one day away from the release now :)!!

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=31361

See our Ludum Dare 31 game “Oust Santa!” in action:

Youtube

Thanks Jupi! 😉

You can play and rate our game here.

This dare has been one of the better ones in my opinion, in terms of quality- Either that or I’ve been quite lucky with the games I have chosen to play. I’ve played over 70 games, and I still have a few more on my to do list.
From the ones I’ve played so far I remember three games that epsecially stood out- and thus I decided to make my own Top 3 (listed in no particular order, and are both Jam and Combo games).

Rob – By: SelfishGenome

I really fell for the cute atmosphere and I was impressed of how much life there was in the animations of these primitive shapes. The game felt very polished and although the game wasn’t overly difficult there was a nice sense of progression from picking up upgrades and such. Something about the graphics and animations just spoke to me and I was sold! I can definitely recommend that you try out this game!

Blockade – By: TheGreenTie

This game is a must try. Writing too much about it will spoil it all, but suffice it to say, I really got a good laugh out of this game. Although there’s not that much to do in the game, solely because of the humor, it is worth trying!

The Lonely Realm of Tom Thaum, the Space Wizard – By: JJEvil

I really had a lot of fun playing this game. It takes a short while to get used to the controls, but once you get the hang of them, this is actually a very nice game. Basically you are a (space) wizard that have to build a tower, gather resources and protect it from meteors coming from outer space. It can be addictive though – so be careful!

Also if you haven’t tried out my game yet, I humbly ask you to try it out as well:

Coin Toss Simulator 2015

A game about tossing coins at objects to make them break. I promise – It’s great fun

I’m already working on a post-jam version and I’ve put up a page for the game on indieDB
At a later time I might go into more detail about the post-jam version, but for now, check out the games above if you haven’t already – I really enjoyed them!

Have fun!