“Although this game may look interesting, the president is uninterested in playing your game.”

– The White House

“Despite what my security advisory told you, I downloaded your game and played it. Now everyone in the White House is trying to beat my score!”

– Barack Obama

Thanks Obama!

If the president of the United States of America liked my game, then so will you! *

*Your opinion is yours to keep, whether you like this game or not is not guaranteed.

Many of us use Dropbox as file storage for our games.

If someone wants to download it, but he doesn’t have a Dropbox account, he needs to click “No, I don’t want to register” button every time to download something, and then “Download” button itself.
So, 2 clicks to download your game.

Moreover, sometimes there is no “No, I don’t want to register” button, so one can’t download your game without making an account at all.

Solution:

Your links look like `https://dropbox.com/blahblah?dl=0`. Replace `?dl=0` at the end with `?dl=1`.

Not only there will be no annoying “Please register” popup, download will start instantly after one clicks on your link, without any additional clicks.

Hello Guys, first off thanks to all the people who played my game so far, especially those who dropped me a line in the comments. If you haven’t played my game yet, here is the link

This went right:

1. I finished my game and it is playable! Luckily I had an acceptable idea and developing the game was quite straight forward
2. The controls and game mechanics are explained better compared to my first entry
3. The graphics and sound effects are okay (especially for my art-skills :D)

This went wrong:

1. There is no music. I tried to make some music with LMMS, but I just created an really annoying melody and didn’t implement it 😀 Next time I try my luck with Bosca Ceoil, hopefully I can make some better music
2. The Game is a bit too short. I had enough time to make more levels, but I hadn’t cool ideas for new levels. So I made a few but (for me) interesting level, but maybe two more levels would be better
3. I had a lot of time left! On the one hand its good, but on the other hand I could use this time better, but I hadn’t any interesting ideas for new features and the game appear quite completed to me, so I simply submitted it
4. Some players have problems to know when the guards are seeing them. I had implemented an sight-line if a guard is seeing a player and some time for the player to get out of his view, but it seems like this time was a bit too short
5. There are also some other small things I could explained the player better. Also you can succeed Level 3 without an ultra cool trick, but I hope most players will find the cool way to solve the level 😀

Overall:

I am quite happy with my game this time. The game is much better than my last entry, so I make progress 😀 I think there is still potential for next time, I couldn’t play my skills completely out, maybe next time, I just need the right idea 😀

We will see us next time!

Hello everyone! I finally complete my post mortem version of Battle Block Manager. I’ve done many upgrades to the first jam project and add some feature to balance the game. I’ve spent a lot of time doing this version cause I’m alone. =(

At first I made a new GUI, I think it more exaustive and functional than before. I’ve also add, as first step, a real calendar.

At second I designed some feature on stores :
– I’ve add a local economy of every store, every store has to pay taxes and to restists itself; if  not, it goes out of business and it can’t accept deals from citizen.  Consequentially you can pay its debt and buy some percentage of  ownership (or simply pay if you already own it). Store taxes are composed by two part : fixed costs and deals percentage.
– Stores have now a open/close hour, when citizens can buy something, this feature influences the fixed cost because it is calculated on how many hours the store are open.
– Every store has an appeal index that increase/decrease how many citizen come to the store. Appeal can be increased / decreased modifing in the opposite way the average cost or it can be increased activating upgrades. ( In future this index can be related also to an economy index, to a season index or/and to a trend index. )

At third I’ve add some other enemy :

– Thief : 
– Killer : 
Thief and Killers! The thieves rob from your citizen’s wallets (and they’ll spend less). The killers simply kill citizen, for no reason. xD
Initially this feature was related to the frequence of citizen spawn based on the security of the block, but at the moment this part isn’t completed and tested.

At fourst I’ve added some feature on Fellas:
– in the first version, fellas are simply a guard from enemy, but now they can increase the black deal probabily upgrading in Drug dealer or Weapon Dealer and they can kill Killers and Thives upgrading into Guards.
– Also Fellas’ gun can be upgrades to be more efficent on enemies.

As I’ve already said I’m sorry the game is not so much in theme with “An unconventional weapon”, my first and still main though was that a gangster can be killed only by financial trouble. So this is the unconventional weapon against gangster.

PLAY Post Mortem Version HERE

Ludum game page – Does It Shoot?

Tags: 2D, final, jam, ld32, music, OST

This LD was a strange one for me: i almost quit several times, had no idea what game i’d like to do for most of the time and also had the stop working to attend to social obligations during the compo. It was a great recipe for failure, but somehow i managed to finish it, despite the game having bugs and lacking a lot of intended features. Ok let’s go over the traditional good / bad parts.

The bad

• Initial idea – I innocently started this ludum dare with the “beat’em up” style in mind. I wanted to make a final-fight like game with combos and different enemies. After trying to draw fighter sprites i “quickly” (see next bullet) realized my mistake: the hard part of this game type is the art and animations, especially for a programmer with no background in pixel-art (or any other kind);
• The map – Of course, as a programmer my first task was to create a map with the appropriate axonometric projection, the “cabinet projection” which was commonly used for fighting games such as Cadillac and Dinosaurs, Final Fight, etc. The problem was it took some precious time to make, and while the result was good enough, by the time i finished i had already scrapped the beat’em up idea and had to think what to do with this thing;
• The theme – Besides the artistic difficulty, the coup de grâce to my original idea was that the theme was ‘an unconventional weapon’ – i figured that using your fists was not unconventional enough and almost quit the compo. After some thought i decided to continue and in a stroke of craziness i decided to do a turn-based game. The theme was also a problem and i ended up with this “just-to-fit-the-theme” mechanic in which you have to grab enemies to use them as throwing weapons;
• Time / Life – I had two unavoidable social obligations during the LD weekend: a dinner saturday night and a lunch with my in-laws sunday. I didn’t plan ahead for this compo and had to pay the price, losing ~4-5 hours of development time;
• Art and music – I had planned a background for the game and some extra frames for the player character but couldn’t do it. I am still very bad at drawing humans, the player character looks like a giant-headed power ranger. I was planning an intro, menus and a much better and user-friendly UI also. And i couldn’t even touch the music generation programs i wanted to use, all because of poor planning and time lost at the beginning of the project.

The good

• Art – Besides having very few assets people who commented complimented the art style, which made this Ludum Dare the best one for me so far. This is a huge milestone because this time i actually used a drawing tablet and spent some time thinking about colors and the whole style for the game. I am particularly happy with the map tiles i created
• Cabinet Projection – Besides being a weird projection and some times hiding stuff (clickable tiles, enemies) this axonometric projection worked and will certainly try to reuse it in the future (hopefully making the beat’em up game);
• Turn-based – Alien escape is a very simple game, but it was the very first time i tried to do a turn-based one and besides having little time and some bugs the whole thing ended up working ok i guess. Of course the code is a mess but i think i successfully added the “turn-based” skill to my repertoire. I’ll surely make a post-compo version of this game!
• Completion – Every time you participate in the compo enduring the restrictions and finishing a game i think you gain valuable experience in the “finishing a game” skill. This one for me was more of a personal challenge: having a theme i didn’t like, completely changing my game idea and finishing the game regardless of these problems.

To summarize, even with all the unexpected things i really liked doing this Ludum Dare, it was the third time i managed to finish a game and i plan to keep participating – each time i do i learn a lot and i’m actually getting better at drawing!

P.S.: There is still a long way to go before i can really care about ratings – for now i only care about comments (criticisms, suggestions, bugs) and honing my skills.

P.P.S: If you liked this post and wish to try the game, here are the links:

Hi, i have some time again! So, if anybody want to exchange rates OR if anybody want to rate his creation, just put that game of yours into comments. Also, you can play my game here. Because my next game will be similar to my LD entry, i need feedback.

Also, here is live example of next generation of my platform engine. You can try it and compare with my ld entry.

Thank you very much guys

As a (hopefully) discussion starter I would like to begin by sharing with you the method I use for giving “Theme” scores to Ludum Dare games.
1 – Game is completely unrelated to the theme

2 – Game is extremely loosely related to the theme by a tangential graphic/sound/mechanic

3 – Game is related to the theme (here: it contains an unconventional weapon) but replacing that particular weapon with another unconventional one (it does not shoot BULLETS, it shoots POTATOES! – not much would change with BANANAS! instead of potatoes) causes no change in the gameplay or the feel of the game

4 – The theme is integrated into the game – if I removed/replaced all theme-related elements then the game mechanics/story/mood would fall apart and become senseless. In other words, the game relies on the theme to work

5 – The game IS the theme. Not only would the game fall apart but it would do so in many respects and all mechanics require the theme to make sense.

I usually give 2/3/4s as a Theme score because 1 and 5 are rather outliers.
Now, here is the question:

How do YOU rate Theme scores? Just a personal ‘feel’, a guideline system you made or something else entirely?

Shameless self-promotion because if I post something why not include it anyway: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=26778
The Drunken Quest for the One Vodka!

I spent the last weeks talking about game development, rating other games, so i learned a lot. Here’s my analysis about my participation :

What went good : 

• I managed to get the definitive concept of my game really quick, like 5 of 6 hour after the start of the jam.
• I finished it ! I didn’t give up and stayed concentrated, even if i was alone.
• I had a lot of pleasure seeing people playing my game, it’s really a great satisfaction.

What went bad : 

• Phaser.io and the p2 physics to make a tiles-based game. Seriously, don’t do it (or maybe i have to learn a lot more)
• I was tired of making the game really quick too, i think it’s because i was alone. I released the entry but i had like 30 hours left, and i didn’t used this to add stuff. On the other side, it can be considered a good thing, because maybe i could add bad things to the game too.

Finally it was a pleasure to compete at the Ludum dare more time, and i will compete to the next one too !

If you didn’t played my my game, it’s here.

Thanks to everyone who played and rated my game !

The Post jam release has been out for a while, but now, after a few versions, it’s complete enough to warrant a shoutout.

All basic mechanics and the user interface are fully functional. It’s still missing certain inconsequential things like a title screen, a way to win; nothing too bad.

Play it here

Tags: gif, post-jam

Hey everyone! If you haven’t played Bad Tummy Bunny yet, go give it a try!

Play it here!

CORRUGATED FIDELITY

(click to open)

And why? … Well… This one is really funny 😀 I was totally hooked on this one 😀 Most addictive game here 😀

/////

Post-compo version of The N.I.D. Project

As I briefly mentioned in the post-mortem I posted earlier, I had a look at my TODO list of unimplemented features from the Compo, as well as the very constructive comments on my game, and decided to spend 16 hours extra on enhancing my game (corresponding to having submitted the game as a Jam entry), just to see how much of a difference an extra day can do.

To re-cap, in the game, you play a mind-reading surveillance weapon, in the form of a cloud of nanites, which can infect and jump between human hosts. The objective is to infiltrate an enemy facility, gather vital intelligence about the weapons being developed there, and escape.

Download the new version from my entry page (it has been added as a text link near the bottom of the entry description), if you want to try out the new features

New features include:

• Smoother movement (repeatedly requested in the comments )
• The ability to probe the minds of your hosts, discovering their secrets, and finding ways to manipulate their actions.
• Visual feedback on when it is possible to transfer to a new host.
• Individual personality traits, which affect how your mind control powers affect your host.
• Additional audio feedback.
• More detailed statistics upon mission completion (as well as hidden bonus objectives).

Play and rate here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=36629

Better later than never 😀

I just made html5 export of my game Ultimate Booter. Game working somehow, but i still recommend download win version. (Looks better and working faster)

Play here

For LD27, I created a robotic face-matching game, and I have since rebuilt that prototype into a new game with more modes, more polish, and more fun called Roboticon.

It is free for iOS and Android. It gets really fun to play with friends when you get to the upper levels. Oh, and I also added cats (an optional IAP)! Please check it out.

Tags: android, cats, fun, iOS, mac, pattern-matching, PC, released, SuccessStory

With 100+ games rated, here’s my short list of the games I think deserve more votes.

Victorian Era Linguistics Training Manual

This one is really silly and really beatiful. Learn Victorian-era cockney and please your audience at the same time.

Snow Cones

An ice cream date simulator; the awwww-est game of the jam. The holding hands scene was one of the best gaming moments for me, like, ever.

Survive

A minimalistic survival simulator; one of those games which lets your imagination to do all the work (with great success). Moody and hard.

P.S. By the way, if you think that a game about Chekhov and his gun is worth your time, you can play our game as well.

Play the game

We prefer a finished game than risk make a masterpiece in a weekend

Every time we participate in a jam, we care in a way we relate to us on the subject as quickly as possible, either by narrative way or the gameplay way, preferably both.

Besides the theme,we restrict the scope defining “What kind of game that we can offer playable on JAM?” Yes, if you are newbie like us, this could be severely limiting for a good exploration of the theme, but it is the price we opted to pay to have a “playable game.”

Brainstorming

Tip: Avoid anticipate ideas before starting the brainstorming with your team, you can fall in love with one of the first ideas, and THE FRIST IDEAS ARE ALWAYS THE WEAKEST or unfeasible. Put on paper (there are techniques for this) all kind of good and bad idea without slightest judgment or shame, just sending bad queries that the brain begins to release the good answers.

Sleeping and Eating

I particularly regret the glamorization of vigils, energy drinks, and despair during jams. This undermines the ideas and productivity. We promise ourselves avoid daring projects (which require time) and above the capabilities of our tiny team. Friday night for Saturday afternoon, we decided to sleep…

…and leave all those good and bad ideas in our minds at rest. I slept 7 full hours, did morning exercises, I had a good breakfast and started prototyping the game.

Theme Definition

We started working still uncertain of the theme, but agreed to set up to 12h pm Saturday, it worked! My partner had “The idea” missing 20 minutes to 12 hours, was not revolutionary, it was just what we needed. That’s more magical side not hold onto good idea to let the great see it, it is how to take the pearl of an oyster and finding that there was a whole necklace inside.

Planning streamlines the design anticipating and minimizing problems

The delay in issue of definition damaged but thorough planning, but I advise you to follow all the rituals that is already used.
Sketch a simplified UML class diagram OR a super summarized GDD during brainstorming is very helpful in defining the most minute details.

Task Management

As much as the discourse of “minimalism” make your mind, .txt files are NOT good task managers. I swear!
An appropriate manager (Trello ♥) is your friend, don’t be multitasking, do not try guess what to do next and not wait for inspiration….

1. Lists the tasks needed
2. Prioritize them focusing on MVP
3. Delegate each task to each member
4. DO your tasks in the order
5. And you will be fine

A simpleton example of what I mean about mvp. If I can not do it all the time, the minimum required is already guaranteed.

8 Varied Advices (based on what went wrong)

1 If you are more “designer” than “programmer”, prototype using geometric shapes to stay focused

2 Learn to use TileMap

I greatly help not having to create similar ugly hacks like this:

And if you use tiles, remember to have on hand a “grid notebook” or something like that to set the proportions of all elements.

3 Your partner knows what is a Jam?

When you recruit someone for the first time, make sure that the person knows what a Jam and really willing to commit.

4 Know help yourself to ask for help

I have a bad habit of not asking for help on the “my problem”, but asking for help on the “a supposed solution, but I can’t implement.”
Do not repeat this error. Exemplifies the most of how you want the end result, this will allow the best and easiest solutions are presented. Or even make you discover that there is no problem to solve.

5 Sound Feedback is very important in games

If your team are not have a responsible for sound, start the next Jams with their proper collection of sounds already at hand.
What about the soundtrack, in the Newsground you find awesome options with Creative Commons musics.

6 Optimize little things in advance

Clean folders, programs, workspace icons, a good screen capture application creation gifs. Webcam and messengers for long distant brainstorming. Make sure your machine is not going through a addware infestation.

7 SAVE ALL THE TIME, set a very aggressive auto-save…

8 Don’t go mistaking Paradise For that home across the road.

Thanks for read and sorry my bad english.

I haven’t written up a post on this since it went up, so I figured I ought to do a postmortem at least.  KADOOMERANG was an interesting project, even if it wasn’t my most ambitious game.  Before the theme was announced, I wrote up a list of ideas I wanted to work with.  From that list, I ended up using about half:

• Analog input via timing your input events (press & hold)
• Triggering actions on button release instead of button press (related)
• Variable-powered varying challenge by adjusting behaviors (enemy types)
• Action commits & cancels (see Tim Rogers’ essay on Bloodborne)
• Killer7 Screen-space gradients
• Brutal legend particle system skies
• UV flipbook animation

I’m fairly happy with how the mechanics worked out, but the real problem I encountered with the game was in communicating those mechanics.  My in-game instructions looked like this:

The problem was that the text on the left was intended to be read as two columns.  The last line on the bottom left is explained and expanded on by the first line on the top right.  The special attack (Radial Blast) is powered by collecting gems, and spent by throwing a complete circle.  Enemies have shields that block normal attacks from various directions, i.e. a right-facing shield will block a ‘rang coming from the right; a left-facing one will block an attack from the left, etc.  But because of the way the text was laid out, almost nobody understood how the special attack worked.  Some people never even picked up the recall mechanic, and were stumped by the first enemy with both left-facing and right-facing shields (you need to attack them from behind, by recalling your ‘rang when it’s behind them.  Also useful for destroying enemies in a straight line!).  This could have been  helped if I had marked Q and E as Throw/Recall, to show that it had multiple effects (I suspect many people only looked at the key layout and ignored the text column entirely).  There’s even a Let’s Play where the player wonders aloud what the gems were for, even as they are sent back (several times!) to the screen that is supposed to explain everything. (Sorry Clint, I had to include it! 😉 )  Maybe a separate instructions screen, or on-screen prompts would be useful if I attempt another game with this amount of  control complexity.

Despite the confusion, I’m still happy with the game’s overall feel.  Developing the main attack mechanic was an interesting exercise, as I came up with the whole behavior and feel on paper before I wrote a single line of code.  The in-game sound effects are the same sounds I was making while thinking through the way everything would move.  The only difference is a flange filter thrown on top to make it a little less obvious that it’s all just my voice.  The gems and radial blast were added fairly late, as a way to encourage the player to move around more.

Oh, and some people didn’t like the camera controls.  Oh well.  They are kind of central to the look of the whole thing.  They might take a little getting used to, but I did add a few special tricks to the way it all works, like how the over-the-shoulder camera switches sides when turning to minimize how far the view needs to shift.  I would have added in some logic to flip the camera when obstructed, but I kind of ran out of time.

You see, half-way through this Ludum Dare I got really, really sick.  Against my better judgement, I pressed on and finished my game.  I’m actually sick again right now, or maybe I just never quite got over whatever I came down with.  As happy as I am with my game, this was a bad idea.  The experience was so unpleasant, I fear it may have soured me on doing another LD anytime soon.  But even if I do skip LD33, I’ll probably be back for LD34.  Probably.