OMG GUYS!! 2 HOURS!!

I’m so excited I want to see the result!

AND REMEMBER!

The future of B(L)OB is in your hands!!!

PLAY HERE!!!

For those of you who played Barrel Roll (Ultra!), thanks for your kind words and reviews. This game started of as a reverse DK, and I wanted to keep the vibe going as much as I could. I maintained the game in a way that players can get where the inspirations is coming from, and still be entertained. The game kind of becomes a Mario zombie carnival later and its great fun!

Some of you asked who the green head monkey thing is. Well he is an ape who leads of the Great Kong’s followers. The leader uses a Green mask, the pipe guy is Mr.Pink, Mr.Blue does the cleaning afterwards.

The initial plan was to have a progression based action game. You start alone. Then you get more monkeys to join the squad. They are supposed to add threat as the rolling barrels can harm you too, but can also be helpful because if you escape, they will most likely explode on a plumber. Then there was introduction to different barrel types, enemy types etc etc.

I spent two hours on this frame on Day 2 before abandoning it..

I am looking forward to seeing the ratings for this game. For the future, this game has given me some ideas for another game I always wanted to do. It is going to be a strategy game with some similarities to this one. Here is a sneak peek on how it is coming along. I will try to keep updating the game’s progress through Twitter.

The pigs cometh! Soon.

Thanks for reading, and keep Jamming! You can play the game here: Barrel Roll Ultra!

-Saf (viking.potato@gmail.com)

Clayfruit.com

Help us get to 55 and break our record!

Monsters vs. Aliens

Thanks!

<3 Tweedle

This was the first Ludum Dare that I programmed in event tracking.  It wasn’t anything fancy, mostly just info about the device playing the game.  I also tracked whenever someone beat the game, and recorded the players highest combo and airtime.   I was hoping to add a high score system, but ran out of time.  Now that we’re near the end of LD33, I thought I’d post the high score here:

Highest Combo* – 32

Most Airtime* – 22.8s

Can you beat these scores?  Click Here to play Earth Was a Bad Choice.

I hadn’t posted the timelapse of me creating the game. Check it out:

Last day of voting, so I’ll be going through as many game in this last hour; voting and leaving comments.

If you are doing the same, give my game a go and if you leave a comment on my entry page, I’ll visit your entry and rate/comment.

Please try the post version!

Eat Humans

We’re Cosmic Adventure Squad, and we made Super Sea Serpent Simulator during LD 33!

Click above to play and rate (preferably before the rating period ends!)

This part 1 of the post-mortem will be from the point of view of two of the experienced LD-ers on our team: Rosypenguin and Stregawolf.

—————————————————————————-

Hey, I’m Rosypenguin. Incredibly enough, this is the 9th LD I’ve participated in, though this was the first time I’ve worked with Unity for a game jam so everything felt fresh and new.

Role: Most of my experience with past LD’s has been in 2D art, animation, and technical art. This time around I also had the opportunity to work with an experienced Creative Director in the industry, and hoped some of his awesomeness would rub off on me! I did some simple low-poly modelling in Maya, 2D background assets in Photoshop, and UI art in Illustrator.

Concept art and inspirations for the sea serpent.

What went well: I think the overall game came together really well. We have a finished LD game, with a solid game mechanic and a unified art style. Really, I was just excited to be back to doing LD; the last time I was seriously involved was LD28, with Rations,Please!.

This our first LD involving more than our usual team of Strega, Tenlki, and myself. We brought on some of Strega’s talented coworkers, and with them we were able to scope outside of our usual 2D Flixel game tradition. We also knew we’d lose the whole 3rd day because we’re working people now. Boo.

With two artists on the team, we were able to do more. Ocean and I spent some time the first day putting together a mood board to make sure we were consistent with the aesthetic we wanted for the game. I made a few concept mockups and Ocean went on to create the fantastic cut-paper-aesthetic shader for each of the 3D elements.

Photoshop mockup for final aesthetic.

What could be improved: Since so many of the team members were working professionally in the game industry, I felt intimidated and did the stupid thing where I held back my creativity for fear of judgment. The stakes felt higher than when it was just us three long-time college friends making games for a fun weekend and not caring if we succeeded or not.

But I still had an amazing learning experience; I was able to pick up from where I left off in Maya over three years ago, and guidance from Ocean helped boost my confidence bit by bit.

What you will do different next time: Definitely looking forward to working with Unity again. In the meantime I want to practice with modeling/rigging/animation in 3D to build more confidence and skill. I need to work on a self-esteem boost as well; I’ve done so many LD’s and GGJ’s that I need to remember that my opinions count too, even though I don’t work in the game industry.

—————————————————————————-

Hi, I’m Stregawolf! I’ve been doing LD since LD 21 and GGJ since 2009. As always jamming is a blast.

Role: My role during this LD was gameplay programmer. I put together most of the systems in the game such as how the sea serpent is controlled, the circular world coordinate system and gravity, enemy behavior, enemy attacks/weapons, enemy spawning, difficulty scaling, and integrating finished art into the game.

What went well: Deciding on a game design and title name quickly really made it easy to move forward right away. Friday night of the jam we all meet up at a restaurant and hashed out ideas while eating. We had a basic idea and sketch of what the game would look and feel like by the end of the meal. We didn’t actually start coding or making much art until saturday after getting a good night’s rest.

Knowing the tools before hand really made things go a lot faster. I’ve been using Unity for a long time, I think since Unity 2.5 so it was pretty easy to get things setup and start coding.

Github worked surprisingly well. Everyone was able to quickly sync up, make changes, and collaborate with little problem.

Working with coworkers from work made it easy for me to communicate with them and we all already knew the general workflow for Unity.

Getting a minimum viable product done by saturday night really gave us a lot of time to polish the feel of the game and make the motions and controls feel good. I used Unity primitives to get gameplay system in without having to wait for models and assets. When the final assets were ready, I had already set up everything so that it would be easy to replace the primitives.

What could be improved: Having a clear task board and prioritizing early on. In previous LDs we would spend a lot of time on friday sorting out todo lists, needed assets, needed game systems etc. This time we spent a little time, but mainly for art assets. I probably should have spent some time writing things out first. Instead I jumped right in on the saturday and didn’t prioritize tasks until Sunday night. Oh well, it still came out pretty well 😀

We really wanted to get some kind of high score tracker into the game, but didn’t have enough time to do so. We definitely didn’t stay up as late as we usually do and didn’t start again in the morning as early either.

What you will do different next time: Be better organized about what needs to be done. List things out, prioritizing them, and clearly assign who is doing what. I feel like there were moment when we failed to communicate who would be taking on what tasks and it was because we never clearly listed out the tasks.

Have a clear leader. I didn’t realize that I was suppose to be the leader for the jam. Next time, I’ll make sure that whoever is expecting to lead clearly knows their role, to reduce moments of confusion and indecision.

All but one of our member was working in the same location for the jam. I feel bad for not keeping an open group chat for everyone during the jam. Next time I’ll make sure that we have everything we need to communicate better.

—————————————————————————-

We’ll post part 2 with the other team members soon! Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t checked out the game yet: Super Sea Serpent Simulator

Hey! So many great games.
Just a friendly reminder! I it’s last chance to play and rate our game.
Thanks

You can found it here

No frogs were hurt during making of this game.

Not sure what was going on, but during the last 14 minutes I was locked out.  Tried for the past 10 minutes to get back in to rate/comment on the games I had on my list and played, but can’t get back in.  Sorry to anyone who voted/commented my way and didn’t get the favor returned.  I really wish I could have returned the favor.  GAHH!

As said up there, here we are. Another great Ludum Dare, has come and now past completely. Fun is on of the only words to describe this. Onto ratings: my points when down drastically. Were talking down by like 300 places! Maybe I was lucky last time 😀 I don’t care what I got really. All that matters was that I made a game. Not a great one. But a game. If you did, thanks for playing!

Ratings This Ludum Dare

Ratings

Ludum Dare 32

My goal for this Ludum Dare was to make a better game than last time. Going by the ratings, I think I succeeded.

If you want, you can play my game

Here

These are my results for this Ludum Dare:

#359	Fun(Jam)	3.28
 #466	Overall(Jam)	3.28
 #569	Mood(Jam)	3.05
 #640	Graphics(Jam)	3.13
 #841	Humor(Jam)	2.15
 #875	Innovation(Jam)	2.52
 #888	Theme(Jam)	2.89
 

Last time, I got these results:

#710	Innovation(Jam)	2.76
 #801	Fun(Jam)	2.63
 #828	Theme(Jam)	2.86
 #832	Humor(Jam)	2.18
 #841	Mood(Jam)	2.56
 #910	Overall(Jam)	2.71
 #919	Graphics(Jam)	2.18
 

I’m pretty happy with this. I’ve increased in almost every category.

If you want, you can play my game

Here

So I’m happy. Not incredible but definitely better than what I wanted.

So I think I did a lot better than last Ludum Dare. I avoided some of the mistakes I made last time, and made a better game.

I made a arcadey shooting game in space. I wrote in in Python and Pygame and entered into the jam. I named it the first random and dramatic thing that popped into my head: “The Stars are Watching.” Ooh mysterious, huh? Sort of. I’d like to apologize to anyone who expected a sophisticated story-driven game and was given a mindless shooter with a brainless plot. If anyone wants to play said mindless shooter, they can go: Here

Anyway, here’s what

Went right:

• The gameplay – This Ludum Dare, I think I made a genuinely fun game. Its mechanics are simple, and that’s why I think it’s much better than my last entry. Complex gameplay is hard to implement well in 72 hours.
• The graphics – Just like last time, I used Blender to make the graphics for my game. I modeled in 3D and then rendered top-down. This time however, I think I did a much better job of it. The player looks a little odd though…
• The explosions – They’re a small thing, but in a shooting game, explosions are very important. I made an explosion animation in Blender, and then rendered it. The reason I think the explosions look better than the explosions in some of my other games is that I used additive blending. I think they look a lot better.
• The boss – What arcade game would be complete with a big nasty boss? I think the boss for this game turned out nicely.
• The story – A lot of people complained that the twist at the end was painfully obvious. I don’t care. I am proud that I got any story at all in my game. It’s a first for me.
• The “tutorial” – Last Ludum Dare, my game had an obtuse, obnoxious and obfuscated instructions menu. (There might have been a few more ‘o’ words. I’m not sure.”) This time there is no instructions menu and there are a few short instructions at the start of the game. Of course, it helps that the mechanics for this game are a lot simpler than my last one.
• Being a “mindless shooter” – Last time I tried something I’d never done before–a tower defence. That really cost me. This time I made a shooter, a genre I am very familiar with.

And now,

What went WRONG:

• The lack of friction – You would think, in a space game you wouldn’t want any friction. However, there where a huge number of complaints about the lack of friction. Oh well, live and learn, I guess?
• Not knowing what to do after I finished the base game – I finished the base game in about 48 hours. However, then I goofed around trying to add achievements (That’s going to be another thing that went wrong) and tweaking mechanics. I should have spent the last 24 hours adding new enemies, and polishing.
• Achievements – At about 48 hours in to Ludum Dare, I had finished the base game. It was at that point I thought “Hey, who doesn’t love achievements? Nobody, right? I’m going to add achievements to my game.” It was a great idea–in theory. In practice, I wasted about 8 hours. The way I added achievements was stupid. There was no way to tell what achievements you had unlocked unless you consulted a text file. Not exactly a stellar amount of polish, is it?
• Being a “mindless shooter” – Yeah, I know I put this in the “Went right” category. However, it also goes in the “Went wrong” category because of how dull it is. Sure, it might have been easy to make, but it really cost me in my Innovation scores. That’s one of the few places I did worse than last time.

To sum this up: I am quite happy with my results. I did better than last time. I had a great time making a game. Thank you to everyone who rated my game, and I can’t wait for next Ludum Dare!

For our first game ever, I could not be more pleased with the ratings for Sales of a Deathman. We went into this not knowing if we would even end up with something that ran. Our main goal was to make people laugh, so it’s good to see our humor score so high:

Thanks everyone for making this such a fun experience and for playing/voting for our game. We’re looking forward to December!

I thought I would be better scored in some categories, but, anyways, great results.

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me rank 24% on the coolness factor! I wasn’t expecting to rank in anything, actually.

Future: Now that I have a webcam and can record music, perhaps I can add original music for next years event.  I’m too much a noob on the guitar and drums for this year.

My games will always have puzzlers, but I’m seriously considering keeping the Sudoku variations out of my game, and sticking to either traditional Sudoku or one with an X rule in it, or taking Sudoku out altogether.  Every idea I tried, failed in testing, so there is no way I can do a unique Sudoku variation in Ace.

My challenge will be to fit my puzzlers to the “theme”, and come up with better puzzlers. The latest theme, “a Final Boss” will be easy. I’ve already figured that one out. If I could do “war” in Ace and have it not be like Game Boy Advance games, I would, but I can’t yet.  I’ll have less animation too. I just am a wee bit addicted to waterfalls. lol

Well. Once again happy with how that went! #5 in Theme and #6 in Mood! Thanks guys!

Here is a couple of graphs with my progress from the last Ludum Dare.

I’ll try and work on my coolness next time.

Here is a handy link if you wanted to have a look some time

Until next time!

Tags: LD #33, TheCure

My first entry in LD31, ranked #63 for Innovation.

My second entry in LD33, ranked #63 for Humor.

In both cases, I hadnt exactly planned to target either category but half way through development I knew what each game’s strongest point was, and the ratings reflected it. Ah the fun of the jam. I wonder how the next one will go…

I ranked 14th equal overall in the compo when I wasn’t expecting to make it anywhere near a high rank.

I was already quite proud of what feedback I had received and the game came out better than expected.

My internet went down for 6 hours just before the results were announced and I didn’t believe my friend when he told me I came 14th.

I hope everyone else also found success this year in the ludum dare. I enjoyed playing many of the games submitted and will definatly try to participate in the future.

Thanks again to everyone who played and rated my game

here are my other ratings for those who are interested:

The Reckoning

Hmmm… yup not charming at all.. I had much better times before

It’s my 3d LD, my first time making a 3D game for Ludum Dare and my first time using Blender Game Engine. I know I AM pleased with the result – I achieved more mechanics than I imagined in 48 hours. I didn’t polish the game on the other hand, and.. IDK I thought it’s not much of a factor in LD judging so I left it as the last task and since I had no time left – I didn’t.

Through the bugs crashes and the impossible use of BGE, I feel like I succeeded moving foreward, still it seems like I still need to work on my sh*t XD

Minimal 3D graphics seems like didn’t impress much, so I must conclude that my minimalism falls short. Honestly, this is bad.. that’s the worst thing a minimalistic design can have.

Or maybe my problem is not being user friendly. I mean, I made a mini game that barely explains itself, because I thought color-mechanics correlation is something one can discover itself and would be much more fun this way. Well, this fell short once again. My guess is that only one folk got to the last level.

My last guess isn’t very mature but WTH I’ll just leave it for you guys to discuss – do you think being “harsh” with your judging would result in deducting points? Do you think people who write nicer and less honest comments would get better results?

Well, either way, I think even if my game is sh*tty, I learned a lot and made a crazy ride just as I planned – making something with a tool I never tried, made some cool mechanics I’m honestly proud of considering the time frame given and the theme.

My entry was “Being a Video Game Monster“, and I want to thank everyone who played it.

70% coolness is the most I had ever before, so in that regard – I’m reasonably happy to finally figure how to behave in this coolness system.

I hope I can participate next year as well, though chances are I’m gonna be really bussy; this honestly has nothing to do with the scoring, I knew this even before entering. I don’t really care about the score as much as I care that this might have been my last LD. Hopefully, this isn’t the last one. Gonna try hard to find time to making an entry once again, it’ll probably suck since I’ll have even less time to prepare than THIS time, but even with sh*tty score I would be able to enjoy a break from everything and living the dream of making video games while asking NO ONE’s permission!

That’s what’s LD for me.

And, as always – Have a Happy Ludum Dare (bitter smile). =]

Tags: LD33, Reckoning

Well thank you everyone who played and rated Corruption 5, which you’ve generously decided was pretty good. As I expected I have done worse in graphics, audio, fun, humour and innovation and yet somehow done better overall.

Doing worse at graphics now

For me this Ludum Dare was all about testing out a way of telling a story in a platform game — using Point and Click adventure style speech bubbles and lots of special events — and, I think, this is what saved it. There’s no ‘story’ category but I think the points for that were all put into Mood, Theme and Overall.

Corruption-5 featured nearly 200 individual sprite animation frames. It featured 11 entity types with a total of 91 different inputs and outputs (basically the behaviours and interactions with the entities) all of which needed coding. To do all this in 48 hours meant sacrifices.. and what was sacrificed was sleep, music quality, background art (only a small handful of functional tiles, nothing decorative like in Mass-X) and level design. I couldn’t use all those entities and mechanics more than once or twice because I just didn’t have time. I had to just implement the specific story beats for each level and leave it at that.

It was a victim of being way too ambitious. It’s pretty obvious how to improve next time: FASTER LIFTS.

Now it’s back to work on the full commercial game I’m making called “Aye, Robot.” It’s a hybrid of my last Ludum Dare game “Mass-X” and this “Corruption 5” and is all about robots in the strange English county of Yorkshire. Follow me on twitter to keep up to date on that!

Thanks again and see you all next time!

Tags: ld33 results