So I think now that my schedule has calmed down a bit I’ll be writing my post mortem for Edo Arena. If you haven’t seen it yet watch my development time lapse!

How it went

The process went surprisingly smoother than I expected for my first compo attempt. After spending much time messing around with potential ideas with two button controls, I settled on a fighting style game, with two button ideas like One Finger Death Punch. I wanted to make sure the models looked well enough so I went for a extra minimalist art style. After a few hours I had gameplay and pretty sword trails.

From then on I continued by adding enemies. This took me a great deal of time to get the animations and feel to go well with the gameplay. The player soon flew around the screen the way I wanted. I added the upgrades shop for the rest of the second day, then added more enemies and power ups, made sounds, and polished the rest of the time.

What went well

I am very happy with the crisp look of the stage– it may be strangely UV mapped but it looks very nice in Unity. The animations were well received and I obviously took good care of the particle systems. The enemy spawning and “AI” wasn’t anything special but it did the job. The weapon variety was good too and the upgrade shop was worth the extra work. I will hopefully be able to add to this game and make a Post-Compo version.

What went wrong

The overpricing in the upgrades created many problems, I’ll be them fixing for Post-Compo. The music isn’t too great, but I’m not upset about that considering it’s the second song I’ve made using LMMS. The animations were good but they could be much more accurate and varied for each weapon. The enemies were sometimes coming at the player from directly above, which is not ideal. Finally, things that I did not have time to add in included: additional weapons and buildings, final boss, and a credits menu.

That wraps up my Post Mortem, it’s been an awesome Ludum Dare 34 and I love playing your games! I expect to make a Post-Compo version to be released around the end of judging. Remember to play Edo Arena and follow me on Twitter.  Thanks for reading!

Hi, everyone!

Chris from Crashmore Studios, speaking. Both me and Jacob would like to thank all of you who commented/voted for us.
It’s been our second Ludum and we’re just grateful of the response we’ve received and happy that so many of you tried it out.

If you have for some reason not tried it out, hey, why don’t you check it out, right here ?  It would be really cool of you :).

What’s next? Well, we’re talking about some ideas and will probably look into them once the dust has settled a bit. We’re planning on putting up a little post-mortem eventually, though we’ll have to see how soon considering the holiday season. Regardless however, will try and post ut as soon as we can.

Anyways, to sum up; thank you guys and stay tuned!

My fellow Ludumers.

Thanks a lot to those who already rated my entry and left a comment. For the others, I don’t blame you, yet. Just innocently pretend you forgot and go there fix this outrageous mistake: Right here… Thanks

Delivery in process

Now, quick word about this edition.

Introduction

This Ludum Dare was my best experience yet. Maybe not based on the game’s quality (you tell me), but based on the workflow. This is the second time I use Unity3d/Blender and the progress between past Augustus and now are obvious. Back then I wasted half my time looking for documentation. I was way more ready this time.

Tools I used

• Engine: Unity3D 5.2
• Art: Blender 3D – Illustrator
• Sound: SFXR – Mic – Audacity – Garage Band
• Project Manager: Trello
• Timelapse: Chronolapse
• Streaming (yeah I was live on Twitch, not really efficient): OBS
• Video Editing: Sony Movie Studio Platinum

The Good

• The Theme: as restrictive as last year (Remember “Entire game on a screen”?)
• I put my wife and the kid in the car and they went visit my parents => calm and focused weekend.
• I found time to party with long missing friends (no alcohol, seen my sleep deprivation)
• Trello: great tool to keep track of what to do, add, fix, improve in the game.

• a workflow I would like to have each day (Except for the sleep deprivation)
• Unity3D: love this program.

The Bad

No so much, really.

1. I forgot this //INSERT STRONG LANGUAGE HERE// data folder when I uploaded the game. I know nothing…
2. The originality of the game isn’t its strongest suit. I must think outside the box next time.
3. My clouds look like stones (poll realized on a representative sample of 3 people after the submission)
4. The tutorial could have been better.
5. The “throwing gift” animation would have been better with an extra single line of code I now add in the POST-COMPO version

Fan of Timelapse ? Be my guest.

Thanks a lot to PoV for all of this.

Thanks for reading. See you next time…

We thought it was about time we did a post about our entry, after catching up on some well earned sleep!

Play SUPER SCIENCE CORP

Play as a janitor at a high tech scientific research complex, tasked with saving the world from mutant insects.

Use the power of an experimental DNA disruptor hand cannon to take on these beings – you must make it to the generator room and press the TWO BUTTONS to shut down the energy reactor that is feeding these mutants!

Play SUPER SCIENCE CORP

Watch out for the acidic goo some of these creatures spit out, they’ll cause damage and lessen the chance of making it out alive!

Luckily you have your janitor’s broom, with this you can brush these damage areas out of the way, giving you more room to maneuver.

Play SUPER SCIENCE CORP

We had a blast making this for LD, though we made the mistake of staying up for 42 hours straight which made us all completely knackered by the time the competition was over. Now we’ve had some rest, we’re going to be playing & rating as many awesome games as possible! 😀

If you’d like us to play, rate & shout about your game, please let us know.

We hope you enjoy playing our entry and can’t wait to hear what you all think!

Hey there!

My name is Mathieu Clavel, and today I’m the speaker of my group Lullaby.
So it’s been a few days since the end of the Ludum Dare 34, and it’s Post-mortem time!
For this Jam session, we were a team of three : 2 Game Designers (Louis and I) – one programing and one making the art stuff – and 1 Music Composer. First of all we would like to thank you all for the games you’ve made. Each LD is a great adventure, and there are so many awesome entries! Each time we’re proud to be part of it, alone or in group like this time.

But let’s talk about Flowering Souls development. First of all, what is Flowering Souls ? Well, it’s our game, and you can try it right here :

[I really wanna try this game and leave a constructive comment!]

It was the first time Louis and I were working together, and we discovered there was a good synergy between us : the final game was designed on paper in less than one day. We decided to use both of the themes this time, and after a few ideas going to trash, we had our final concept.

Then, we launched the “production” part. The graphic part went surprisingly good. The last time I made graphics for a game was far from now, but at the end of the first day, all the characters assets were designed and ready for animation.
On his side, Louis was completing our List of Features, and we were experimenting and messing around with these mechanics in the same time that he implemented them.
At the end of our first day, we were confident : everything would be on schedule.
The second day was more about experimentation, modifications and polishing the “engine”. Louis also prepared a Level Design tool that would help me to design wave of ennemies, while I was creating animations and FXs.
The last part of the Jam was far more stressfull. We were looking at the timer, and were only starting to make Level Design and still improving ennemies behavior. It became more and more painful since we discovered the first couple of bugs (that we would take 45mn to solve), opening the gates of the “what the hell is happening ?!”. The tutorial was a big part of the time we spent on fixing bug, because we really wanted to get something clean and understandable.

Finally, we managed to deliver the game on time, and now we’re really proud of it!
We learned great stuff, produced something in 72 hours, lived a unique experience, and now it’s time to play

Happy hollidays to all of you, and see ya for the next Ludum Dare!

That’s right! I just ported Abyssal Zone to Windows.

Play it here: Abyssal Zone

We’ve added a Linux build to our LD entry – hopefully this will allow more people to try our game.

Play SUPER SCIENCE CORP

Unfortunately we’re all on Windows over here, so the Linux build remains untested – fingers crossed it all works okay!

We have released the Linux and OSX version of “A Growing Threat”. Please go check it out if you feel like a cool story and fun game-play :D.

I want to make a mobile version of my game (free version of course) : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=50164

With some game mode, but i’m not great for making musics so i search someone for making musics for my game ! If you’re interested, contact me on twitter at @PaulJsSerie (Oh and i speak french.)

Oh and you can test, rate and comment my game too, obviously !

Hey everyone, I finally sat down to write a quick Post-Mortem for my LD34 entry Peon than you can read of my blog.

Good luck to everyone during judging!

Keep in mind that I’ve only tried nearly 200, that’s 7% of the total! So these are my top 10 favorites SO FAR. The criteria is simple: the games I’m about to list are those that kept me returning and even saving them for later. Here they are:

Concrete Jungle

The Almighty Spectrum

Nine till void

2 Growing Buttons

Super Duper Stacker Supreme

Left-leaning

RhythmRider

Slate

Litterlings

From the deep

Am I missing something? Say below,

…oh and by the way…

TRY MY GAME OR I’LL EAT YOUR SOUL MUAHAHAHAHAH

Hello everyone,
I’m going to start playing your games in 5 minutes and stream it so come by and drop your links in the chat.
I won’t be talking (I don’t have a proper place) but I’ll be in the chat and I think it’s still valuable to see how I do in your games.
Stream Here

Note: Do not post it in comments.

If you would like to try our game:
Lost Contact

Seriously. I just made a terrible game.

Saturday morning. 2 am. Walking home from my friends house warming. The themes come up.

‘Hah.’ I thought, ‘Growing… what if I did a game where you grow wings?’

‘Two button controls? I can totally make a platform game with two buttons.’

Can I f***.

Mouse aiming. Left button leap forward. Right button fire your uzi. What a piece of sh… Genius.

Maybe I should just stop making platform games.

You can play and rate this travesty here:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=40246 

Tags: travesty

And then procedural seed 20 crushed our hopes…

Jumped a little forward, you see the first mistake we made was dreaming big. Let’s make a thoughtful , infinite, beautiful game and we … kinda did We planned to generate our worlds from different seed every game, then that pesky seed 20 had a broken collider on one part of the terrain, so we decided not to risk and just pick one world , test it and stick with it. I learned a lot during this LD , and feel invigorated for next projects.

Our team: just 2 programmers – we were pleasantly suprised by positive feedback on aesthetics, since that is not exactly our area of expertise.You can check our game:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=66283

And be proud if you can solve the final riddle!

I am happy to say that the postjam version of my Jam visual novel, The Seed of Love, is now out on itch.io!

Main addition is music, more images, unlockable endings and additional features.

Hope you will give it a try.

The Seed of Love on Itch.io

You can find the game page here if you want to rate it!

Tags: postjam, Ren'Py, Visual Novel

Here is the game in question if you care to give it a shot.

Introduction: While I have done overviews of my two previous Ludum Dare entries, I decided to do a proper full retrospective, especially considering that I think it is probably my weakest entry to date. It’s important to review poor performances so that you can fully recognize what went wrong.

Goals: As with any LD, a set of goals was established to be completed.

• Attempt to rig scripts to particular frames of animation.
• Attempt to finish a significant portion of content.
• Attempt to maintain the level of polish my previous entries had.
• Attempt to make the Theme more integral to the game.

Preparation: As opposed to previous events, there was very little preparation. Tools were not set up or used within the last few months which led to some confusion, specifically with Unity as it had been updated and changed significantly.

In addition, very little time was spent pre-conceptualizing based on the last round of potential themes. Due to this the eventual release of the theme led to considerable issues.

Concepts: With the release of the dual themes of Growth and Two Button Game, I actually came to my first concept in short order; however due to the nature of a dual theme I ended up changing my mind repeatedly and ended up working on several themes throughout the 48 hours.

Digital Pet: My initial concept was a combination of the two themes; a revamped digital pet similar to the Tamagotchi. This seemed conceivable however the eventual decision was that the number of sprites necessary were a workload beyond what I felt comfortable in completing in 48 hours when combined with the necessary coding to be done. In addition, I was intending on this entry doing well in the votes and I felt that a longform game like a digital pet would not be received well.  Work completed included the base UI, as well as some basic logic needed.

Dungeon Crawl with Growing Sword: Similar to the concept I ended up with, but a third person, overhead dungeon crawler with basic combat and a growing sword with every kill. Decided to move on to the next concept as I got frustrated with certain issues and wasn’t thinking properly. Worked on basic camera and movement code, in addition to a basic player model and weapon model and some required animations.

Kaiju Game: Essentially using the same camera and movement code from previous concept, this would be a game where you start as a small monster and grow with every person eaten, eventually able to destroy buildings and whatnot. Decided that production of the enemy AI would be far too extensive for the short time remaining. Work completed included several building models and the creation of a small test city.

2D Platformer: In the style of old castlevania games, I decided to ignore the growth theme and go with “Two button” but decided it was a bit of a cop out, since there are still movement buttons. No real work completed, though.

Tower Climb Platformer: The decided upon concept, this combined the growing sword with the concept of making a platformer. To go with it’s simple tower geometry I went with an orthographic camera to make it feel strangely flat and to make the controls feel more appropriate.

Time Chart:

    9pm -1am Fri-Sat: Worked on the digital pet concept, deciding that though I wasted the first 4 hours I could make it up in the morning.

1am-5am Sat: Attempted to sleep, failed, was too busy conceptualizing the project at hand. Came up with all sorts of concepts that never made it into the final project.

5am-8am Sat: Actual sleep

8am-3pm Sat: Built the base player model, the sword, the movement and attack animations and the movement and camera code. It was at this time I dealt with frustration regarding the Attack code, and the goal to integrate code into animations failed horribly.

3pm-7pm Sat:  Slept

7pm-12am Sat-Sun: Was frustrated and still tired, decided to calm down and look over some things but didn’t actually really work on anything.. At this time considered calling it quits.

12am-7am Sun: Slept

7am-12pm Sun: Swapped to the Kaiju concept, built a couple building models as well as the base terrain for the city as well as several  terrain textures and a few support models. Decided this wouldn’t work.

12pm-1pm Sun: Fiddled with a few things in 2d, to set up for the platformer. Came up with idea of the tower platformer

1pm-7pm Sun: Built the base tower model, 2 platform models and a “floor” model. Created a jump animation for the player model I had made earlier. Rebuilt the attack animation code to be separate from the animation itself.  Created an enemy slime model, then the enemy AI.

7pm-8pm Sun: Took out my guitar and fiddled around to make a theme for the tower, then used my mouth to make the other sound effects. Last second UI for reloading the level on defeat, quitting the game and starting the game.

8pm-9pm Sun: Generated the game file and published onto itch.io

Review of Goals:

    Scripts to Animation (Failed): Due to the way the unity engine inherits animations, they are read only and won’t keep any scripts attached to keyframes, despite that only affecting them inside the unity engine. Can only attach it to animations created in Unity.

Considerable Content Generation (Failure): As I spent a lot of time and effort on other concepts,  I ended up behind schedule considerably and barely finished making one level.I would hardly call one level with one enemy type considerable content.

Dedication to Polish (Failed): Unfortunately several buttons used generic Unity button graphics as well as not having a proper intro screen. In addition the player and weapon models was incomplete as well. Lastly the enemies don’t actually have an attack.

Theme Integration: While I think technically it was more actually part of the gameplay then my previous entries, I still think I could have done more if I had more time left over, however the low enemy variety and lack of enemy attack combined with the lack of any real mechanics regarding the sword growth besides killing things meant that it was sort of irrelevant.

Conclusion:

While I think the game I managed to pull through and make a product in short order, I am disappointed in my capacity to hold to a working concept. My original concept would have fit both themes and while it would have meant a fair deal of sprite work, if I had stuck through I think I could have completed it. I think my inexperience with 2D work in Unity is part of why I decided to switch concepts.

Goals for the next Ludum Dare:

• Stick to a concept if it works: The main reason I would consider this entry a failure is the fact I swapped concepts repeatedly until nearly the end, and barely produced any content at all.

• Make the Theme the heart:  The double theme made focusing on the theme kind of challenging; but making it such a small part of the game feels kind of lame.

• Make the game with Reviewers in mind: Simple fact is, there are a lot of things that reviewers immediately recoil from. Complicated control schemes, long startup periods and lacking an browser version are all good ways to immediately prevent people from reviewing your game. Keep it simple stupid seems to be practically required.

• Create a decent amount of content: This has been a major issue with all of my entries is that they can all be completed in a few minutes… even a first person stealth game. Considering procedural generation as a potential to allow for a lot of content.

Thanks for taking the time to read, I mostly made this for myself, but if it helped any of you think through your issues I am glad it helped maybe.

And for ultimate sellout, here is a link to the game again >.>

For those of you who haven’t played my game yet, you can do that here

In my game you are the president of a state at war and you have to make choices about how far you will go in order to win.

I went ahead and stored the data of choices, and put them into graphs.

Here you can see how people replied to the first moral choice (whether it is OK to torture an enemy spy for information)

You can see all choices in the post compo version.

Forklift Man is now also available for Mac! You can download it here: http://tocogames.itch.io/forklift-man

In case you don’t know Forklift Man yet, he is the guy who can grow his limbs at will, in his quest for greatestness he has to use his powers to overcome various obstacles and puzzles.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=44878%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%8B

i am proud to say that Deep Growth got a patch fixing common bugs

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦PLAY NOW♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Change log

(P = patched,R = resetting will fix it)
plant skips movement and the screen jumps up (P v1.2)
possible to skip growth power up and soft lock the game (p 1.2)
the plant’s color at the ending was off(p 1.2)
possible to get stuck on the plant (p 1.2)(R)
R did not reset the player’s x and y to plant’s (p 1.2)(R)

Recently, we got many people asking for a port to Mac and Linux. Although the majority of people use windows, it is nice to have a universal platform that everyone can use and know that no-one will have to wait for the download. That’s why if you haven’t added a web port to your game yet, I would highly recommend doing so.

Plank is a 3d puzzle game about growing and shrinking, if you haven’t played it already, click Here.