My game The Bugs World still needs four more votes so I guess it's time for the post-jam update. This game is a simple but fast-paced RTS game without base building but with bugs. To win you need to destroy all your enemies bugs. Collect food and deliver it to your nest to produce more bugs.

Please play and rate

What went right

This time I decided to use a full-featured engine instead of the various frameworks and libraries I used before. Due to it's open-source nature I went with Godot and I'm glad I did so. Considering this was my first attempt on a serious game using this engine things went pretty well.

What impresses me the most is how reusable Scenes in Godot are. When starting a running game is shown as an (failed) attempt to explain the gameplay to the player. You see two teams collecting food and destroying each other afterwards. This scene is constructed using the same nodes that I used for regular level creation. The biggest difference between this scene and a regular level is that this scene don't contain a human interface scene but two AI player scenes.

What went wrong

As usual during Ludum Dares I tend to spend my time on the wrong aspects of the game. This time the menu got a lot of polishing while some major problems weren't fixed. Thus the jam version didn't contain highlighting of selected bugs nor a complete explaination of the games gameplay elements. I tried to explain the gameplay by showing a AI battle on the main menus background but didn't notice that this would require understanding of some of the games rules. Basically I lost my focus on the later player.

The game also lacks gameplay elements that allow variation of the gameplay flow. The player can only win when collecting much food before attacking. It lacks strategic options. Neither helped the fact that I released the game with a broken damage system so bugs insta-killed opponents.

I tried to create some background music this time but haven't liked what I created so I got rid of it entirely in the end. A nice melody could've improved the ambient of the game a lot. May one day a game of mine will have sounds.

The future

I'm still working on some fixes for the game and I'm going to release those when the voting is over. The postjam version will add the bug selection and some other improvements.

I'm considering flat colored isometric vector art for a possible full game release but I haven't decided about that yet.

Been so busy with work I haven't played as many entries as I would like. If you can please play my game, il ensure to play yours back! Thankyou :))

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/tiny-buckler

A quick heads-up before the voting is over! If you like to play a short, cute game, check out Our Little Island.

Click here to play

(and leave me a comment please :))

WE just need 2 more people to rate our game, and we'll be in! We wouldn't mind if you dropped a rating! Reply here and we'll do the same to your game! Have a nice day :D

When I ride the buss to work every day I go by a fence where someone has written the following: "Life is not the days that pass, but the days you remember." This makes me think of the latest LD and how..

Get on with it (Ok, ok)

During today lunch I though back to this LD and these where the first five games that came to my mind. They are not necessary my favourites (although are all very strong contenders), but they are the ones the ones that somehow managed to be most memorable to me.

The list

The one where that was so sad...

I really was not prepared for this.

The one with a stapler...

It's funny because it's true.

The one with Barrels...

Just one more time!

The one with the planet beard...

My inhabitants where science larps.

The one with the background music...

Right in the feeeeels!

The obvious one... (my game)

Yeah. Of course I remember this one to. Except it does not count, does it?

I will remember having lots of fun making this one. I hope you enjoy it.

The world is (a) flat

Oh, one more thing!

You know what would be cool? You doing the same thing.

1. Walk away from the computer and all other electronic devices (optionally bring pen and paper)
2. Have lunch (or at least drink some Tea and have a snoddas)
3. Think back to this LD. What are the first five games that come to mind? (optionally write the list down using previously mentioned pen and paper)
4. Post links to your top 5 (+ your own game of course!) in the comment below

I'll be looking forward to it.

Cheers, J

Now that it's been a few weeks, I've had the chance to think about how everything went. I think this Ludum Dare has been a big success for me, mostly because it's the first time I've actually managed to finish an entry! In addition I've also been getting great feedback which is an added bonus :) I feel like in making a game on such a constrained time, you really learn a lot very quickly. Can't wait for the next one ;)

Play my game here!

I'd still love some feedback on my game, so feel free to rate it :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/earth-invaders

We are only a few votes away from being able to receive a rating and we would love to be able to see how we did! So please check out our game, vote, and comment with feedback and a link to your submission and we will check it out! :smile:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/plutus

Can you save Smolwurld? It's under attack and it's only two days left to try saving it!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/attack-on-smolwurld

Alright, I'm done. I have about 30 games left to play on my list, but I have to go traveling for work tomorrow and won't be able to make it on time. I also wanted to help some low-rating games make the cut, but I simply don't have enough time, sorry.

I have to say: Thanks a lot for all the nice comments from everyone who played my game. I received so much feedback this time, it was an awesome ride.

If you care to play my game before voting ends, please go ahead:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/a-perfectly-lovely-adventure

Here's a time lapse in case anyone is interested in that kind of stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0lX77yj1AY

To wrap it up: This was my third Ludum Dare, and it was also the first one where I handed something in that felt like a complete experience. I'm really happy about the result and will be looking forward to LD40 (come Christmas time, if I remember correctly) for some more practice.

Good luck to everyone for the remaining voting time, I wish all of you some good and helpful comments. See you on the other side in a few days.

Hello Ludum Dare participants. I've tried to change the background movement of my game and I would like to know what do you think, please. :)

Harmonic movement or different? Some people say that the different movement is so weird.

Test the game here if you haven't: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/defend-your-tiny-worldpreview

Last chance to rate my game (and to destroy your enemies with a gigantic exoskeleton... :) ) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/exoman

Just wanted to write my own personal post-mortem of our game, Flerth! I was in charge of art shenanigans. This wasn’t my first jam rodeo but it was my first LD.

What we were aiming for:

We were aiming for a simple, replayable concept. Most people probably spend a couple minutes max playing a jam game, so we wanted it to be easy to understand and quick to complete. We also wanted to make a game that would give us a giggle, since that’s usually pretty motivating in itself.

What went well:

We went through a few ideas first until we hit on Flerth, which struck a chord with everyone. We got to work pretty quick which was good since it’s easy to get caught up in all the fun ideas.

I was afraid that players might just see the cute and not much else. But we got a few comments regarding how quickly players turned to killing the Peeps when they would get overwhelmed. So that made my day. Could be the copious amounts of blood and screenshake though.

We organised and sorted our roles and tasks and managed to hit our goals! We had plenty of ideas of what we’d like to smush into Flerth but we got it down to what we definitely needed to have the game playable. We had a clear idea of who was doing what and how long each task could take.

Really pleased that we managed to fit a bit of play testing in. It’s usually pretty hard to make time for it since it usually takes most of the game jam to get the game working well enough to pass it someone else at all (at least in my experience!).

What could be improved:

The scoring system isn’t very apparent. We wanted to let the player figure some things out for themselves, but I think the scoring needed a bit more direction. Perhaps some kind of indicator on the Peeps to show when they’d get tuckered out enough to return to the city (whether that be animation or a little bar or sommat).

I’m also not that happy with the instruction screen, I feel that could have been much better. In an ideal world I would like the player to be taken through things in game, but we didn’t have time to implement/test anything like that.

As it is, the game hits a certain point and the difficulty ramps way up. I think Peep increase needs to be more gradual, or come in waves.

If we were to expand:

I don’t think we’ll take any further, but it’s fun to ponder the what ifs! Personally I would consider making it a level based game rather than survival. We had talked about the God Hand having items to put in the Peeps way, like conveyor belts, TVs with dumb advertising etc, which the player would acquire as they progressed.

During development we did chat about having different sorts of Peeps with different attributes. Some would be mini-paparazzi in tiny news vans that had to be smushed. Some would be day dreamers and totally be unaware of the edge and fall off etc.

At last:

Overall I’m really pleased with what we made. On a personal level I would have liked to have used this game jam as an opportunity to mess about with 3D some. I didn’t this time because while I can cobble together a simple model I can’t remember the last time I rigged anything! If I could have I would have liked to done have the God Hand in 3D.

If you read all that, thank you very much for your time!

You can play Flerth here if y'fancy

TLDR; Some good, some bad, was a game jam

HEY ALL!!

So with 2 days to go my game is closer and closer to reaching that 20 ratings score, 14/15 on most categories. I know that many of you will be busy but if some people would take the time to give me some feedback and ratings, anything anyone does will be great.

I Apologise that it is a download game but please check out my game Just Another Pocket Dimension here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/just-another-pocket-universe

Hey, decided to live stream some post-compo development of my game. Find it on http://twitch.tv/oaster2000

Join me if you want, and hey if you want to suggest something after playing the game you can find it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/just-another-pocket-universe

Our game, MiniRacer, only needs five more votes to qualify! No need to worry about a download, its online!

Links:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/miniracer/

https://ayyamthe1.itch.io/miniracer

Hope you enjoy!

Ayy

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Play Until Tomorrow!

We are pleased to present our Ludum Dare 38 project : Bubblenaut !

Come play and vote here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/bubblenaut

Bubblenaut is a slow-paced adventure game set in a dreamy world. Born inside a small planet, you will explore several realms to find the Heartfruit, and witness the might of its taste ! We hope you enjoy our work :)

Check out Destructo Island

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/destructo-island

We finally finished up the timelapse of the creation of Mind's Eye

The timelapse condenses ~45 hour of development into a 12 minute video (so it can be a bit jarring at times) and represents half of the overall work done (doesn't capture the work done from my teammate @micah).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd2tTwQdFn8

We have continued to work on the game, making some changes based on the feedback we've gotten so far. This includes some quality of life control changes to overall game difficulty balances.

Thanks to everyone who has already played our game and left some amazingly positive comments -- but with only the last few days of scoring left, we would love any additional feedback.