It was our first LD and we are really happy to have the results.
So... We are celebrating :p!
We had some brainstorming about what the game will become and we have so many ideas ! Let's organise it and create our first game !
See you soon guys !
Oh my god, thank you so much for your votes people, we really appreciate it. Me and @quaternius are going to speak about the future of this game, we'll analyze your feedback, and after that, we'll see where it'll lead us.
If you want to read the post-mortem me and @quaternius both did one:
I also like to share my "LD stats" after the results are in for each LD. This time I decided to host all the data on my website to not take real-estate here. So if you're curios head here: codebite.xyz/ld-stats
If you want just the gist of it, here's a chart:
Anyways, thank you guys for playing our game! Your games were amazing, and we loved to participate in this LD!
Cheers, @redpanda of Qure Team
Everyone names their .exe and data files LD38. This is fine when its the only file named that on your computer, but when I download everyones games I end up with like 60 files named LD38. I even had issues where i lost files and couldnt figure out where the game i just downloaded went because it merged with another data folder with the same title. I would recommend just naming your files the same as the title of your game, that way it is much easier for the end-user to navigate their folder of LD games.
I've held off on a post mortem because I was waiting for results, but now results are here! I already did a post celebrating my results, but I wanted to do one talking about the experience as a whole! I guess it's time!
Before I start, you can play my game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/timeless
*My Process*
I'm 15, and this is my 3rd Ludum Dare. The last time, I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but this time I started off with a feeling of incredible excitement. Still, I was also kind of irritated by the theme. It was a repeat, and was also kind of similar to "One Room", which limited gameplay in the same sense that this one did (this lead to lots of arcade-style games). Last time, with one room, I had the same annoyance, and actually didn't participate at all. I eventually came up with an idea, which I started a bit too quickly.
About 4 hours in, I decided that I didn't like the concept for my game. It seemed a bit ambitious, and not very far, so I was back to the drawing board (or in this case, the whiteboard). I tried to think how I could make a game that had a real ending, yet still had a small world. Suddenly I noticed that I could use time as an asset for multiple levels, while still having the same world. Suddenly, I started working on a new game, using a few of the assets from my earlier idea, which turned into what's now Timeless.
Soon enough, I had gotten the base of my code. There was a simple level design system using png files, and I could easily create a system of level progression. The time travel mechanic worked, and while I struggled with the extremely basic physics for a while, soon enough, all I had to worry about was the level design and mechanics.
I was able to send the developmental versions to friends on Skype which helped, and they seemed to like it. So I was pretty excited and kept working. In the end, I had 15 levels, which mostly felt well designed. I think I got all of the mechanics across pretty well, but some of the levels were a bit more annoying than fun or challenging.
The last day, I had a few levels to finish, as well as the music. I was going to attempt more orchestral music, with about 3 tracks, but in the end I had a 45 second chiptune track on loop... I didn't quite reach my goal. Still, I was proud of it, and put the finishing touches on my game. In the upload hour, I put up what I felt was a pretty well polished game.
*The Concept/Gameplay*
I think my game excelled due to it's simplicity. Instead of cramming the game with lots of different elements. I had a basic mechanic, and 3 extra mechanics (bouncing, lava, and cannons). Introducing the mechanics slowly meant that the level design could be improved to slowly teach this.
*The "Tutorial"*
My game didn't have a tutorial, and thank goodness. It meant that everything was taught through simple gameplay, which made it really fun. The only real tutorial was the controls written in the world in the first level.
*The Level Design*
I've had so many different opinions about my difficulty and level design. Some people have loved the difficulty level, as well as level design, while others thought it was unfair and difficult. Others said that the game benefited from the puzzle design in earlier levels, and the platforming didn't fit it well. I agree with the complaints more, but also believe that puzzle elements would have taken too much time to be feasible for the game, and the platforming elements were a good substitute. In the end, I think I did a good job with the level design.
*The Music*
I've also gotten diverse responses about the music. Some people loved it, while others found it repetitive and annoying. The hope was that the game was short enough to justify the short length, but I probably could have doubled it and still had time... maybe? Next time I'll shoot for a longer track, or even multiple tracks.
*The Collectibles*
My game had apples, which would cover the world in plants and animals. Logically, it didn't make sense, but I received lots of compliments on it. I really liked the concept, but I don't think it was very well executed. They were well utilized in the levels, but I think it added an extra layer of challenge that came across as frustrating. Also, I didn't show a counter at the end (that was a dumb decision). It did give a reliable measure of the game's progress though.
*The Final Product*
I think that my final product was well-polished, and I'm pretty proud of it. I might make a post-compo version, but for now, I'm extremely happy with my final results. Thank you to everyone who played and commented! I had so many people who said that my game was one of their favorites, and I treasured every compliment and every bit of criticism I got! Thanks for a great Ludum Dare, and I'm already excited for the next one!
Just wanted to put this out there to our fellow game devs! The artist and I (from Cosmic Cleaner) did LD38 as a break from our main project which is a tactical, cover based 2D shooter.
We have a demo available, so if you liked our work on Cosmic Cleaner, please take a moment to check out Azure Sky Project! If you enjoy the demo please consider supporting our Steam Greenlight campaign (link available in the game itself!)
http://gamejolt.com/games/ASP/256465
The Universe did it's best to destroy us, but in the end we ended up getting some pretty good scores and a TON of great feedback. THANK YOU!
Here is our post jam version based on all the amazing feedback we got
Hah - clickbait game is still strong. Have you ever heard about the (open source) Godot game engine? If not you should totally check out its features! (https://godotengine.org/features). I used it for the first time on LD38 instead of LibGDX which I used for LD36 and I'm pretty much blown away by it. Now to the reason I write here - today started a kickstarter campaign to fund a professional tutorial series on the upcoming version 3.0 of Godot which will be an awesome release by itself. I invite all of you to take a look at the engine and the kickstarter and decide for yourself if you want to pledge. The autor of the tutorial series is experienced with tutorials and has numerous free tutorial videos on youtube - also some on game art with the awesome open source painting program Krita (which you should also check out!). I do not know the autor personally nor do I get any benefit from his success but he seems like a great guy worth supporting. Here is the link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gdquest/make-professional-2d-games-godot-engine-online-cou
Thank you for taking the time and I hope you jump unto the Godot hype train with me :)
Edit: Please feel free to share those news with you friends and family or on your social media accounts!
Where are they?
I C A N ' T F I N D T H E M
Dunno why...
Taking care of all your advices, I'm currently working on a new version with Smaller and easier levels.
The time system will be change by one timer by fish to agressivly force people to enter the flow of fishes.
A menu to manage sounds is also on the todo list.
I'm heading an android version, I worked all the recording system to be platform agnostic. I currently facing one issue : the controls currently are not enough good but it goes better each days :)
A new web version will be up in something like 2 days.
I want to thank you again for the great and useful feedbacks you gave me!!
Finally, Ludum Dare 38 has ended. Sorry about the delays and problems throughout!
The results for each category can be found here:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/games
You can check your game page for your individual results (My Game up top).
Congratulations everyone for making games!
Our next event will be during the tail end of July, in the final days before August begins: July 28th-31st.
Finding a suitable weekend during August 2017 was nightmare'ish at best. Every weekend either had a major industry event (GamesCom, PAX Prime), demoscene event (Assembly, Evoke), and the odd man out was the weekend of The International DOTA2 finals (the largest money eSports tournament, like a Superbowl without the funny commercials). There are very few other events I avoid when scheduling, but this and EVO are two I do.
After a very difficult selection process, basically trying to decide which August weekend I would choose to conflict with, I settled on doing it slightly early. Technically Siggraph and a GSL tournament are the same weekend, but my fandom of StarCraft and respect for Siggraph as a graphics coder aren't enough to convince me to avoid it at this point.
So come back July 28th-31st weekend for Ludum Dare 39.
Getting ready for the next event, of course. :smile:
There's actually a very short amount of time between now and Ludum Dare 38 (roughly 2 months). Me personally I'm taking some days to recover before I start ramping for the next event. I very much overdid it crunching to get things ready this time, but it was necessary. We desperately need to get the event running on the new site. And now, after much work (and a rocky few weeks), we have managed to run an event on the new website. It wasn't perfect, but it only gets better from here.
I'm currently in a Vermont cabin with some friends as I write this (my vacation I had planned well in advance). My apologies for the days I was caught-up with travelling. I'm here for the week, then making my way home next week. When I return I'll be able to assess, organize, and get started on the next event.
If you're interested in helping out on the website, you can start learning about the code and the tools here:
https://github.com/ludumdare/ludumdare
We have a growing community of folks working on the site. It is going to take some work to get started with the website code, but we're happy to help.
I hate bringing up financials (I find it embarrassing). Suffice to say, my work on Ludum Dare full time is not sustainable. The Patreon and Paypal backers help me immensely, but having burned through my savings and some inheritance, I really don't have the luxury to do that anymore. I need to make what I do sustainable again.
A bit over a year ago I introduced about the idea of sponsors. For the most part you were for the idea.
To some it may seem bizarre that we don't have sponsors. And I do realize sponsors aren't ideal, but it does mean that someone else is paying for the work. There a number of companies that are big fans of what we do, and many of you know them very well and are fans of them. I'd like to think we can do this in a positive way.
Ludum Dare NEEDS to be sustainable and free. Long term, I don't think it's fair for me to expect the Patreon/Paypal supporters to fully support me and my work.
I will be looking for sponsors for the next Ludum Dare event. Feel free to reach out. I will get back to you after I return from my vacation.
Your company should be related in some way to what we do (making games, code, content creation, etc). If you're not sure, feel free reach out. I would like to avoid Game products/releases as sponsors right now. Expect tiers to be limited and start at $1500 (just so we don't flood the page with sponsors).
For those curious where sponsors will go, here's a mockup from the sponsorship guide:
That's in from me. Thank you everyone for coming out and taking part. We'll be back again at the end of July.
YAY
Thanks so much for playing my game SmallTrek and all the votes! \o/ Totally blown away by all the positive responses, feels like a great sign since I just quit my day job to become a full time indie game developer. Hopefully I can keep making fun games forever.
I programmed it all in a lovely new language Nim using my open-source basecode which I used for LD37 and my other game projects called Nico based on PICO-8 API, which I extended to support compiling to Javascript post-jam so I could have a web port.
Looking forward to next LD! =)
Well, to be honest im disappointed but not surprised. i missed 6-8 hours over the weekend, and i lost another 6-8 to graphical errors. But here's something i don't understand.
I had one negative comment. ONE. if you don't like the game, tell me. that's how games get better. don't ONLY give feedback if you liked it. its misleading and, quite frankly, unhelpful!
thank you all who played my game, wither enjoying it or not, and please remember to voice ALL of your opinions.
Enjoy your day!
For a summary of my experience during the event - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/my-precious-orbit/my-precious-orbit-post-mortem-post-ld-build-now-available-also
Revised build thanks to feedback received - https://swiftillusion.itch.io/my-precious-orbit
Though I'm happy with the revised small experience I was able to have at the end of this, overall I was really disappointed by what I submitted originally. The frustration of how much time I'd lost to unimaginable errors in a previously consistent workflow, and the lack of time left as a result to make refinements only grew as I received more feedback when voting began.
The feedback I received did help me consider even further adjustments for the pace of gameplay than I'd already planned for the post-release build, however with the feedback being so consistent about the core gameplay I didn't get a chance to refine before submitting, I ended up not wanting the game to be found.
This led me to put a regrettable stop to making any contributions regarding feedback on other projects after that, increasing the disappointment with myself along with my entry.
I tried to scale the amount of gameplay in my Ludum Dare project even lower than my previous attempts and I still lost 2 days of work to ridiculous things, leading me to release something I thought could become a fun little experience, however though I play tested it throughout, I didn't have time to fine tune it at the end making me regret the time invested and lost by others who tried it.
I know not everyone's plans comes together easily in an event like this and for many it's just about the experience, but when working solo as I did what's important to me is being able to get something out there that's fun for people to discover while trying everyone's games, even if there isn't a substantial amount of content, so my disappointment can't be exaggerated.
If I'm able to prepare myself for another Ludum Dare I'll have to be more up front with myself about what I want to contribute, and if I'm unable to have a complete experience ready earlier to test and refine the 'final' build I'll need to cut my loses earlier and just not submit anything.
Regardless I'm still incredibly grateful for those who took time to elaborate their feedback on my entry during this Ludum Dare, and hope anyone who tries the revised game at the top of this enjoys their time with it.
Wow, I never really understood or thought of the full implications of being first place, being the top 5 in a category. This is actually my first time doing it as well! Before my previous highest was #33rd place, back in my first jam during Ludum Dare 32. I've been extremely sick the past few days with a virus, and I feel a bit better now, and just seeing my game up on the scoreboard of sorts makes me feel so much better. In fact, I think imma go finish up my school year right now, and get ready for High School :)
Wait a minute. Right there, on the bottom left. is that. . .
Hey its my game! Kanjo! Yeah, sure I read the rating I got, and I also got 53rd in mood, but I never really took it to heart until now.
BUT THATS RIGHT! THATS MY FREEKING NAME ON THE SCOREBOARD! (Sorry if it sounds like im gloating or showing off, I'm not trying, its just I'm so suprised xD)
Hmm. . .
WOW I even got 8th place in Jam and Compo! This means so much, thanks everyone who rated my game!
Well, I did spend a decent time on Music (maybe 8-11 Hours)
Interestingly enough, I'd have to say this is probably the worst game I've ever made for a Ludum Dare, but also the one with the most promise and prospect as a post-Dare game.
So thanks to everyone who rated my game.
Well, I must get ready for school. And that truly made my day. Thanks!
(Random picture ;))
Here's a bundle of every LD38 medalist with a Windows build.
Just download the archive and extract to a folder of your liking.
29 games included:
{COMPO}
» SmallTrek « :firstplace: Overall :firstplace: Fun :secondplace: Graphics
» Krilgor « :firstplace: Humor :thirdplace: Theme
» Plonet Atek « :firstplace: Innovation
» Shrinking Planet « :firstplace: Theme
» Echo Lands « :firstplace: Graphics
» Planetone « :firstplace: Audio
» This Is Not Enough Planet! « :secondplace: Fun
» Marbleverse « :secondplace: Theme
» drone « :secondplace: Audio
» Afterbirth « :secondplace: Humor
» Nucleu « :secondplace: Mood
» tinyarena « :thirdplace: Fun
» Talkies « :thirdplace: Theme
» Colorfly « :thirdplace: Audio
» It's A Small World « :thirdplace: Mood
{JAM}
» Honey Home « :firstplace: Overall :firstplace: Fun :firstplace: Mood
» Snowed In « :firstplace: Audio :firstplace: Humor
» Floraison « :firstplace: Graphics :secondplace: Theme
» Hibernaculum « :firstplace: Theme
» The Treachery of Game Dev « :firstplace: Innovation
» The Deep « :secondplace: Overall :secondplace: Mood :thirdplace: Audio
» Headroom « :secondplace: Graphics
» Murder 38: Episode One « :secondplace: Humor
» Little Lands « :thirdplace: Overall :thirdplace: Fun
» Acquaintances « :thirdplace: Theme
» Super Collapse Guy « :thirdplace: Innovation
» To-Do List « :thirdplace: Graphics
» Planet or Die! « :thirdplace: Humor
» Snowday « :third_place: Mood
Thanks to everyone who voted and commented on my project!
I just released an updated version of it that I've been working on since the compo ended: https://zirrrus.itch.io/rocket-ship
Hey everyone! We are the Button Masher Bros!
We are back and ready to showcase more of your favorite Ludum Dare games!
It's the season premiere of Ludum Dare to Believe! It's S:9 Ep. 3!
(May contain strong language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YONTQdjhacc
With so many submissions, there was absolutely no way we could play them all.
Special thanks to our friends at Reddit, twitter, and Youtube who all stepped up to give us suggestions - you guys are the BEST!
If you like the games you see, be sure to check them out on Ludumdare.com and let the developers know what you think!
Today we will be highlighting:
Title: It's A Small World
Category: Compo Entry
Creator: danman9914 (@danman9914)
Title: A Mind Is A Small Place
Category: Jam Entry
Creator: Juju Adams (@juju-adams), topherlicious (@topherlicious), and pixelthirteen (@pixelthirteen)
Title: Cowmets
Category: Jam Entry
Creator: NickZangus (@nickzangus)
Finally, we'd love to hear what you think! You can comment on the episode linked above, comment in this thread, or tweet us at:
@ButtonMasherBro - Show account
@MathBlasterRitz - Chris
@SuddenlyZach - Zach
or @jwowBMB - Josh
Thanks Everyone and HAPPY LUDUM DARE!
So how do we actually get to this link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/games without knowing its existance, i mean there is no way to get there from the main page?
Bookmark this post!
This post is where members of Ludum Dare can put their suggestions (easily collected for @pov).
This post is NOT for people who want to complain about or even discuss the running of Ludum Dare, it is only for suggestions to better the site and jam.
Comment below with suggestions!