We improved the Compo version of our game a bit: - Fixes to gfx and playability - three different difficulty settings - restart current Level (not just from the beginning) - a smoother and nicer experience overall So why don't you check it out here:

WEBGL: http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/post_compo

CANVAS: http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/post_compo/canvas.html

or go to the LD page and vote for the original version :)

Play my game Planet Rage Quit! I bet you can't make it to level 50!...I can't even make it to level 50... If you beat it send me a screen shot and I will dub you as a gaming god! :joy:

Download Link: https://kamphellproductions.itch.io/planet-rage-quit

The main objective of the game is to keep an ecosystem in equilibrium using GUN, LIGHTNING and METEOR.

So basically there is 3 species in the game which is the Slimes, Rabbits and the Rhinos. If one of the three species’s became extinct then it’s game over.

Comment down your game and I will play it and rate it.

Edit: SORRY GUYS I FORGOT THE LINK IM SO STUPID

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

Today is my birthday :birthday: and what better way to celebrate than to promote the game to the LD community :fireworks:

Here is the link to Miniverse

If you didn't tried out my entry here is a link to For Eternity.

Let's start with the ugly things so we can end with some positve. :wink:

This time i had some ugly things to deal with. In the past i never had to deal with crashes or other problem beyond just bad performance. But this time was different! I used a seperate thread for pathfinding in my game and this was my first time using custom multithreading inside a ld entry. And yes i did the most obvious mistake you can do when you write multithreaded code. I wrote code that wasn't thread safe at all! :sob: But before i was able to fix that i had to reimport all my models because all my models were missing inside my unity cloud build. So what went wrong there? A short (actually longer) google search informed me that clod build doesn't have support for automatic light baking with that info i came to the conclusion that cloud build doesn't have support for my Cinema4d files. So i reimported all my models as fbx files and baked the lightmap and now cloud build was working. With that working build pipline i recognized my stupid mistake of having a not thread safe pathfinding code. So i fixed that mistake and thought now every thing is fine. :laughing: Oh boy was i wrong! The real pain in my as* just started. I played my game a couple of times and had no problem at all. Even a buddy of mine tested it and had no problem too. But the first comments that i got were telling me that the game freezes occasionally. So i did some more testing and couldn't find the problem. I looked into my code because i thought i missed something while i was making my pathfinding code thread safe. But i couldn't figgure it out (there was no bug in pathfinding anymore). So i asked those who experienced this problem to help me. And thanks to @automatonvx (Thank you!) i was able to replicate this freezing behaviour. But it took me hours to narrow it down to a while loop, that under some special conditions, i send into a infinity loop and that was causing the freeze. So that was the ugly part my story how i made my game playable.

So after the ugly what's left for the bad, you might asking yourself? Here comes the stroy of the jam. After the announcement of the theme i went into bed. I had no idea what kind of game i should make. The theme hit me by surprise. So i woke up and thought a city builder like "Paraoh" would be a nice idea maybe a little challenging but i was fine with that. I totally underestimated the scope of such a game. This resulted that i ran out of time at the end of the jam. I had no time to create a proper ingame tutorial, the price calculation for goods is just a random value betwin a min and max price, there isn't a event system with some random events, there is no music and only a few sound effects, the caravan isn't animated and the whole game isn't balanced at all in particular the quality of life system.

I'm very pleased with the look of the graphics espacially the look of the ui. But the thing i'm most proud of is the underlying structure. That's the reason i ended up with something that is actually playable and fun. The world generator is pretty good for something that's created in just a few hours. The building system, goods and the ai are all modular and flexible. So it was pretty easy to create more and more buildings and goods. I used a very modular and reusable approach towards the ai and it payed off very well. Only because of this decision i was able to create a city building game in the given time. Even though i had more plans of features, i allways knew that i wouldn't be able to implement them all, i'm pleased and happy with the game For Eternity became.

Very short adventure game, that focuses mostly on mood and (kinda story) telling. The gameplay is very much typical for an adventure game, and is not long.

Story is about a man, who wants to see his love. Because they are living in a huge building structure, after apocalypse, it is nearly impossible to do so. If he wants to see her again, he needs special permission. It is your quests to get it.

Game Page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/haven-the-small-world

WINDOWS DL:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BuTl2JR98_YWdtZ2tuaXdVT3c/view?usp=sharing

These are not my games but, in playing through multiple entries I found two games that I think must be played:

Little House of Horrors is a game where you explore an “abandoned” mansion to find clues to close the portals before Cthulhu devours our Small World.

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/little-house-of-horrors-working-title

Set Sails is a transport management game set on a desktop globe. Create a network of boat routes all over the planet and become the richest man around!

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/set-sails

Both of these games, in my opinion, are phenomenal. They may not scratch the exact itch you're looking for, but I think they should be played at the very least.

All descriptions taken directly from the respective game entry page and I am not affiliated with either creative parties. Just a fan :)

Just wanted to extend a huge thanks to everyone who played and rated Freedumb! Your feed feedback has been amazing and very encouraging! Glad so many of you are enjoying the satire. If you havent played it yet, try it here...

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

We have enjoyed the game we have created for this Ludum Dare enough that we want to continue development on our game concept! If you have not yet played our game Polyorbis, here is the game page. First I would like to thank all of the people who have found bugs in our game engine, it was not extensively tested before LD38 and was prone to issues, we hope these are fixed. Another thanks goes out to people who have made suggestions for Polyorbis, from these suggestions we fixed the broken camera and increased the game difficulty. We have plans that go beyond what our Jam game has showed, we want to make procedural planets and music, have a planet-conquer system with infinite worlds to play on, and implement a multiplayer system.

We will be improving what we currently have with the single planet, and will look to release updates like this each Friday. We think our game has some potential and will be fun to keep developing.

I want to embed videos from my Dropbox folder (example, from this link, but I can't use HTML and there's nothing in the markdown that lets me do that. Is it even possible?

This Ludum Dare was a really cool experience,and most of all the first time I made a "real" videogame. I mean I made some littles games in the past and started a few personnal projects, but it was the first time making a complete game and release it to the public. So far the critics have been really nice and it encouraged me to continue on this path. By the way you can check out my game here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/recursive-nightmare It's short, it's weird and it features bad drawings !

I thought about it for a long time, but theses pasts weeks pushed me to finally start my project and create my own personnal website : http://touloutoumou.com/ For now it features only my Ludum Dare game, but I'll complete it soon with new games and other littles features. Stay tuned, and thank you all for your support !

I'm curious is there's a way to know how many ratings we've received on our game, Breakout Bunny. We only have two comments so far, but between our game's downloads and playtime (via Unity Analytics) it seems like we probably have more ratings than that. My friend (and co-developer) and I have been rating games ourselves, and once in a while we play a game that doesn't compel us to leave a comment (usually one that's technically sound, but not remarkable in any particular way).

With that in mind, is there a way to know if we have a decent number of ratings without counting comments? I remember the old site had a counter for your game's total ratings (as well as your 'coolness') on the front page, but there doesn't seem to be such a feature here.

...now with Walkthrough and Web Player! Try it and I :heart: your comments! :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-nedludd-club

Play the game here.

As a side note, how do we embed from giphy or some other service like it (it took me a while to get this GIF down below 4MB)?

:tropicalfish: :fish: If you like pixels and simulations don't hesitate to try our game Here Be Fish. :tropicalfish: :fish:

1. (WebGL) When working with custom shaders, test in a browser as early as you can

We used a custom curved world shader that looked great in the Unity editor, but when we deployed to itch.io around 7pm Sunday, we realized each browser rendered it differently and incorrectly! We had to nix that but if we detected it earlier we could've swapped out the shader.

2. Add difficulty options to your game

I know this is something we all want but never have the resources to achieve, but with an audience as diverse as LD you get a wide range of responses in terms of difficulty, especially in action games. You want to hold everyone's attention so make sure to set aside the time or even add some surge support at the end to add difficulty options.

3. Hold the player's attention through novel environments

In the past we've always relied on upgrades and a single game loop to hold the player's attention which is a bit of flash game design influence (launch games that just keep repeating). This time we dedicated more effort towards making new art and music per level to drive the player forward and found we didn't have to rely on that upgrade crutch as much anymore. This freed up further game design decisions as we weren't tied down to a single experience.

A survival dodge em up - Meteor Jam

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/meteor-jam

I'm playing ludum dare games on twitch right now:

link

If you are interested in having your game played and rated on the stream, join me there.

[Stream Ended]

The main objective of the game is to keep an ecosystem in equilibrium using GUN, LIGHTNING and METEOR.

So basically there is 3 species in the game which is the Slimes, Rabbits and the Rhinos. If one of the three species’s became extinct then it’s game over.

Comment down your game and I will play it and rate it.

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

Say something

--------- Intergalactic Police Department (IPD) - Report 4c7564756d2044617265 ---------

Case Number : 2017LD38

Date : 05 May 2017

Reporting Source : Place Them All's blog page

Incident Type : Crystals robbery

Address of Occurrence : A small planet owned by a certain player

Principal suspect : The Wizard

Victim : The Magician

Evidence : Surveillance footage

On May the 5th at approximately 8:30 PM, a third party contacted our department to point out some disturbing noises coming from a neighboring planet. By checking the surveillance footage recorded by the satellite in orbit around the concerned planet, we noticed that the Wizard attacked the Magician with an extreme violence in order to steal by force the crystals burried in the field owned by the Magician. We immediatly sent one of our squad on this planet to restore calm and report on the situation.

:paperclip: Attached file : CCTVPlaceThemAllwizardcrystalsrobbery.avi

And if yes - how does it work? On the old site I was usually seeing my game on the first page of "play and rate games" after I've played and voted for ~10 games myself, sometimes on the top 3 places actually. Right now I don't see it in the top 100 after playing and commenting some games. How do I find "cool" people? Am I missing different site section where games are sorted by coolness?

Also, play Zen Demiurgy! :D

Post me things to review or else... or else... or else I'll just keep sitting here being bored.

I'm sick of picking games off the list, Bring them to MEEEEEE! Like this: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/cosmic-cleaner (please read the INSTRUCTIONS on the itch page or else I'll find you and look at you real hard)

This has been a BurgeePost

1. It takes to much time for the amount of reward.
2. There're not enough people playing on Mac/Linux.
3. I'm not able to port my game to Mac/Linux
4. I'm not able to port my game to WebGL
5. I don't want to allow Mac/Linux player to play my game and I'm not able to port it to Mac/Linux
6. I don't want to allow Mac/Linux player to play my game and I'm able to port it to Mac/Linux
7. Other reasons

I would like to exchange a few nuggets of wisdom about publishing a game for Ludum Dare. There are a few things that I found out and there are many more things I probably don't know so let's share!

My main dev platform is GameMaker Studio and I like to publish in itch.io, so those are the areas with which I'll start. Feel free to expand to any other library/tool or platform.

So first of all, an absolute no-go is to export a game from GameMaker with an installer. I guess most people know that, since I haven't seen anyone do it in this LD yet, but in LD37 I came across a few. The reason this happens is probably because it's the default setting in GameMaker. Personally I think the option to export the game as a standalone package is not that obvious. It is hidden in the save dialog, down where any other tool lets you select a file type for saving.

So far, so obvious. But I learned somthing this Ludum Dare thanks to input from @negativice: If you export your GameMaker game as an exe, it will likely cause problems with people's virus scanners. When that happens, the game simply won't run, sometimes with no clear indication as to why. The reason is that when you export an exe, it is really a self-extracting zip-file, which some virus scanners find suspicious. The better way to publish the game is by exporting it to a regular zip file which will cause less problems.

Now about publishing on itch.io: There are a few things that I've seen again and again that are not really problematic but, let's say, mildly annoying. First of all, if you publish a Windows game, mark it as Windows-compatible when you upload it. If you don't do that, people who use the itch.io client will not be able to download your game, which can be a bit frustrating.

On the other hand, don't mark your source code as Windows-compatible, or the itch.io client will annoy the user with a popup asking them which version of the game they want to install. Yeah I know it's only one click and maybe you want the user to get your sources that way. But whatever you want, I think you should be aware of the mechanics in play here and decide accordingly.

So, is there any secret knowledge you would like to share? Unity? Pygame? Gamejolt? Google Drive? Github?

Finally I have a question for all the people publishing on different platforms (Linux, MacOS, Android, etc). Do you have a device for each and test extensively or do you just export, upload and hope for the best? Have you run into any compatibility issues (concretely with GameMaker) or does it usually work smoothly?

Hello, fellow pet planet aficionados! Hope that you enjoyed yesterday’s Star Wars related goof. As you can see, we’ve had some good laughs sharing around our game, Petty Puny Planet, which you can play on your browser, download or even play on Android devices.

But today, we’re not going to do the talking. Instead, we want to say thank you to the people that have featured us in their YouTube channels. They took their time to showcase our game, so we’re going to return the favor!

Mind, you’re entering a spoiler asteroid field here. Some of these videos feature some endings of the game. There’s still some more though!

Blootrix

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

Steven Cookies

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

Randomise User

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpQ6MKZtGEM

The video also features Polyorbis, Snowed In, Small Golf and Hibernaculum. Consider checking their entries as well!

Gamesena.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VlzeoUdPtw

The LittleBro

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

The game was also showcased by Alpha Beta Gamer. All of this sharing has given us very good feedback, and we’re looking forward to making an improved version sometime in the future! Also, streamers from Dare to Play posts have been playing it as well. We’re achieving global outreach here!*

In behalf of our team, I also want to thank the people who have played, reviewed and/or commented on Petty Puny Planet. We’re replying daily to the comments we’re receiving, and we’re keeping track of the feedback. Thanks for helping us improve!

If you’d like to get some more insight of Petty Puny Planet, you can always check @jorgegamdev’s timelapse video or my art related post.

Thanks once again. Whales and Games wishes you to keep enjoying the post-Ludum Dare 38 days. Go play some more games! :whale:

*Not actually achieving global outreach, but our dreams are bigger than our Puny Planets.

Found enough time to record myself doing a whole play-through of my game. It shows all the puzzles being solved so spoiler alert! I guess you could use it as a guide if you get stuck :yum:

Play here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/asteroid-hopper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ASEQ4vdyCA

"Inside the Blockhead" is definitely not my best work, but its incredibly important to me. This post-mortem isn't going to be so much about the "good, bad and ugly" aspects as it is about how I got to this point. The latter is what makes this game so personally important.

A Brief History

In August of 2016, I decided to move back in with my parents and take a crack at indie game development as a solo developer. There were multiple contributing factors to this: my immediate family had moved across the country (United States) for my father's job; I was living alone with a job I had come to dread; I had a deep interest in game design that I wanted to sate. So after much consideration and discussion, I packed up what was important to me and took a three and a half day road trip across country to rejoin my family and pursue "the dream."

Yes, I knew I was taking a chance. I was leaving behind a well-paying job that I'd more or less attended college to get to. I had built up a nice reservoir of cash savings from my job to keep paying the bills that would follow me (car payment, insurance, etc.) but surely that would not last more than a year, if that. The margin of success in the indie world had become razor-thin. But I had a family backing me up and a college degree as a solid backup plan, so what the hey. Sometimes, you just go for it.

Needless to say, I wasn't prepared for what I'd gotten myself into. I spent months trying to gain traction and nail down a solid concept. I've heard the statement "just make the game," but let's be honest, how helpful is that statement? How helpful is that when you're watching your funds slowly waste away? When you're staring down two months of work that have unexpectedly ballooned on you? When not only energy and motivation are gone, but your confidence in what you're doing? Make no mistake when I say that I have family and spiritual/religious relationships that keep me sane and above water, but as far as my work life went I was thoroughly burned out.

Eight months later, and this is all I've got to show?

On to Ludum Dare 38

If there is one thing us developers tend to be good at, its ambition.

I considered myself slightly crazy for wanting to do Ludum Dare 38. I had failed pretty hard at LD36 and didn't even try LD37. I had completed Ludum Dare in the past, but this was with the help of proprietary game engine software; I had never finished an entry using my own homemade engine/framework that worked on top of OpenFL. And I was going to do this, even though my first commercial project had me thoroughly unwound?

Sure, why not. Gotta keep pushing yourself, right?

So into the fire I went. Even with the luxury of knowing you can churn out "crap" for a jam, it still took me a little bit to settle on an idea. Once that happened, progress was still slow. Those first 24 hours were a bit agonizing. After all, I was trying to deviate a bit from my old ways and do something new.

The collision code I came up with? It assumed you could only take collisions from one direction on each axis. Its incredibly "dumb" logic... but it worked for what I was doing. I stopped trying to hyper-compartmentalize everything. I stopped enforcing arbitrary organizations and constructs which, useful in their own right, just weren't working for me.

Something started happening. Slowly the pieces were coming together and, more importantly, I felt that old developer's fire coming back. As the momentum started increasing and as the product started taking shape--even if only in the final hours of the compo--I could start to see the toil and struggle of the past eight months paying dividends.

What? A 48-hour game made the last eight months feel worth it?

THIS game? The one with the terrible programmer art? No audio? A single level that doesn't even have a proper intro or outro cinematic of any kind?

Indeed, my Ludum Dare entry is not a masterpiece. What it is is progress.

Reflections on the Whole Experience

Let's be straight: this game has not fixed all of my problems. I still have a commercial game I not only need to finish but market. I am, more or less, broke at this point. I have spent over eight months trying to "mak gam," bouncing between different projects, trying to find my footing and metaphorically tearing my hair our in the process.

And I'd do it again. I don't regret it.

The following thought has crossed my mind several times over the last few months: "Wow, if only I'd known X when I first started out." The thing is, I probably wouldn't have figured "X" out had I not started out in the first place. We can theorize and read advice pieces all day, but if you don't actually try to put things into practice, what have you actually accomplished?

I feel like we can become obsessed with safety. Whether it be in programming with a particular ideology or some real-life circumstance, we are terrified of failure and loss. And should we step out and things start going wrong, we can end up shaking our fist at the world in utter disgust of how unfair life can be. "If only I didn't have a 8-5 job, I could do game design all the time!" That's a sentiment that I, in one way or another, took to heart. I've already elaborated on where it got me.

And you know what? That's fine. I propose one of our main problems isn't that we fail; rather, its that we are unwilling to deal with the consequences of it. What you value plays a big part in that statement, but we still have to be willing to sacrifice something. You have to be willing to participate in some "give-and-take," even though more often than not the exchange rate is going to suck. Though I risk waxing eloquent, I'm reminded of this Thomas Edison quote:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

I understand everyone's circumstances are different; I'm certainly not advocating everyone just starts acting with reckless abandon. Like I said, I have a family that has been helping me out since the beginning. Call it an unfair advantage, but I do not apologize for that. I mean, it certainly hasn't removed all risk from the equation. Some people may be able to take more risks than others while some are far less enabled. But I think we can all keep pushing--even if just a little--in some form or fashion.

So in closing, do you. Work the 8-5 job and do late night coding sessions, or leave everything behind and strike it out as a solo developer. Play it safe or play it dangerous. Even change your direction every once in awhile and try something new, if you're so inclined. But whatever you choose at any particular moment, own it.

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." -Thomas Edison

You can check out my game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/inside-the-blockhead

Hey - looking for a challenge? How about trying to beat our bot AI on extreme mode. If not we also have Easy and Normal modes.

You know you want to play and rate this game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeBlsU5Yxwg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4_82Clk3w

This time around I made a little puzzle cube platformer. Honestly I feel like things went really well for me this time. I actually managed to pick a pretty simple idea and keep my scope small, which has been an issue for almost every other LD I've entered. I even had some time to add in a little polish and spent more than 15 minutes on music. All in all I'm pretty happy with the game!

Play Here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/stellar-twist

Hi all! If you made a browser game, comment a link on this post and I’ll give it a rating. While your at, it be sure to check out my game Newton’s Cannon. Thanks! :smile:

You should try to escape the time loop. Pixel art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxUCRaUA0VQ

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/time-loop

Hi all, a repeat for those in other timezones and / or weekend folks:

I've updated my LD games browser to include the entries of LD38.

As always, you can search over all text in all entries with immediate feedback, …but sadly due to the much looser data format of the new site I had to disable the platform filtering as there's often just not enough info in the entry. Additionally, only about 1/3 of participants have set a cover image so it's a bit harder to go by quick visuals.

On the other hand, you can still search through all entries of all events all the way back to LD15 from 2009, so if you need to look for games to vote on or just to get some inspiration…

➡️ Browse and search LD games! ⬅️

Have some spare time? Why not spend it playing Chroma?

There has been an awakening on the moon of Juovis... An army is rising, commanded by a strong force the call ‘The Guardian’ - Disciple of Astro.

He will use his army to destroy the planet Oarus, then conquer the solar system!

You, a complete badass, called to arms and fought the invasion, until they captured you, and locked you in a space prison orbiting around the moon.

Locking you up was a bad idea, and you’re thirsty for revenge.

In Chroma you’ll fight through hordes of enemies, to find The Guardian and kill him, taking back the freedom that’s yours!

DOWNLOAD

• Ludum Dare: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/chroma
• Soundtrack: https://soundcloud.com/jackassmusic/sets/death-by-laser-chroma-ost

If you have a friend and two controllers handy, please check out our game!

The ball is the Earth, but you're also on the Earth... don't think about it too hard. If you spin the ball, you spin the world. If you set the ball on fire, you set the world on fire. Destroy the Earth with your color of flames to win!

Link to LD page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/apocalypse-world-cup

Please let us know what you think, or if there's anything we should add. We've almost finished adding 3-4 player support and character customization, so hopefully we'll get a post-jam version up soon!

I would like to thank those who have taken the time to cover my first Ludum Dare game, STACK!

Alpha Beta Gamer(Calum Fraser): http://www.alphabetagamer.com/stack-game-jam-build-download/

Randomize User: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6nnWIyWl8

HoneyBunnyGames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o47Mm8UaYU

Please check out their YouTube/website content! And if you haven't already, feel free to play and rate STACK ;D

Submission here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/stack

Is there any forum or other online environment for people who just want to talk about Ludum Dare / with fellow Ludum Dare participants? Most people around here seem really friendly, it might be interesting to be able to chat a little more with some devs without spamming the LD comment section. If there is some place LD devs can chat a little more, it might even result in some cool collaborations. If this online environment doesn't already exist. Maybe we could make a Facebook group or something. Anyway share some ideas maybe.

ok so just a quick question does anyone know if there is a way to tell when you have enough votes? the last ludumdare on the old website had a thing that would say you need more votes until you had enough but i can't seem to find anything like that this time

A bit of context: LD38 is my personal first Ludum Dare and 3rd Game Jam. In the beginning I planned to join in Compo, but when I submitted my off-work plan - I teach programming to youths and children at TechKids coding school, hence weekends classes - the other instructors noticed and wanted to join as well.

In the end, most of the main instructors joined and the school decided "Well, it doesn't hurt to close the school for some days". It was all planned right after LD37 ends so it's not like we just spontaneously decide to close down the school, we had plenty of time to organize our courses.

So that's how the team was formed, and we're under pressure that an entire school was following our novice game-making progress. I sincerely hope the end result is not too disappointing to my students.

What went as planned

1. The idea: The first promising idea we had was about a guy who couldn't grow a beard, one day stumbled upon a potion that make him smaller. The guy would then sneak into the house of bearded men and attempt to trim their beard to sate his jealousy. It's also an inside joke because among the instructors only 1 of us managed to grow a beard.

Could've worked, sound good. But after a while I thought it's too hard to express the idea, and if done poorly the players won't be able to feel the joke. So the idea was scrapped.

After that we talked for awhile, and somehow we reached Harvest Moon and then an idea popup: "Hey what if we make Harvest Moon from the perspective of the 7 helpers? Like how we have to take care of a guy's farm while he runs around picking up flowers to woo girls around the village?"

After some more discussing we decided that idea was a bit too big for a jam, and trimmed the scope down to what we have in the end. That leads to...

2. The scope: I already had experience working with @mitus (our programmer artist) in the recent Global Game Jam, so we kind of know how much content we could pull out in 3 days. In the end, the scope of the game was spot-on: the final Jam version has exactly all we planned from day one, with about 1 hour to spare. The 1 hour before deadline was also planned, we already predicted that the site would go down near the end, and to be safe the Jam version must be submitted earlier.

Actually we almost didn't reach that target. 5 hours before deadline we just finished the 2nd stage of the tree, having worked a full 24 hours without sleep. But we can't bring ourselves to sleep then because the idea of an end game boss fight was too tempting. And @huynq did awesome work pulling out an entire boss in 2 hours. After we got the bird animation from @mitus I was tweaking the battle's design right behind @huynq's back, demand ups and downs of delays again and again for nearly an hour. This fight must be awesome. I'm quite sure near the end of it he was like

But..

3. It was great fun! And I think our game is fun, too! @mitus is great at conjuring child-like imagery, and his characters always surpassed our expectation (just to note he's also a programmer like us). @darknesszx was on music & sfx and despite this being his first time doing actual composing, he did a great job.

What didn't go as planned

1. A Jam team full of programming instructors is a terrible idea. Who the heck brought that up?

Let's admit it: despite my praises, programmer art & programmer music sucks. And because I'm the one most experienced in game making I was tasked with game design. I wanted to code damnit! And I've only read game design books for off-specs entertainment.

One of the most complained flaw in our game was that the water can can't be pulled, only pushed. I already saw that problem during the jam - it's a result of miscommunication - but I thought it's not a big deal and not worth the effort to fix. Guess I was dead wrong.

2. The whole schedule of LD is messed up

I'm happy to have a chance to make games, and I'm thankful to @pov and others who helped make LD. But to be honest: this is the most messed up event I've ever attended.

We ourselves host hackathons on a monthly basis in our school, and we know full well the work load that come with such events. But when something is bad, it's bad. Excuses don't make bad experience good.

We're a pretty busy bunch, and delay after delay messed up our schedule and we couldn't fully enjoyed the post-jam process. When we scheduled our time to prepare for voting, we ended up with an entire day free looking at a delay notice. And when the voting actually started, we're all diving deep in a mountain of work.

What I've learned personally

1. Farsight-ing is pretty benefiting

Heh, that feeling of "I have already seen the ending" at the end of the Jam, when the site went down 5 minutes after we publish our game: It was quite awesome.

2. Anger-management is crucial in teamwork

To be honest we didn't really "hit the ground running". There was a lot of issues at the beginning of the jam. Dead mouses, broken usb cables, corrupted files, etc. Minor problems after minor problems. And I snapped. I was quite frustrated with my teammates for their lack of preparation and it showed. I didn't realize my attitude was destroying the team's morale, I just have to give them a piece of my mind.

On the afternoon of day 2, I turned around and suddenly realized that it had stopped being fun for the guys.

A Game Jam is not a dead-or-alive race. I was taking it too seriously, too selfishly. I'm sure the guys feel bad about the issues too, and it doesn't help if I as the leader delve too deep into it.

So I changed my attitude, barely in time I guess. By the end of the Jam, everyone's laughing again, enjoying the creative work we planned to do in the beginning.

3. I really should seriously learn how to make proper shaders

I spent 3 hours trying to create a 2d "glow" effect for sprites without avail! I didn't realize it was so hard. 9-pixels alpha blur only work well on pixel art. When I try different blur methods they all kill performance and impractical for any kind of web build.

In the end that's 3 hours wasted and I've yet to get any decent glow shader yet. Would love to see someone experienced with Unity's shader sharing some insight here.

====

So, that's it for my post-mortem. It can be summed up to: It was fun, the event schedule was terrible, and I should learn proper anger-management.

And also, try my game! There's no point sugar-coating the fact that I'm advertising here :D

The task to build a WebGL version was not easy, but it is ready!

Communitas is a simplified take on a blend between City simulators and http://reddit.com/r/place.

The main point of Communitas is to build a "healthful" city. But you have to deal with tile placing timeouts and other people messing with your city. Organizing in groups is the key to success, although, for now, people are being very polite e collaborating with everyone.

Check our entry here.

Hey, as you all know, you need at least 17 ratings to qualify (20 just to be safe). So I'll review your game if you check mine :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/lil-planet

Comment your game down below!

The main objective of the game is to keep an ecosystem in equilibrium using GUN, LIGHTNING and METEOR.

So basically there is 3 species in the game which is the Slimes, Rabbits and the Rhinos. If one of the three species’s became extinct then it’s game over.

Comment down your game and I will play it and rate it.

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

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-dwarf-planet

My game, Lil Planet has reached 92 views on itch! It's amazing!

The current highscore is 2520 points by @maksym !

You can play the game here :

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/lil-planet

I'm having trouble editing the description of my game, Dispyria but I did a few bug fixes, so here's a lil' changelog!

Bugfix changelog

• Fixed a bug that prevented you from replaying the game.
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to jump into the cathedral.
• Locked z-rotation of everything that should have z-rotation locked.

Thanks and gratitude to everyone who reported bugs!

I want to play and rate your game!

Simple enough! I usually try to take a break from working further on Dispyria to play games here and there, so if you need ratings or just want someone else to take a look HMU!

Semper Ludum Dare, tat2tim

Ludum Dare is bugged so that you can't find the game made by one of it's authors unless that author is the owner.

AVAVT said:

@PoV there’s still one huge bug with the team: When I look at some one else’s profile, I can’t see their game if they are >not the leader. Just to be clear it must be a combination of NOT a team leader && NOT you.

Example: btrotter101 who is a member of Space Brawls

I have reported this once before via twitter but received no response.

Some people apparently haven’t noticed this and didn’t leave a link to their game in their profile, and it’s impossible >to find their game to play.

My google spreadsheet remedies that by including the authors of each game (by their nickname). Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HWYo-es4weXRFnUBhKAUHX9rCodGiczvyIsWRkx9eoo/edit#gid=0

I'm pleasantly surprised by all the great feedback on my game this year! one thing id like to suggest, if you take any gifs of gameplay you like, please share them with me! id love to see what messes you guys get into :D play my game if you haven't and want to here- https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ragdoll-wars

Do you already have plans for this week-end? After the mass, take a look at Abaddon - my entry for the 38th LD - a FPS in a small world. Please play, then rate my game - and I promise that I will rate yours. Also I will lit a wax candle for your dark soul in perdition. Have a nice day ++

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

Very short adventure game, that focuses mostly on mood and (kinda story) telling. The gameplay is very much typical for an adventure game, and is not long.

Story is about a man, who wants to see his love. Because they are living in a huge building structure, after apocalypse, it is nearly impossible to do so. If he wants to see her again, he needs special permission. It is your quests to get it.

Game Page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/haven-the-small-world

WINDOWS DL:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BuTl2JR98_YWdtZ2tuaXdVT3c/view?usp=sharing

The variety of different games (and "game like things") that the LD communit can create out of seaming any theme never ceases to amaze me.

Here are a bunch of mostly very different games that can all be played (or at least "experienced") right now in your browser.

Pod2000

Command line Terraforming. Great immersion thanks to the exellent use of sound.

kumo.

A weather simulator. Keeps playing without your interference.

Stable Orbit

Look out for the space debris (don't tell me I did not warn you).

Blomst :sunflower:

Raise the oxygen level by planting flowers. Excellent wind down. Let this one take the time it needs.

Fog and Glass

More of an experience and a game. Time passes. What happens happens.

Little Sprout Garden

Fill your world with cute little turfs of grass and even cuter little things that eat the grass.

Arindama

Feed in animate statues with fruit. You know you want to.

It Shakes the World Apart

A sweet story about friendship (that may or may not be magic).

Flurpies

Bioenginered super pets eat hot dogs to reach the next stage in evolution.

Becky's very very Small and TOTALLY not mundane World

Slice of (office) life.

Shameless plug at the bottom (my game)

Aaaand.. since you've red this far. Might I interest you in some text-adventureing?

The world is (a) flat

A university student oversleeps hurries to get ready for class in an apartment where every room manifests a continent and the door is on the other side of the Atlantic.

Power users tip

If you missed it, you can find a lot of browser games by using the right magical combination of tags at itch.io.

We have optimized the Web GL version and are potentially going to make a mobile version as well.

Playing and reviewing games during this Ludum Dare has been great fun! There are a lot of strong contenders this year and it's quite an eye opener to see how deep the talent pool gets!

If you have a game that my team members or I haven't reviewed yet, please feel free to post them on the comments section for us to take a look and we will be sure to leave constructive feedback!

You can also play our game here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/retro-rabbit

Since yesterday I stumbled upon three games that I thought were pretty good and I had fun with. All off them had very little feedback. So I thought I'd share them:

Flerth

Atlas

DownHere

If you have time, also check out our own game Murder Mitosis. We were lucky to get a lot of great feedback, but we are always happy about more :wink:

Project Page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/murder-mitosis

Follow us on Twitter and on YouTube

Shameless promotion. Are you ready to play little RPG game and defeat that nasty spider girl?

If so, play my game Petit Adventure

Hello guys, I'm back for some shameless self-promotion!

In my game, The Robot's Trial, you are a little robot girl who can find and equip various modules such as a jetpack, a magnet or a grappling hook. Use them to find clever ways to escape Scraps Island, the prison for malfunctioning robots!

Go play it here!

Jack is not easy to find, so if searching is not your thing, there are hints on the bottom of the game page!

Few if any people have found or beaten Jack so far. If you wanna play our game, give it a shot!

Hi everyone!~ start doing some Saturday self-promotion :joy:

Welcome to play my little mushroom puzzle game → Song Of Fungus ←

I'll rate yours back too!~

Hello there!

* I heard several times that my game is too long or that puzzles are too difficult to solve, so here goes a walkthrough: https://youtu.be/L0QaPbGw5bI *

* You can play it in here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/last-day-of-the-woods *

I recently updated my game to be easier and more beautiful, but i still need some idea because my game still feel unfinished and ugly... https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ghostscaler Please, rate the old version but play the new version and give me suggestions.

Unfortunately there isn't a platform filter to help find games that are either web playable or have a Linux build, I am asking for you to help out.

Please post your games (or games you have found and like) with either Web or Linux builds below, so us Linux gamers can try out your games

One adendum: If you are exporting Linux for this, make sure you do a Universal build (some people are doing the 32bit Unity version only which us 64bit OS users can't play)

while you are at it, feel free to check out my multi-platform game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/glade-in-the-sky

i said this in the wee hours of the morning, so i should probably post it again while everyone can view it :P If you have any gifs of my game please send them my way! im really interested to see what you lot are getting yourselves into :D if you havent played it, you can do so here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ragdoll-wars

Shameless plug, shameless plug, play Murder 38, shameless plug, leave a high rating, shameless plug, enjoy your weekend, shameless plug.

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

Thanks everyone who played Cubical :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/cubical

We have been receiving a lot of feedback and our intention is to improve it and continue with the development of this game.

We made a short video of the development process of the game during the 3 days of the jam that we recorded, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp1TorQRGrs&t

Thank you all for the support, we will keep playing your awesome games!

It very quick to understand and easy to play.

Webgl player: http://simia-mimus.com/fatrat/

Ludumdare page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/fat-rat

Hi all !

Pushing slimes into the void is really fun, isn't it ?

You can try my compo entry One Push Man

The best score is 103! Can you beat-it ?

Have fun, and post a comment so I can test your games :)

I just thought I'd share a little progress update for PixelWorld (shameless plug - go play/rate it).

I'm currently picking development back up and adding a load of new features for a shiny PS4 release! My university have great links with Sony, and we've already got it running on a PS4 :D I've had loads of really great feedback, so thank you everyone that played. Somebody suggested multiplayer, and I thought that was a really great idea so here you go - a screenshot of multiplayer in action!

I'm also in the process of major optimisation and a new regeneration system. I'll think I'll keep a few things as a surprise for the launch, though ;)

Stay updated by following me on Twitter!

Usually, exploits in games is a bad thing, even considered a cheat and big issue for online games.

However, sometimes it can be fun and useful:

(default slow pew-pew on the left side and very extremely rapid pew-pew-pew on the right side)

Our game tries to match all valid structures almost every game tick, so when player removes a single block from a turret and places it back -- it resets the attack cooldown since the game creates a new turret structure on the same place over and over.

We decided to leave it as is. Although it's a bit messy in some cases :smile::

Does your LD game have some exploits?

Before Jam

Before jam I had an idea of how I want my next game to be: something extremely content-based, with simple mechanics and controls. I recently noticed that generally games that have more content and actually show player their progress are better perceived than the ones with more complex mechanics, so I wanted to test it.

Theme

To be honest I didn't like the theme, I find general terms like "one room" or "simplicity" as less inspiring, I'd rather have very specific instructions and make something unexpected. "Cooking simulator" or Medieval RTS" might sound generic but they provide you something that you can easier diverge from. Right now the theme itself might sound interesting but it led to a lot of similar games. But that's just an opinion, based on my weak game designing skills, so don't worry about it too much.

First Day

I started by making really simple, low effort drawings, just to have my ideas wrote down.

My first idea was to make a game on small planet, but I don't like how low resolution pixel art looks when it is rotated. Now, when I think about it I see many ways to solve this, like square planet, platformer with normal gravity and very small planets used as platforms etc.

Second one were a world built of floating islands, this one was kinda cool. It'd probably require a lot of modular art like grass, plants and walls to quickly built an island. I don't really feel comfortable with doing big repetitive environments like these.

I choose the third one, taking place in one room (maybe basement). Also I wanted to make the environment somewhat dynamic, so things like falling ceiling, destroying furniture and some explosions or fire.

I really liked this idea, so I started programming prototype in Unity. After few hours I had walking, equipment and basic interactions.

MouseController.cs

Player.cs

Inventory.cs

As you can see, I used one script to process mouse input, and choose to which object send it. Next script defines player movement. I tried to keep it separated from others and easy to control from outside. It later proved itself useful when I needed to do the final cutscene. Inventory script is quite simple, each item has it own sprite and bool value that states whether it is unlocked or not.

Next I moved to Gimp (I made concept sketch in Krita). I started by drawing in black, white and transparent. After drawing player, sofa, placard with cat and chair I realised that I can't fit all of this on a small map (so I kind of failed the theme's challenge). I colored them, moved into Unity and went back to Krita to design the level. The placement of items stayed pretty much the same to the end.

Second Day

I started writing more specific scripts for each item and adding more graphics. I tried to keep the game palette simple with as few colors as possible. I didn't spend a lot of time on player animation since I felt like it isn't that important for this kind of game. If I had more time I'd probably draw animations for picking things up and maybe some kind of falling over, but I already felt stressed about the deadline.

It still lacked narration and the most important part - puzzle. So I started writing down my ideas for the things that player could do with items I've already drawn, of course I had to cut some of them down, since I couldn't draw a lot (it was already 6 hours before deadline). After having clear storyline for game I went back to programming. As you can guess there was a lot of bad, unclear or even unreadable code, but that's also a good thing about game jams - not everyday you can create horrible code and get away with it.

I made some sounds in bfxr in between, just to have any audio in game. The last thing I did was final cutscene, it was made using Unity IEnumerator. I'd make a simple cutscene system with waypoints, but I didn't have much time, so I just attempted to make it as clean and durable as possible (though I got one comment saying that it didn't work properly).

I'm really glad I didn't forgot to test my game in webGL, thanks to that exporting and packaging didn't cause any surprises.

Game

Side notes:

Text:

for writing down text I used the same prefab I used for my previous few entries, so it isn't ideal, making text autoscale was easier, but I dislike the way it looks.

Vanishing items:

On the last moment before building I realised that there is no feedback when you use an item, so I decided to just remove item after using. I agree that animation or pop up window would look much better.

What went well:

• the game presents challenge that is both exciting and rewarding
• controls are clear and easy
• it is readable, you can't really get lost and frustrated by it
• pixel art look nice and aesthetic
• I didn't have any problems with building and publishing game
• I finished most of the things I planned before deadline

What went badly:

• I started from programming and graphics and leaved the most important part (map and puzzles) to the end
• I didn't have time to make music
• not enough animations and only one cutscene
• I didn't experiment enough, I could do much more when it comes to graphics or gameplay

Link to the game

Plans: -update fixing text scaling and making items stay in inventory after using -post compo version with more levels more animations, items and better equipment system -new long time project: game with actual fable, big world and easy, relaxing gameplay

If you are interested in any of these follow me on gamejolt / itch.io / twitter / twitch I'll be publishing updates for post-compo version on Gamejolt, so if you're interested, click "Follow Game" here.

Thanks for reading.

It is called:

D4RK and the Small Worlds

Details

The game is a platformer totally focused on mechanics and it requires you to be precise and master those mechanics, and it is a COMPO game! I totally recommend it.
Some features: + Meelee Attacks + Wall Jumps + Fast-paced + Dark Souls-ish Dash Mechanics

Happen to be around Troy, NY? We're showing off Post-jam version of Intergalactic Gold Rush at the Troy By Design showcase at Tech Valley Center of Gravity (TVCOG) and Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS). Come check us out!

I've added the WebGL version to my game, now you can catch Cowmets directly on your browser...

Check it out! :cowboy: :cow:

Game Link

This time round, unlike my last Ludum Dare (36) - I really liked the theme. It can be interpreted in a lot of ways - which is obvious from the number of games that has the "tiny planet" interpretation to the number of games that have the more story-driven "it's a small world" interpretation.

The Origins

The team was me, @pranjalbisht (art) and @joelMontpetit (audio). We had worked together for over 4 years, having done ~15 jams together, so we were comfortable with the team setup - everyone knew their roles. This time though, we decided that we'd make something different, and take a break from the usual arcade or puzzle-kind of games we usually make for jams. Our decision was that we'd either make something 3D since we're now more comfortable with it (I work in Unity in my day job), or make a story-driven thing. That we did in the end!

What went right

1. The team: Naturally, we were very comfortable with each other. It has been a little pain ever since I moved to Canada, to co-ordinate with a teammate in India 12 hours away, but I work mostly at night anyway - so we kind of covered that.

2. The idea: It was comparatively novel (avoiding talking about it in case you haven't played the game), had a social message in the current context, and our main goal was to tell it in such a way that the message would not be lost. I think it paid off in the end, considering the comments for the most part.

3. The polish and the mood: This is something I personally heavily emphasize on, with jam games - I'd keep things small and polished than big and unpolished - just because past experience has shown that higher polish usually attracts more feedback, which is an essential reason for the jam. This time too, we had originally planned for 5 days, and some more things happening each day - but cut down on them to polish the other stuff. I think we nailed the mood in this respect.

4. Scoping: There wasn't a whole lot to program here - just scripting events, and since I basically had a day less this time (can't skip work on Monday!), that was maintained pretty well. Could have been better, but it didn't affect much.

What went wrong

1. Time management: As with human nature, while we made the task list early, I did 60% of the work on Sunday. So did our artist. Which resulted in us being awake for most of the night on Sunday, and going to work as zombies on Monday. This could have very easily been avoided by doing more things earlier.

2. Nuances: We wanted to have some nuanced foreshadowing in the backdrop, and included it in the game - to let on what is going to happen at the end, as well as an explanation for why the player is doing what they are doing, while leaving some parts to their imagination. I don't particularly think it has worked very well (from the video playthroughs at least, when some people were a bit visibly confused). It is to be expected when you're speedrunning through jam games and not paying attention to the little details, and we should have expected that.

3. Interaction: We originally planned more interaction apart from the two basic ones that currently exist, but decided to cut them out gradually, to maintain the pacing and avoiding shifting the focus from the story. This has led to the experience being hit and miss. Some people would appreciate the slow pace without interaction, while others would try to find things to interact with - expecting a more traditional game. One particular nasty effect of this is near the ending - where we take control away from the player for a little bit (because time did not permit to make an animation/UI for that interaction), and players think that the next part is a cutscene, but it's really not - and which ending you get depend on this part.

Well, that's about it! I hope you guys like our game!

We've already been playing other awesome games, and will keep playing!

Abaddon has been downloaded more than 100 times - and some bought it. This is just amazing. Thank you for your support. If you have never seen my project, please take a look at the main page. I wish you the best ++

https://geckoo1337.itch.io/abaddon

Hey ! You really should come try our game! We stick to a really simple gameplay (the goal is to click over clowns). But we add more challenge to our weekend by making it massivement multiplayer!

TRY IT!

And that the moment we need you! Because our game isn't really funny to play alone, please come with your friend try to be the best cursor of the whole (but tiny) world of "Smallest mmorpg ever".

Post the link of your game !!!! wanna play mine ? here is the link
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/legends-of-block

Originally, I was planning on adding several enemy types to the game (including Centaurs, and Elves with bows), as well as destructible furniture and chairs and lamps to use as weapons, but it was too many collisions and got cluttered. on top of that, i lost something like 6 hours to visual bug fixes, so they never made it in. What features didn't make it into your game? What are some things youd like to see added to RAGDOLL WARS? please let me know here or in your review of my game :D if you havent played it, please do so here! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ragdoll-wars remember to leave your games in your review and i'll play them first chance i get!

Never thought we'd make it to part 3, but we can't get enough of your games! Leave us a link to your page and we'll leave you some feedback. If you feel like being bro-ly, we've also got a game (rovR) that we'd love to stick in your hands.

Let's play some games!

-@caterein & @morrilet

Thanks for all the feedback in comments, it was very helpful!

• game page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/to-do-list
• 1) New visual content: trash,garden

• ##### 2) we change controls: now player can do all actions with items by 1,2,3,4,5 buttons, and add visual for HUD:

• ##### 3) bugfix

Thank, have fun!

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

When the going gets tough, just change shape.

Game Links

Shapeshifter http://bit.ly/ShapeShifterLD

Solar Smash http://bit.ly/SolarSmashLD

Star Keeper http://bit.ly/StarKeeperLD

If you’d like to submit your game you can submit it to this handy dandy form! Also let me know if you have any feedback for the series or if you have some type of request!

Larry Does Ludum Game Submission Form

Hey - want me to play your game on a Mac? Doing some judging right now drop me a line on my channel

https://www.twitch.tv/morbidcamel101

Also check out our LD38 Jam entry

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

Hi! If you have the time, please try out the game i made for Ludum dare 38! It's an adventure game where you colonize planets. Download it Here

Join me!

https://www.twitch.tv/morbidcamel101

You can find it right here – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/antivirus

You can find it right here - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/antivirus

Hey all!

Shameless advertising of our game Small Planets.

If you have time please play it and leave feedback. Everything is appreciated.

Also if you post your game in the comments I'd be happy to play it/rate. :innocent:

Hey folks! I finally have some time to check out y’all’s games—been working through a bunch of cool-looking ones I ran across earlier, but if you’d like me to try out yours, just post the link here.

Meanwhile (you knew this was coming, right?), I’d be most grateful if you’d take a minute to play my entry, Surface Tension. It’s a simple-but-challenging, top-down-ish shooter set on a lovely grass-covered donut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaBrdryRF2E

I participated in the Compo mainly for experience because the VR userbase is still pretty small. I know there are a few Rift users here though, and I'd love to get some feedback from you! Comment your VR game and I'll give it play too :)

My VR platformer: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/palm-pilot

Before diving into the meat of it, here is our process for kickstarting a game.

Spend as long as possible on the idea phase. Start by going as wide as possible, shotgun all your thoughts onto paper. Don’t zoom in. Let it ferment a bit. After a while some ideas will start to stick out and you can develop them further. Liberally use Wikipedia, image search, google to feed the process.

After that, sketch it out into features. Now remove as many features until your idea breaks, and add the last one back; it might not seem like it but you have nowhere enough time for all the fluff.

In our case, we settled on a terrarium / sandbox toy of sorts mixed with a card mechanic to drive events forward based on an old concept. Since we’re not too original we’ll name it Little Fortune Planet. A nice technical challenge mixed with the potential of some nice visuals. In this case I wanted to see how the java to js (web) transpiling would deal with a non trivial non optimized game design.

To keep things relatively stress free, start with the hardest tasks first. Typically for me this means graphics and music beforehand but in this case @Flaterectomy and @MeatMachine took care of that. Phew!

We targeted desktop and web with the java framework LibGDX and an Entity Component System framework called artemis-odb. I’m a big fan of artemis-odb as it allows quick prototyping and helps keep code clean and specialised, even when in a hurry. It has a time saving fluid-API that gets rid of some of the verbosity (disclaimer, I occasionally work on artemis-odb!)

So let’s jump right into our world simulation!

Read Part 2: Gravity of the simulation, man! or play it here!

We're eager to get started after several hours of Part 1: Brainstorming so lets consider what it takes to simulate a world in an Entity-component system (ECS)?

Developers starting with ECS typically struggle what to implement as entities, and what to exclude.

We could simulate each particle with an entity and use a physics engine, but since we’d have to check neighboring cells constantly and we’d lose a lot of time understanding a third party physics engine, a simple two dimensional array feels a lot less risky. The grid size is static, which means no real lifecycle management is necessary.

Our world simulation system iterates over each cell, passing cell state to a behavior subsystem for magma, air, dirt, etc, and apply changes in a second pass. Subsystems add modularity in exchange for a small performance hit.

But since most simulation requires some gravity, we first need to figure out what direction is ‘down’ for each location. Calculating gravity live for 250000+ cells could become a bit of a performance problem, so instead we could precalculate a 2d array mask with the direction of the core of the planet. A bit premature perhaps, but with limited time got to go with the guts!

Initial naive solution we could calculate the direct angle by subtracting each cell x,y coordinates from the planet center, and determining the angle of the resulting vector. In effect, we end up with a grid of ‘downward’ directions. So let's run it:

Uh-oh. The planet ended up as a octagon.

We end up with 8 Intercardinal sectors making gravity direction (for example) always left in the right section, while if you’d draw a pixel line from a cell to the core it might go left left, up, left left, up. Sort of like what you would get with Bresenham's line algorithm.

Since we basically want things to fall from circumference of the planet to the center, why don’t we draw loads of lines using the Bresenham's line algorithm from core to circumference and use each previous pixel as the direction of gravity?

We end up with this:

A lot better! It’s worth getting quick-and-dirty when not too mathematically inclined.

Now we have gravity, we can move on to simulating something interesting!

Read part 3: Simulation time or play it here!

Hi guys! @faithcaio and I have worked on an improved version of our game "Where is Mommy". We have read the feedback and tried to fix the most them in this new version.

You can now rotate the camera freely around the player and we improved our game play hints, so you guys should better understand how to play it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS3rH7Lbhik

I just made a quick update to the file so as to not have tu use the installer anymore, and reduced the file size to only 18MB (as opposed to the huge 200MB it was before). Now it's easier to just play the game without having to mess around with stuff to get it to run.

Nothing else was changed, but I am already working on more stuff for this game so after the Jam it will be more entertaining, keeping in mind all the suggestions made by fellow jammers.

Entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/planet-bash-1

I see some contestants posted some bugfixes so I just wanted to ask is it really fair by rules to change your game after you posted it. I know how to do most of bug fixes and I would need about 25 minutes without reposting, but I couldn't find is it OK in rules, can someone answer me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvXN9Df-HE

LINK: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/kill-boom

DOWNLOAD: https://1drv.ms/f/s!ApkdlCI1TwtvgQ5rAHYPfhdyiMqn

Just try a lovely low poly world. But be carefull there are a lot of enemies

My LD38 entry, Strangeness, has a major content update!

The new version, available for Windows, Mac and Linux (from source), includes:

• Twelve new puzzles!
• Customizable controls (including probably gamepad support maybe)!
• Two more music tracks!
• A new enemy and a new puzzle element!
• More responsive player movement!
• A small but important tweak to an existing puzzle!

The majority of new puzzles are substantially easier than the puzzles that were in the Jam submission. This is intentional, as a lot of people felt the original puzzles were too hard. For those of you that liked the difficulty level of the original puzzles, four or five of the new ones should be right up your alley! If you're one of the two commenters who thought the original puzzles were too easy, well... sorry. I plan on making some more difficult ones, but that'll be in a future update.

My todo list for the next update includes some UI tweaks, SFX and graphics tweaks, a few more levels, a level select menu, and saving your settings and progress. After that... it's a secret!

Hey guys!

Make me happier in my birthday and play my game!

Haha... I updated the description with known bugs, I think is not fair to fix them now... I just add them as info.

Play it and rate here!

Got around to encoding the timelapse for my game at last :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiu5E8eg-IY

Play Planet of Babel now

so my compo entry gravity trails has been out for a week now, and i would never have thought that this silly little game i made within a span of two days would receive this amount of love. it's been posted on reddit, featured on an indie site, and the amount of comments and reviews has just been astonishing (even more after posting it to newgrounds,) i seriously have to thank all of those who were helpful and nice and those who organized this event and motivated me to actually get this thing finished. it's been so much fun.

i guess this should be a post-mortem? i haven't actually made a blog post on this site yet, so this is long overdue hah

i never realized how the difficulty or the controls could differ so much from how i saw it, since i heard some people had trouble controlling the character in deciding whether they moved left or right when going on another planet, and maybe the sections got a little bit too hard for such a short game. lots of stuff could definitely have been improved.

although i'm generally proud how this turned out, and how much i could actually put in before i had to post it. i never really go around to doing that with my projects, with the whole finishing & publishing phase, and it was hard to tell when i actually had to cut it off and stop making levels for it. i don't even know if i have the motivation to update it anymore lol i'll probably get around to doing it sometime

again, thank you all for the wonderful amount of support you've given me and i hope i can participate in this jam again in the future!

[also, if you haven't found it, there's a secret if you go back to the starting planet after reaching the first checkpoint :wink:]

The main objective of the game is to keep an ecosystem in equilibrium using GUN, LIGHTNING and METEOR.

So basically there is 3 species in the game which is the Slimes, Rabbits and the Rhinos. If one of the three species’s became extinct then it’s game over.

Comment down your game and I will play it and rate it.

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

Hello, I'm inviting you to play the game I made for the LudumDare38, thank you !

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/little-wild-invasion

Rogue Basement now has field-of-view! You only see monsters within your line of sight, and you retain a memory of the basement layout.

Get it on itch.io

Also:

• Log messages are much less confusing.
• Rocks can no longer be thrown into walls.
• Monsters no longer pick up gold. It's all for you!

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

I added a web build to my game. (It's probabbly ok by the rules right?)