LD20 April 29–May 2, 2011

finished acquiescence!

play it here!

I’ve never made a game with any sort of dialogue choices, so I didn’t know how to approach this.
Most dialogue-heavy games allow the player as much time as they want to make a decision; I wanted to make my game real-time, in the sense that conversations had to be responded to one way or another. After a bit of mulling over the theme for a week or two, I hit on the idea that’s represented in the game.

I kind of missed the mark from my initial intent. I initially wanted to give the game a lot more depth (I had 5 or so more screens planned with interesting decisions), with part of the goal being to illustrate the impact that having different companions colors the choices available to you. I also never came up with an ending that I really liked, so I pretty much just avoided one altogether.

With full-time job and a fully-booked weekend, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish. I ended up putting a few hours in after work for a week, and then doing some touch ups and all of the art in one sitting. This game was definitely made in the least amount of time of all my games; maybe 15-18 hours total.

I’m very happy with the art style I ended up with. I deem it minimalist-by-necessity; I did it all Monday morning starting at 12:30am, with having to go to work the next day. I’ll probably use it in future ld’s, where I don’t want to focus on art much.

New version on our new website!

Hello again!  There’s a new version of The Struggle for Humanity that you can find here: http://thestruggleforhumanity.weebly.com/download.html at the games official website. The new version offers slightly improved graphics and various bug fixes and changes. Also, once you have the altar and click on the demigod god power,  you can click on a lady and make her create a demigod. Once the demigod is middle aged, you can control it by clicking it and moving it around with the arrow keys. If a demigod is selected and you press C you can build Stonehenge.

Hope you guys enjoy the new version!

Didn’t make last weekends Mini…

I missed last weekends mini LD becasue I was working on the Thorntons chocolate discount code word search addon to the ‘Relax with Oonagh’ App!

Now available on Android Market and on it’s way to iPhone once the lite version clears apples review process.

Full version on Android Market

Lite version on Android Market

Unity Webplayer Version Online

But I think I should build a dialogue system as it would be handy for future games!

MiniLD #27 Results

The June miniLD #27 (theme: ALL TALK) has officially ended with a bang! The results are in!

View all the stats for each of the 30 games here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-27/?more=1

The gold medal for fun goes to Zed with his zombie/bacon adventure, Adventures in the Public Domain. Gold for gameplay goes to 31eee384 for his IRC hacker simulation, Secretnet. Gold for presentation goes to Jake Elliot for Last Tuesday, his eerie visual novel about a world devoid of people.

Other standouts include Zillix’s Acquiescence, Reltair’s Project Eidolon, Radiatoryang’s Polonius and smalldeadinsect’s Leaks.  There were 30 games created in all, and many not mentioned above that were truly awesome.  Check them out!

As one of the most active mini dares in recent memory and one filled with enthusiasm and positivity, I just want to thank you all for being such a creative, energetic and kind-hearted bunch of gamedevs. You rock.

Viva Ludum Dare!

Tags: All Talk, McFunkypants, rankings, results, voting, wrapup

How I made a game in 3.5 hours

It’s quite some read, but it might be of interest for you, especially when you want to participate a LD48 for the first time. I wrote some lines about how and in what order I created a tiny math game for a mobile device.

Tags: glbasic, motivation, postmortem, timelapse, tutorial

Comments

08. Jul 2011 · 11:21 UTC
Oh, hmm… where?
huhwhozat
12. Jul 2011 · 11:02 UTC
I too, want to read this. Link?
13. Jul 2011 · 16:11 UTC
Yes, I agree. A link to the article would be very nice to have.

Conflicted – Wondering Whether to Enter the Mini-LD

Well… I said I would skip this month’s Mini-LD. But with a recent adjustment to my medication (true story, not a joke), my mood has stabilized very well and I think I can take the stress of a mini this time.

I’m not sure, though. Realistically, I will probably enter. Something will happen and I will ultimately wind up entering. I’m still not just dead certain about it, though.

I dunno. I’m kind of curious about what folks here think. I could not enter and keep working on my shooter or I could enter and take a break from it. I’ve recently redesigned large parts of the shooter (switching from OpenSceneGraph to Ogre, for example), so I need to redo a lot of things. The mini-LD could be a great break from that. On the other hand, I might well be through redoing things by the time the mini-LD takes place. Really not sure. Even then, it could be nice to take a break.

So… I’m looking for advice here. I’m probably going to enter, but I’m not sure.

Peace, love, and a touch of good luck,

— Mr. Dude

Timelapse, a bit late

A little bit late, but here it is. 😀

This time I did it with 1 pic / 10 sec instead of the regular 1 pic / minute.

So, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BISq7nFIKT0

Comments

13. Jul 2011 · 18:05 UTC
“This video contains content from UMG, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
14. Jul 2011 · 13:15 UTC
Hmm, it didn’t show me this, but swapped anyways.

Post-mortem for Legend of Kalevala (based on LD #19 entry)

Hi, ChainedLupine here.

I never did a post-mortem for my Ludum Dare #19 entry, called Introspect.  So, instead, I finished the game, published it, and only six months later did I write a post mortem.  Wow, am I lazy or what?

I wanted to share the news that my wimpy little Ludum Dare entry was brutally stripped to pieces and then slowly re-assembled over five months into a full featured game.  It was released not too long ago on Kongregate.com and quickly shot to #3rd of the highest rated top new games!  Just a week after release, it received badges and is now sporting nearly 200,000 plays!  (It actually has 10x as many plays as that, but if you want to know why I don’t count those, then check out my blog post linked below.)

So for those who might want to hear some advice from someone who managed to turn a shoddy Ludum Dare entry into something playable and successful, I recommend you check out the entirety of my post below.  I cover everything from the Ludum Dare version all the way up to the final released copy, and then some of the post-release problems I had.

Click here to play Legend of Kalevala!

or

Click here to read the Legend of Kalevala Post Mortem!

To everyone who puts in their valuable free time to working on Ludum Dare, a much hearty thank you for inspiring people like me.  And to those who participate:  Let’s keep having fun and mak’n games!

You can also check out the review for Legend of Kalevala on Jayisgames.com.

Tags: post-mortem, published, released

Mini-LD #28 – If I Compete, I Will Use…

I haven’t really decided whether to enter into the Mini-LD, but if I do enter, here is what I’ll use:

  • C++ (language)
  • CMake (build tool)
  • Code::Blocks (IDE)
  • OpenSceneGraph (graphics/input/gui library)
  • OpenAL (sound library, if any)
  • Bullet (physics library, if any)
  • Blender (modeling)
  • Inkscape (images/textures)
  • LMMS (music/sound)

That being said, I’m not 100% sure I’ll enter. I’m about 80% sure. Maybe 85%.

Peace, love, and fractions,

— Mr. Dude

Maybe Joining the Mini LD

Seeing that the competition date of the mini LD is also the GMC Jam’s competition date, I may enter this time. I couldn’t get an engine up for the “ALL TALK” miniLD. It seems Game Maker does not like text-based games. But I’ve expanded my horizons to Stencyl, so I hope those game creator software will be accepted.

Tags: Game Maker, GMC Jam, mini LD #28, stencyl

Comments

16. Jul 2011 · 12:09 UTC
It is probably accepted. He did say that all platforms, libraries, and engines were, and Stencyl is indeed an engine, so it’s fine. Don’t sweat it. :)
shard123
22. Jul 2011 · 10:51 UTC
I use Game Maker and that was my problem too. So I just focused on story and game choices.

Thinking about volunteering for keynote.

Soo, yeah I think about volunteering as the second person – besides Awesome McFunkypants – to do a keynote, but there’s something that kinda stops me from volunteering.

Well, as far as my little, crippled brain knows I am the youngest Ludum Dare participant, as I’m only .. (prepare for instant death) only 14 years old..

So, there is only a 50% chance of me getting picked, but if I actually am to do a keynote, who wants to see a 14-year-old talking ‘n’ stuff`?

Tags: Folis Keynote tags are totally uneeded because no one ever searches for a post

5

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Yay, Mini LD!

Okay, I, thePalindrome, wanted to ask which would be better, as I want to be prepared for my first (mini)LD…

Which is better, making the game with C++, or AS3?

I have experience with C++ and Java, I’m thinking C++, but it wouldn’t be web-compatible…

What would you guys say?

Comments

wisnoskij
18. Jul 2011 · 01:25 UTC
I know that Ludum Dare recommends browser games, but personally I dislike browser games and like .exe games.
18. Jul 2011 · 04:11 UTC
You’ll get more players for a browser-based game, but you’ll still get good feedback for an exe game (especially if you provide a few ports). Do whatever you’re most comfortable with and what fits your game idea.
18. Jul 2011 · 05:51 UTC
You really should take the language that allows you to make a complete game in 48 hours.
Unnaturalist
18. Jul 2011 · 08:40 UTC
I’ve only done one LD, but I definitely learned that you need to use whatever you’re most comfortable with. Whatever time you spend looking up syntax and figuring out how to do what you want to do is time — well, not quite wasted, but it will bog you down.
18. Jul 2011 · 15:22 UTC
Definitely use whatever you already know best. Go with what you know. 48 hours is too short a time to learn a brand new language or set up a game engine and get over the learning curve.

Declaration of “It’s way too early to do that”

I can say, you can count me in for:

Mini-LD #28 ☑
LD #21 ☑

Soo, yeah. That’s it. I posted it way too early.

– Folis

I’m writing a book on game jams!

Hello Ludum Dare friends, I am writing a book on game jams.  As part of the research I wanted to ask you if you had any anecdotes or advice you’d like to share for achieving game jam success!  In particular, funny stuff is what I’d like to hear most. =)  One liners, haiku, yoda-like wisdom… you name it. Update: I’m loving all the haiku (5-7-5 syllable poems) please submit more!

McFunkypants
blog: www.mcfunkypants.com
twitter: @McFunkypants
google+: http://gplus.to/gamedev

Tags: advice, Book

MiniLD #28 – Might Enter

Not sure if I’ll be able to enter the MiniLD as I don’t fly home until the day it starts, but I’ll try. If I do enter I will use the following:

  • FlashPunk
  • FlashDevelop 4
  • Paint.NET
  • sfxr

Hope I won’t have to do anything that weekend!