First time actually forcing myself to follow through with Ludum Dare, as I actually have programming experience this time. Let's all hope to have fun cramming as much time into our games and as much caffeine into our bodies as possible.

Working with LOVE2D for LUA, written with Notepad++, and art with Paint.net... Music will be whatever I can scramble to use when I get to that point.

so here it is! after a few complications in the day to day tasks, time to relax and have fun doing a quick game for a Ludum Dare, will be a great experience, as well as every time I participate. I'm in! Have fun, folks. ^-^

...with pico-8 for the first time. Bringing a tiny bit of pre-existing code with me for math and LUA class (metatable) formation. Otherwise, it'll all be built in pico-8 over the weekend.

Final round theme voting is up, so it's time to finalize my preparations for the jam! I'll be using two PCs this jam, my usual workstation, and a new PC I built just for running Adobe products (Photoshop, etc). I've configured a remote backup so I'll never lose my stuff, and I've done a little research on 2D lighting and optimization techniques in GameMaker. I think it's most certainly not safe to say: I'm ready!

Don't really remember if I made a "I'm in" post, because I was still trying to figure everything out here last week. Anyway, it's my first LD, and I'm going solo in the jam.

Tools: - Unity 2017.2 - Blender for 3D modeling (I've spent a lot of time this week practicing modeling, rigging and animating, and I'm getting pretty comfortable with it. Hope that pays off!) - Gimp for 2D art (If I go 2D I may create and rig models in Blender, render their animations and use those renders to create sprite sheets in Gimp. It'll take a bit longer, but the result will be worth it.) - Audacity for sound recording (usually that's jut me making all kinds of weird noises into the microphone) - LMMS if I have time to add music. (If I don't have time, I'll create the music in the next few weeks and add it after the ratings.)

My Personal Goals: - to expand my horizons. As I said, I've already improved my skills with Blender. By the end of this, if I am a better game developer because of it, then it will have paid off. If not, at least it will have given me an excuse to hole up in my room for a few days. I would have done that anyway, but now I will have an excuse to do it. - a respectable finish. The first jam I was in (not LD) I think I finished 128th out of 133. That turned me off jams for a while. Ironically, it also had me eating jam out of the jar by the spoonful. - and of course, "Ludum dare": "to give a game." To come up with a game that I like, and that others enjoy playing. Maybe one that I can continue to polish, then release, and maybe even sell. I'm not looking for a fortune, just enough to reimburse me for my coffee bill.

Good luck, everyone, and have fun. I don't know about you, but I feel like a kid at Christmas.

HOLY CRAP! CHRISTMAS!!

This will be my 11th time participating in Ludum Dare. Ludum Dare 39 was a huge disappointment for me. I kept all of my weekends in August open only for it to be scheduled on the last weekend in July! Still, I attempted, but losing over half the time to family plans made 39 the first Ludum Dare I've ever participated in where I failed to submit something. It was unfortunate too as I really liked my concept!

This Ludum Dare is a chance at redemption!

Tools:

• C# + MonoGame
  • Optional alt 1: JS + Phaser.js
  • Optional alt 2: C + SDL2
  • Optional alt 3: keeping options open :P
• On top of MonoGame I may use open source frameworks including open code freely available on my own GitHub account:
  • My GitHub: https://github.com/srakowski
  • I would not suggest anyone use any code I've written :P
• For Graphics: Paint.Net, Inkscape, GIMP, Paint, others as needed
• For Audio: [S|B]XFR, Bosca Ceoil, Audacity, others as needed

Strategies/Rules:

• Time management:
  • Day 1: Game mechanic(s) should be mostly completed
    • In the past I've tried to get this done by end of day 2 leaving 3 for polish. I think this gives me too much time to overthink. Forcing mechanics to be done day 1 will require me to A. consider an idea for all themes prior to the announcement (so I may hit the ground running) and B. force me to keep the scope small as I shouldn't be able to code much within the few short hours I have after the theme is announced.
  • Day 2 should be about content & tweaking mechanics
  • Day 3 should be about game feel & polish
• Low-To-No Beer:
  • Studies have shown some beer does help bolster creativity, but not in quantities I've tended to consume while trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for the theme. Hard cap at 2 beers any only on day 2 if in a creative slump during content creation.
• Audio must not be an after-thought!
  • I think this is a grave error considering how much audio contributes to feel & mood. I must have a song that contributes to the game feel on day 2.
• Don't overthink the story (if there is one):
  • Not everything needs to have an explanation. Sometimes it is better to leave things up to the player's imagination.

Things I'm Thinking About:

• Hand drawn art - I've wondered how hand drawing everything instead of using Inkscape or Paint.Net would affect the graphics of my game. I would think hand-drawing would a lot me a higher tolerance for imperfections because the cost of tweaking is much higher. Then again, making small tweaks for animations would be more difficult for sure.
• Photography - How could I use a camera to create content? perhaps using something like Play-Doh or clay I could sculpt some assets and use a camera to capture them. I think this was used to make the monsters in Doom.
• Acapella? - How can I use my voice to create Music instead of a relying on a tool?

Good luck with LDJAM 40!

I'm in for LD 40. I've been looking around and I can't figure out how I'm supposed to enter. I've only come up with you just upload it before the deadline then pick which one you are doing, but I don't know. Can anyone tell me how this works?

Hey all!!

This will be my first Ludum Dare! I've barely started grasping coding but I just want to have fun, learn, and make something that doesn't crash. Solo jam.

I'll be using Game Maker Studio 1.4 without any of the drag and drop things, all coded. Unsure if I'll try coding from scratch or using some of the code I've already got/learned/made.

I'll be doing all the art in pixel art probably as I've started learning that and it's much faster than trying to paint everything.

SFX will probably be made with those free generators online or downloaded from free websites with attribution/public license.

Music I'll probably just use Incompetech.com because the dude who makes all that stuff is rad.

I hope that's all good with the rules.

I'll be streaming the whole thing if anyone wants to watch, I just set up a Twitch account.

https://www.twitch.tv/goattoastergames

If anyone has any tips or advice I'd love to hear it.

I'm in.

Omg the theme I submit, "Everything is connected" is in the final round of @ludumdare. If only people know I only submit this theme because of Dirk Gently Holistic Detective x)

If you don't know what it is, it's that : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNXaCBAjpo

This will be my 3rd consecutive LD compo! I'm hoping to climb the ranks a bit and create an experience people really enjoy this time around.

Tools I'll be using:

• unity 2017
• visual studio
• GIMP
• Blender
• BFXR
• Audacity
• http://www.fakemusicgenerator.com/
• google.com ...a lot probably ;p

I wish all participants the best of luck with their creations and hope we all learn and grow from the experience.

Let's rock! My first Jam, so, let's give everything I have :)

This will be my third consecutive time participating in a Ludum Dare. So far, it has been a really fun experience, and I hope to have another fun weekend. Good luck everyone :smile:

I’m in, I have also decided to twitch stream the coding process. Cuz why not. Look me up on twitch. Wink wink nudge nudge eh eh? I’m nate_wec by the way. Anyway good luck to you all!

7 strike (I can't stop)

• Unity+VS+R#
• Paint.net
• Audacity

Let's make some games.

I got 3 days off, so I might as well use it fully. And I'm thinking of going 3D this time. My 3D game development skills are rusty.

I'll be using Unity as the IDE, Blender & Photoshop for art, and Audacity & sfxr (plus maybe some music composition software) for sound. Language will be C#.

I'm going to give this a go! Ill be using:

• Unity3D
• Visual Studio
• Photoshop CC
• Blender
• Audacity
• FL Studio

The final round of themes looks very interesting. I know I talk about the importance of a good theme all the time, but imho it makes 50% of fun. Theme should be diverse, rather abstract, and it should leave us space for creativity. I really can imagine how boring would LD be with e.g."Floating Islands" :-). Have a great time!

I've been out of the scene for a while (last Ludum Dare was #LD31) and alot has changed for me. I'm in college now, actually know something about computer science, learned a game engine, ... Anyway, I'm ready to get back at it! I'm going to try to focus more on the artsy side of developing a game, i.e. no more programmer art :scream:. LD starts at 8PM for me, so my goal for the first night is to not touch any code, just get going on some pixel art and level design. I'm hoping that this will force me to create a more polished game, especially since I'm using an engine like Unity where the back-end needed is really minimal. Either way, good luck everyone!

TOOLS - Unity (2D) - VS Code - Pixyl Edit - Photoshop CC - Bosca Ceoil

Also, none of this jam nonsense, the challenge is 48h!

Themes look really fun! Don't know what tools we are using yet, but I imagine it will be on Unity.