Escape Infection! is a strategy game played with your mouse only.
It is simple yet addictive and you can always improve your score.
My best score so far is 194!
You can also play it in your browser
--Click this to get to the game page--
Here is a quick peek into the gameplay:
If you haven't played Greedy Merchants I recommend you do so before continue reading this, but maybe before leaving your feedback come back and check the questions below.
We had a lot of great feedback about the game, but just a few regarding the game balance. After you learn how to play the game well it becomes clear that the game is really unbalanced in favor of pirates. Although this was done on purpose to follow the LD theme, we are thinking that this might become a bit boring when playing this in multiplayer. Since all players would have the same strategy.
So we are looking for ways to help those greedy merchants out a bit. We already have a few ideas written down on our notepads. Like allowing the player to save coins at some point in the map like a treasure island, or allow the player to drop coins behind him in order to help him out on a chase.
However we are open for suggestions from the community. So please share any ideas regarding cool ways to make this game more fun in a multiplayer game.
I've had a very large amount of people tell me my entry, Armed Descent (found here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/armed-descent) is too difficult. I agree I could probably have eased the difficulty a little bit; the gun's initial range is a little short, and the enemies bullets are small, fast, and don't expire until they hit a wall. I didn't get a whole lot of outside feedback while I was developing the game since I didn't really have the resources to do so. Personally, the game feels pretty easy to me, but that's only because I created it!
On the other hand, I've also had a lot of comments stating how the game is a perfect balance of difficulty; hard, but not out of the realm of possibility, which is exactly where I want to be. This is where I'm struggling a little bit. Is Armed Descent too difficult? If so, what changes can I make to it?
I want to be as accommodating to my audience as possible (while still adhering to the rules of Ludum Dare). The way I see it, I have two options:
I don't know if that second option violates any rules. If it does, then obviously that one's out. I'm not really sure what to do; could I get some input? Play my game (available on HTML5 and Windows), or if you already have, I'd really like to know your opinion!
A Platformer for Ants is receiving a HUGE acceptation in this community, in itch.io and now on NewGrounds, so I'm improving it with everything your awesome feedback.
Now the game has gamepad support on every platform, you should be ok with an xinput controller, but there's a huge list of compatible devices. I hope no one have THAT ONLY controller that doesn't work with the game, but I'm sure we can solve that if that happens.
On the other hand, the game has been streamed and played in multiple Twitch and Youtube channels and I don't have enough words to thank every person that has made that, it means A LOT to me and I'm super happy with that.
And, the last but not least, we've got a new record, 49 awesome seconds to complete the game. I was sure that 50 seconds was the minimum, but I was very wrong. Someone has to prove me wrong AGAIN.
Remember you can play the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/a-platformer-for-ants
And I wrote a postmortem about it if you wanna take a look :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/a-platformer-for-ants/postmortem-a-platformer-for-ants
I do intend to keep working on my game up til a more satisfactory state, so your ratings, suggestions and comments are most appreciated!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/riskreward
We have received many comments on ways to rebalance our game. And we are well on way discussing our next steps for the game. We'd appreciate if anyone else would be willing to give us any feedback.
Come help our hero, Horder, run from the Carabus. Gather items and manage your inventory.
The game is available to play in browser to make playing as easy as possible.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/ludum-dare-40-1
Thank you from us all
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/intenseaty
^Quick link for those who want to skip the post thought and just want to game.
Hello fellas. It has been a week (and 2 days) since Ludum Dare 40 started its course. For someone who attempted Ludum Dare the first time after many procrastination and after getting a good team of enthusiasts, it is only proper to close this project with a reflection of what went well and what can be done better.
We started our team with 3 artists and 4 programmers. If one thing that I felt lucky with, it is how each and every developer in the team has a unique forte well suited in their own modules. In my opinion, to make the best use of 2D game art would be to have artists who do well in character sprites, intractable UI's, and breath-taking backgrounds; and it just happens these 3 artists already have each of their own specialty to handle the specific task.
As for the programmers, I would categorize the tasks in two halves : The visible (UI,backgrounds,animation,particle systems,audio) and the invisible (character movements,mob spawning,bullet collision,highscores,anything that requires behind calculations). It would be the best if a team can split themselves to settle the two stuffs in balance, for unable to achieve one side of the system may cause the other side to lose the potential to shine better (in the case of intenSEAty, should the character movements doesn't have a responding particle system to emit, it may feel unresponsive; should the enemies keep spawning at the same rate without an improved mob spawning system, it may feel repetitive), and thus we split ourselves to 2-2 to work on these modules within 24 hours.
^That's the programmer's task. In simple caption, 2 on the left will work on the visible stuffs(Robert worked on the audio, Neo worked on the UI), 2 on the right will work on the invisible stuffs(TanKY worked on the spawning mobs, Casper worked on the player movement).
^If you have learned Mind Mapping before, it helps a lot when you are dealing with pseudocodes and flowcharts before creating them.
While all the good stuff have been said about the process of developing, there are of course some lessons well learned for my own throughout the process:
Appreciate the 48 hours before all time is spent
If Ludum Dare is like a board game and us developers are move pieces/tokens where we have our own hand of buffs and debuffs, I would say my greatest debuff this session would be that I would dwell myself too much of the past all over a small mistake.
Compared to other experience I had during game jams such as Global Game Jam and local ones, emotional setback was never one of the affecting factors throughout the game jam. As of recent turn of events however, this Ludum Dare challenged me to balanced my grip of work along with my grip of sanity.
For the first 24 hours, I did the most minimal contribution to help out the team, for I felt like spending time going to shopping malls before I start finding audio for the game. Some can argue I may be finding materials/extra ideas before actually working on it, however if what I have experienced can form a theory with, it would be the 48 hours would be better off experimenting on builds rather than keep making ideas that would have not enough time to be materialized for feedback purposes, and thus every second spent on finding more extra ideas after the team have locked down on the main mechanic would be another second wasted on making it work and acceptable to your own expectations.
Slowly and slowly I was consumed by my past thoughts and I felt like not even bother helping out at all, since all and all I have nothing much to lose should I chose to do so. It's fine if you choose to think that way, for at the end of the day, should you felt you aren't ready for Ludum Dare, there is no must to complete a game. That's me for the past 5 Ludum Dares as I have decided to let it go because I had no team and I had no commitments to answer for. It's fine.
However, perhaps somewhere deep in your heart, you would question yourself, why would you choose to join Ludum Dare from the beginning? Is it because you are excited to create one feature you find no one else have thought of? Is it because you had thought of a scalable system that your team can make a procedural generation based game within first 12 hours of the game jam? Or is it because you want to draw out to your hearts content on your love for the sea creatures?
Whatever that first brought you in Ludum Dare, it probably will be one of those BECAUSE that will answer most of your WHY questions along the way. Down the 48 hours we sometimes would face a point of "WHY do I want to extend myself to work over a game jam when I have day job to deal with?" "WHY am I working with a bunch of hard people that can't follow simple instructions?" "WHY am I doing item pooling when I could have hard coded it for the sake of this game jam?". By remembering the reason that brought you in the first place, it would help you to steel yourself against the doubts you will face for the game jams especially for the first timers, as the journey to a thousand miles road always start with a first step.
By remembering why I opted in to work with 6 others together, I attempted to work back what I have missed at the last 24 hours. For every breakthrough I made in coding, the feeling of accomplishments be it big or small slowly overwrite my insecurities. All these breakthroughs eventually lead to one main path : The Final Product.
Perhaps I was happy that the game turned out to be very beautiful and nicely done by the end of the crunch, and looking back, I am happy that I chose to change my thought and decided to give it a full run as much as I can.
That said, I can't say the stories of 6 other individuals who may have their own post jam comments to share, but I can be sure to say for myself that with the right mindset, you will achieve breakthroughs that no man can do it for you.
^Do find how to get this fish around. For what we know only one third of the players actually found out this fish throughout this whole week. After all, it is the interaction that plays the main role in this game (as well as the main villain, you will know why).
Edit : That said, I have forgotten to add the game link for those who are curious. So here's an edit with the link attached.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/intenseaty
Hello, I made a game, want reviews.
It's a Skill based ice cream selling.
Use mouse click/drag the ice cream cone Press ‘space’ key to turn on the ice-cream machine Start game a paw ask you for ice cream, make an ice cream give it to the paw The price of an ice cream is depends on the amount of cream you put When you loss some cream, you also lose some money You have 120 sec to earn money
LD 40 Game link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/$59820 Game link: https://ango.itch.io/ld40
If your game also needs review, leave a comment please.
I will rate your game :)
I'm getting closer to my goal of rating 100 more games this weekend! Post yours here!
And since I have no shame: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/a-spark-of-light
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/mobs
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/mobs
Screenshot of the final game
Endless, Nameless is a simple 2D platformer. You play over and over one level due to a time tear in the void. When you finish a level you get thrown back in time, but it’s not that simple. The level changes and one terrible (that’s right) is added.
The more levels you finish the more terribles are added.
Every fifth level you can choose which terribles to disable with the coins you collected.
You have to collect 15 coins to be able to buy a time bandage which fixes the time tear.
You can play the game here: link-to-game.
Since the last Ludum Dare (my first one) I haven't been working on games as I have shifted my focus on other things. And also I am pretty bad at game design, or really anything creative, so I didn't want to work on games by myself as they would turn out terribly in the end, if I wouldn't abandon the project first.
I haven't been much excited for this one and that may be the cause it started so terribly and without energy. Ludum Dare 40 wasn't on a vacation, we had school, but at least it was weekend so I was able to work most of the time.
I woke up at 9 am and the first thing I did was open the Ludum Dare website to check the time. After seeing what the theme was I immediately thought "crap". The theme was "the more you have, the worse it gets". It was my least favourite theme and I lost all confidence I had. No idea came to my mind, I was scared.
I let it go for now. I should first wake up properly, wash my face, get something to eat and then get into the proper mindset.
After a nice breakfast I sat down in front of my computer hoping I would come up with some sort of idea, at least something that it is good enough for a game. I came up with two ideas in a span of an hour. They were boring and not something I wanted to make. The next thing I did was what I alaways do, open Discord and complain to others. To my rescue came Snowy. He didn't participate in LD because he had a lot of studying to do, but he gave me an excellent idea for a game. The moment I read the idea I got excited. Finally something that made me happy about this jam.
The idea was that it was a simple platformer where you replay a level over and over again. Every time you finish the level you get a "terrible" added. I didn't have time to make a lot of them but these are the ones that got in the game: slower speed, inverted gravity, black and white screen, spikes, patroling enemy, falling lava lamps, zoomed in camera, smaller jump (but you get a double jump), broken controls, a wall that block one way to the exit.
I got started working on placeholder assets and first time got to use Unity's new tile system. I expected more from it but it's still quite new and I haven't checked all of its features yet.
The game's idea kind of reminded me an awesome game for Android "That Level Again" so I got the inspiration for level design from it. The level wasn't (and still isn't) polished enough, but it was enough for now.
I knew I was going for a pixel art style from the beginning since that's what I can do the best. Didn't even want to think about making a game in 3D. I spent a lot of time on the graphics, and it was tedious to make different sprites for different tile variations. And that's where I wasted a lot of my time as later I switched to a "vectorized" style and I had to draw all the variations again.
First started with pixel art
Ended with this
So far I had decent graphics, but that was all I had. So I started working on a character controller. I needed to make something more customizable as I needed to adjust controller's parameters easily for the terribles. I didn't write it from the scratch, I used a Unity tutorial for reference, since I don't really know how to make one by myself and to feel nice.
Next, I added the first terrible called "FTH Gamer", it switched the controls to F, T and H buttons. It was the easiest to implement and it was mostly just to see how I would go about implementing other terribles.
I always have a tendency to shift my focus from things. I was working on writing an elegant way to handle terribles, which turned out terribly (get it? 😉), and I suddenly got an urge to work on the main menu. My first plan was not to have a lot of words in the game, and I also wanted to make the cat (player) speak in forms of speech bubbles, but it would only meow. I settled on a simple menu with the game's title, the main character and a button saying "MEOW" which was the start button.
And that wraps up the first day.
I went back to working on the "terrible system" and I got it working pretty fast. It added a random terrible each time you finished a level.
One or two terribles obviously weren't enough so I started working on the reversed gravity terrible. Even though the character controller was easily adjusted for this to work I had weird issues where the player wouldn't move when the gravity was reversed. After a lot of time tinkering with it I found the solution. Of course it was something obvious, the player wasn't conisdered grounded with the reverse gravity. It was an easy fix and it worked like a charm.
The whole day I spent on adding terribles, a way to notify the user which terrible he got, some basic music which was there just for the sake of having it, a shop where you could disable upgrades for coins and a small ending, to reward the player in some way. I was rishing because it felt like I didn't have enough time to finish for the compo. I thought I will most likely need to submit for the jam instead. I finished off everything I could and submitted in the last minutes (at least last minutes for me). I felt happy and releaved. It was wonderful.
Someone on a Discord server (server invite) said he played it and everything was broken. I was devastated, seemed like time froze, I was scared. There were all kinds of problems: player getting stuck, collisions weren't working, crashes, freezes, terribles not working. I had to fix the game next day and submit for the jam.
Third day, a day I hadn't anticipated I'll be working on. It was a school day so I didn't have much time to work on it, but all I could think of in school is about my game and it's broken state.
Immediately I came home I powered my computer on and got to work. Most of the problems were easily fixable and I was able to fix all bugs quickly.
I was submitting for the jam so I added some more content in the "extra" time I got.
I published the game, playtested it and gave it to a couple of people. They were having fun playing it and it was all worth it in the end. All the struggle and the stress.
All in all this Ludum Dare was pretty fun. I had fun making the game and people liked it.
We liked the idea for the game so we are now working on it outside of LD.
However, there are things I want to do differently next time:
Use git
Get the main mechanics of the game working before doing anything else
Carefully plan out so I don't end up wasting time
Actually playtest
Don't make game changing changes last minute
Get up earlier so I have more time
Don't make stuff I'm not sure I can implement
Don't start polishing if I don't have a working game 😂
This first week of judging has been incredible! We've received an overwhelming amount of feedback and support for our game, Jazzy Beats, that has already surpassed the reception we got with our previous game, Petty Puny Planet during Ludum Dare 38's judging phase. From the bottom of our heart, we don't have a way to thank you enough for it. We've been trying our best to respond to the feedback we've got so far, but know we can still do much more! :hugging:
It is our belief as a team that the 72 hours we spend creating a game during Ludum Dare is only the beginning of the game's lifecycle, and everything that follows from documenting the game's development, to getting the game onto the screens of more players is when the true challenge really comes into play.
As such, part of our goals with this Ludum Dare was that we'd try to branch out our game into more and different platforms beyond those which we've always published our game on (such as itch). With that said, we've released the web version of our game, Jazzy Beats, over on Newgrounds as of yesterday!
Many of you probably know Newgrounds from the early days of the internet, being one of the most popular flash games portal back in the late 2000. However, even after all these years, the site kept growing, and has since started accepting HTML5 and WebGL, keeping Newgrounds as a trustworthy portal even on our current days. Their support when we had Colossorama, one of our past Ludum Dare games, ripped from us and published in their site without our consent in the past was phenomenal, removing it straight ahead, and when we were finally ready to republish the game there ourselves, they immediately accepted us open-armed. 😀
And once again, with the release of, Jazzy Beats, they've have featured us on the site's front-page! Those guys are some sweet honey-buns. :yellow_heart:
If you're interested in the game, give a look over at our game page! Although Newgrounds only hosts the web versions of the games, we also have links for the game available on all major operating systems over at the game's page!
During the upcoming days and weeks we hope to release the game on even more gaming portals we never took the chance to try to publish our games on. We believe it's going to be a great learning experience to understand what it takes to have our game on multiple sites at once.
Once more, in behalf of our team, we once more thank you for all the reception we have gotten this far, and during the next days, we hope to publish more insights into the development of our game. If you're looking for some chit-chat, we also have a Discord available, where we all talk everything from game development to overall gaming! Thank you once more! :blue_heart: :whale:
Hey Guys! Had so much fun participating in #LDJAM40 along with a fellow gamer/coder/artist friend @chetan-pant :P in the Jam category and this was the first experience of participating in a Game Jam for both of us as we are Jon Snow in GameDev (We know nothing) :D Looking forward to keep the enthusiasm for LD41 ;)
Meanwhile check our our game and rate it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/shit-happens-ldjam40 We are pretty close to the 20 ratings mark! Need help guys :D
Most people say my game is "cute".
Than again, most people don't finish the game... ;)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/sofra
Hey, feel free to play/rate my game and comment and I will play/rate yours!!!!
I`m already playing =D Please, if you hae a coold game comment on mine so I can enjoy yours =D
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/project-vamparty/
You can check out my game Jump Plus! I still need about 9 votes lol
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/jump-plus
Hey everyone! Thank you for your feedback and comments. We read everything and visit your pages to rate your games and leave feedback. Let's make our projects more awesome together!
...and if you like the game, please...
Thank you for your attention!
Hey all I'm going to play some more LDJAM games on stream and rate them "harshly". Drop by and let the most critical reviewer at the LD twitch community talk about your game. :) https://www.twitch.tv/jacksendary
This article follows this one and and that one.
Step 8: The time is more and more restricted. It would be auspicious to make the interface less... austere, let's say. A little bit of colour, it's still brightening up! Yes, we are talking about the end of humanity, but with a smile! So I start by looking for user interfaces on the excellent OpenGameArt site (yet) to replace the game zones. I start with the parts that are least likely to move, the interaction and end-of-turn areas.
Step 9: it's market zones turn! I was thinking of putting all the buttons in the box, and finally the bottom button came out halfway during positioning, which gives a better effect I find. As luck would have it, doesn't it?
Step 10: and finally, the areas for displaying settings by country! It's immediately prettier, right? There is only one hour left before the submission, this is not the time to crack and add new features! Instead, it's the perfect time to test if all buttons work properly and adjust the settings and game rules one last time.
This time, I'm finishing a Ludum Dare! It was quite intense, I must admit, fatigue management is important. And also the frustration of not being able to implement certain ideas (events per turn, artificial intelligence of countries). But to finish a Jam starting from nothing, it is already not nothing precisely!
Next step: improve the current game with the comments already received (thanks to everyone!).
You can test, comment and rate my game here ;)