Hey all, the compulsory "we're in" post, but we're still looking for an artist to join us if someone is interested. It's always more fun in a well oiled team! Check us out at https://crowdforge.io/jams/ludumdare/teams/685 all links to our work is on there.

This is my second Ludum Dare (I had to pass on LD39). I will be using GameMaker Studio 2, Adobe Photoshop/Audition, and a Keurig coffee machine.

Hey there, I'm finaly in !

It's been a long time since I want to be a part of it, there was always something that prevented me from being in the jam. I'm in with a good friends and our weapons will be Unity 2017, Pyxel, Photoshop and maybe Blender.

I hope we'll have a good jam, and a good jam to all of you guys !

What is Geta Game Jam?

Geta Game Jam is a 3-day long event where you get to make a game based on the theme of 'Chaos and Order'. It runs between January 13 to January 16, and is going to be an annual event that occurs twice a year. It begins on the Saturday, at 11am aest (this is the same time as to when Ludum Dare starts), and ends Tuesday 11am aest. In this jam you are allowed to work either individually or in a team.

Want to learn more? Make sure you read the itch.io page: https://itch.io/jam/geta-game-jam-01

REMEMBER TO CLICK 'JOIN' ON THE JAM PAGE!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/GetaGamesTeam

JOIN THE OFFICIAL DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/dwH9nYa

Apparently I was really generous!

Doing my first game jam with a small team.

Can't wait for Ludum Dare 40! This will be my first time and I'm stoked!

Here we go again, but now, with friends! I am planning to build team with at least 3 people in it! This is going to be massive! My previous game, you remember it? Rubish! This, man... this is going to get #1 in a hour!

Let's do it!

Here are some MS Paint graphics I've just made in a few minutes for a homework (the first was 2 days ago)...

Needs more polish (or not! :wink:), but... Enjoy! :smile:

.... even though I maybe was a bit too kind :grinning:

Look at how many themes survived :thinking:

Hello! This is going to be my first Ludum Dare. Excited to participate!

Lets do this! :D

At least, I hope so. It will be on a school weekend so I won't be able to spend as much time on it as I'd like, but I'm gonna join anyway. My last (and first) jam went quite well, so I hope it does so again!

If you want to try my last jam game, click here

There’s a lot of people asking about how to make music without the know how or experience. To me it boiled down to two main problems:
1. The programs are insanely hard to understand.
2. Making music sound good is even harder.

But last LD I ended up top 10 in audio, it was my second time making music for a game. Back then I wrote an article, but it was mostly a post mortem. Now I present you a way (not the way) based on what worked out pretty good for me last time. It is a really methodic way, so it’s kind of hard to screw up. I will not explain all terms, you can google them, but I think most should be high school basics in most countries.

An example piece I just finished in 30 minutes is this.

Let’s-a-go!

1. Use a music application that forces you to use scales. Scales make sure notes don’t sound all too bad and match together. It will slightly limit you, but will make it easier to use as well. You probably have seen it in classical pieces; the "Prelude in C Major" stuff. For an easy cross-platform tool with this functionality I suggest Bosca Ceoil (BC) by indie legend Terry Cavanagh. I learned this program during writing this tutorial, so it’s pretty easy. I will not go into details on how to use this program, the tool’s page explains how it works. I will show some images of the program.
2. Begin with playing music that match the style you are going for before you start making music. I listened the first few hours of LD39 to the Hyper Light Drifter OST, while making art for my game.
3. Start out with a drum loop. Slow bass drum goes first, then some extra repetitive beat using a snare, and finally make a few hi-hats that break your loop a bit. I use chiptunes here because they are supposed to sound static, which is what synthesised music automatically sounds like and it’s very much accepted in this community. Make sure the beat’s tempo is close to your reference music, since changing it later will be either hard or will not give you the results you like. In BC you should make sure all drums are on about the same pitch, and your bass drum is not too low or high. Also you might want to lower the volume of both the snare and hi-hats. You can do both the pitch and volume later during the process in BC.
4. Now lets make a bass, it will lead the melody of the rest of your song. Make sure you pick a nice scale, you will have stick to it for the rest of your song. Easy scales are major or blues, but check which one sounds a bit like your reference material. Remember you don’t have to (shouldn’t) copy anything, just the general tempo and feel. In general bass notes are long and smooth, and fall into the background. However don’t stick just to one note length, it will get old soon. Bass should be a low octave, around 3 or 4. Sometimes it’s good to use the low pass filter to put it a bit more in the background, with less higher frequencies and mainly low ones, if you feel it is taking up too much space, you can do this later as well. As you work, it is good to layer all different instruments you intent to use at the same time so you hear how it will sound together. But do not forget to also listen to your sections solo. Rule of the thumb: don’t make it overly complex, complexity comes from layering your instruments.
5. Then add some chords and/or arpeggios. Chords are two or more notes, often close to each other (like A and C# in the same octave) played at the same time. Arpeggios are two or more notes in rapid succession. The latter is often used in chiptunes (often due to hardware limitations). When using a scale, its very easy to just pick a note interval and repeat that for all arpeggios/chords, using a different base (not bass) note. Loosely follow what you did for your bass line. That is, the first note of your arpeggio line should roughly be the same note on the start of each bass note. However make sure to break away from it often enough because it will sound boring otherwise, I usually do this at the end. But it is an easy trick to match the first note of each section the same, to give the listener some handhold on where your music is heading.) I usually use a mid range for chords and arpeggios, this is around the 7th octave. In the example I use the arpeggio technique.
6. Then add some higher notes. I like to keep it simple, especially when using arpeggios in the mid as they can be quite space filling already. Use some notes that are higher pitched, around the 9th octave.
7. Now let’s make some variations on at least the high and mid ranges, and perhaps the bass. If you made some complex stuff, make it less complex, if you made simple stuff make it more complex. (Make sure you copy your composition, and don’t overwrite it, as we will use it in the next step.) If you wish to change the bass melody, make sure you redo the mid and high sections as well to match this, it might still sound good but it’s harder to tweak. You can do this as much as you want, and it will help to make your song less repetitive. I made them both simpler in the example.
8. You probably have about 20 seconds of lead sound. Thats quite short, isn’t it? We can make it longer, just repeat it, and disable some of the element. Just disabling any of your drums or bass line for a bar will make it noticeably different. Use this to build up your song, probably at a slow pace, depending on what your reference material is. Start out with one instrument plus one or two drum loops.
9. Listen to your music for quite some time on loop while working on your entry, it will help you find flaws, but also help getting the art and feel sync up nicely. Also let other people listen to it. Just make sure you don’t throw everything away because “it sucks”, a rule that works for most parts of a Ludum Dare.

Must-Read Tips

1. Use speakers/headphones/plugs that have a good range. Anything below 30$ is probably not good enough. If you don’t use that anyone with better speakers might hear mistakes outside of the frequency range you have on your speakers.
2. Learning some music theory will help, I recommend Dave Conservatoire. It goes way beyond what I describe in this article, but it will take some time to learn.
3. When you are done you can tweak/change your instruments, slightly move your notes and experiment a bit more to make it a bit more unique.
4. Having a part really stand out in your music helps people remember the music. It will also make it quicker to see the repetitions in the music. You can do this by making a “break”. Fade out some instruments and emphasise on one melody. (You can play it with multiple instruments).
5. Practice the tool for a few hours before Ludum Dare and make a musical piece and find out what the hard pieces are. Think of a game to make it for so you can check if it fits (maybe one of your previous LD entries).
6. Like a lot of musical applications, when everything fails: there’s a panic button.
7. Sound effects might be more important than music. Like a lot of people I like bfxr when using chip sounds. And FreeSound.org + Reaper otherwise. Check your open source licenses.
8. I love Reaper (over Audacity) for my final audio edits. It has a free very long trial, but it's cheap.

You can find what I made to test my methodic approach with Boscal Ceoil here, and the .ceol files here. It’s not a master piece, but it’s alright and gives me the “I made this in 30 minutes” bragging rights. Feel free to download it and use it as reference. (Released under CC0)

Picking Instruments

Small and quick addition regarding picking instruments. Check the name first, if it says high-hat or snare, its a drum's high hat or snare. Bass can be either a bass drum or a sustained bass note, so check that! Some notes fade out over time, while others (notably pads) are notes that change how they sound slightly over time, and are made for multi-second long notes. Rule of the Thumb: Does this sound like the instrument I want to use it for? Press a few different notes an in different octaves at different lengths and listen to it.

Good Luck!

I hope this helped you a bit in making a better game, with music! I wanted to explain a lot more, but I think (hope) this is both short and helps most of the people that are clueless about music. I hope the project files make it easier to get, if not, don’t hesitate to ask!

If you used this guide let me hear what you made on Twitter: @abductypus or in the comments below. If you liked it and have an urge to repay me, follow me or play my game after the LD40 weekend.

Well, I'm going to give this a shot. Together with a Ludum Dare veteran, if all goes well.

Hello jammers old and new! Just in time before LD40 I managed to finish my LD39 documentary:

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

So, we are in! Here is our theme slaugthering so far. See you in 6 days!

I've been following LD for a while, but never went all in and made a proper game. Time to make something interesting with some new tools.

• Code - Rust + ggez
• Art - PS, paint.NET with a cheap tablet
• Sound - bfxr/sfxr, atrk-bu.py
• Text Editor - emacs
• Level Editor - Tiled