We have added web version of our game to itch.io Feel free to try it out.
https://amiendor.itch.io/moneyrun
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/money-run
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6M-wG5JGBk
This post-mortem deals with the graphics of our entry for LD43, AS OF YET UNNAMED. This is a more in-depth follow-up on my Narrated Pixelart Timelapse video. There's a lot to say, so I separated it into three parts.
Looking back, I am quite happy with how everything turned out. My initial idea for the graphics was based on Broforce, but I pretty quickly managed to move away from just copying a style when I made the initial bobblehead characters. And I feel we managed to visually capture the over-the-top patriotism we wanted to achieve.
I had hoped we'd come up with a concept where I could do a bunch of pixelart animation again, like I had done previously with Artax for Ludum Dare 39, and this certainly fit that specific bill. I try to not think ahead before the theme is known too much, but the itch to animate was definitely there.
Contrast! Particularly the missiles can be hard to see against the background. The time-slow mechanic does make the background art slightly transparent so the foreground stands out more, but when there are multiple missiles on screen it's hard to keep track of everything. I added something of an outline as it was even worse before, but there's a lot of room for improvement. We had thought to add a particle smoke trail to the missiles, but time ran out for that.
Comparing this title to Artax again, the main culprit for having these contrast issues is the bright background. Artax had a similar style of pixelart with no outlines, but it had much darker backgrounds. In all honesty, it didn't really register in my mind that this would be an issue until all the backgrounds were done already. Looking back, perhaps an outlined style similar to our Mini Ludum Dare 50 entry Naturally Selected 2D would have been a better choice.
Various assets are on my tile sheet that unfortunately did not make it into the game. I had completed a helicopter, but the next day our fresh eyes revealed how its oval shape did not suit the otherwise square and diagonal aesthetic of the game. Now this is not really a cutting room floor victim, as I iterated on its look and came up with a more suitable version of it, but it does represent time spent that doesn't directly end up in a used asset.
We had considered a pickup for bodyguards to collect that adds an extra bodyguard to your squad, so I made a shiny secret service badge for that purpose. A lack of time combined with automated additions of guards meant it had no use.
We had wanted spectators to dress up the background art from the start, as this was meant to be a parade of sorts, but time also prevented them from attending. In the end, however, it's probably a good thing as more characters on screen would probably make for some visual overload.
I think that about wraps up everything I wanted to say. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me!
In our jam game Duskhearth we used 1 texture to color all our 3D assets. You're looking at the Cult-house!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/duskhearth
The search function is still "coming soon", and the third-party games browsers have not been updated for LD43.
So if your game has a native Linux build, or is a cross-platfrom game made with Java, Python (2.7/3.6/3.7), or Lua/Löve2D, comment here and I'll play/rate it. Or comment to tell me how to sort by platform, in case that feature has been implemented and I just could not find it ;-)
Our last P&R will start in a few minutes. Did you already submit your game? Last chance! Spoiler: We will likely not be able to play every game. Devs who are in the chat are preferred and will be played first.
Submit your game NOW and be sure to be there!
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/firesplashtv Submission: https://goo.gl/forms/j2lNHvqXuffUNPGT2
Hey everyone! Go try out our game, My Little Daily Sacrifice, description says it all :)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/my-little-daily-sacrifice
Hope you like card games and you have some feedback or good idea for me! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/battle-of-the-occultists!
About my game: It's card game where you build your creatures to defeat yur enemy. At first battle you have only piece of creature like +1 hp or +1 atk. When you win battle you come to shop, where you can buy new pieces or new ability for your creature.
Please rate and play my game at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/maze 
In a world, where crime thrives at the top of buildings… where grandmas get stuck in trees in rooftops… and where guerilla marketing has reached new moral lows… A hero will rise, and so will the profits of his sponsors.
Coming this winter… a hero will sacrifice everything to save the people around him and to satisfy his sponsoring overseers. His dignity, his integrity, and his laundry budget. Because being an invincible superhero doesn’t pay the bills.
You won’t see the adventures of Monetization Man in the silver screen anytime soon, but you can always play Super Sellout, our Ludum Dare 43 entry, and hopefully have a laugh. It’s no blue furry man-legs, but it’ll suffice.
Here’s hoping you enjoyed this quick goof. If you want, you can always come chat and share your own Ludum Dare games at our Discord server! And of course, we’re also looking for Ludum Dare participants to follow through our Twitter account!
In just delete them you delete files to make the assets disappear. Fun right?! I am currently working on some puzzles, bug fixes and other things but in the meantime you can play it, or watch the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPRk38sGu9I
Game link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/just-delete-them
I'm still playing catch-up in terms of rating other people's games, but I'd like to take some time to write up a breakdown of some of the techniques and design works that went into developing The Gods Are Angry. I've seen a few other people do this, and I thought it might be an interesting read for fellow PICO-8 devs, or people who like 8-bit-style games.
The CameraThe Gods Are Angry uses an "offset" value to determine how far into the current level you are. In a later post-jam update, I'll use this to render the smallest possible chunk of level, but current, the game draws the whole level at once, with "offset" used as the X co-ordinate of the left-hand side of the level. So if you're 300 pixels into the level, "offset" will equal -300.
If you change direction, the camera doesn't move immediately: there's an eight-pixel window within which the camera will stay still. This wasn't really necessary, since you only have to move left about twice in the whole game, but I hope to make a more complex PICO-8 platformer at some point next year, so having this feature already baked into the engine will come in handy for that.
For those not familiar with PICO-8, it has a strict set of graphical limitations: up to 256 8x8 sprites or tiles, a maximum map size of 128x64 tiles, and a fixed 16-colour palette. I've always found it to be perfect for Ludum Dare as its limitations force you to think small.
To fit with the game's sombre tone, I went for a quite dark, subdued look to the graphics. The way the terrain fades away into blackness was actually inspired by Shovel Knight's graphics, and not only did it fit the tone, it reduced the number of tiles I needed to place when making levels, saving me time.
The background is drawn in three parts: a repeating 8x8 gradient at the top, a repeating 32x8 mountain range silhouette, and a solid rectangle in between. The rectangle is static, but the repeating parts at the top and bottom are scrolled at different speeds relative to the offset, resulting in a simple parallax effect.
The lightning effect is one I'm particularly proud of, but it's actually quite simple. The game generates a random number between 240 and 360, then counts down for that number of frames. When it reaches 5, a thunderclap SFX is played, a lightning bolt is drawn at a random spot in the sky, and a series of palette-swaps brighten up the level. When the counter reaches 0, the bolt disappears, and I use PICO-8's pal() command to reset the palette back to normal.
Oh, and did you know the lightning also flashes if you linger on the title screen?
Since The Gods Are Angry doesn't have any moving obstacles apart from the geysers, its collision detection system is pretty simple. That's one part of the engine I'll have to rewrite if I use it in any future games.
Vertical collision detection runs every frame. If you're moving upwards (i.e. jumping), it checks for obstacles above you, and if you hit one, your vertical momentum is reversed so you sort of ricochet back down again. If you're not moving upwards, it checks for obstacles below you, and if you hit one, your vertical momentum becomes zero.
Horizontal collision detection only occurs while you're moving left or right, and just stops you walking through walls or off the left-hand edge of the level. It also initiates the next cutscene if you walk off the right-hand edge. It's glitchy while you're in mid-air, which is another thing I need to sort out.
That's all!Thank you for your time, and apologies for having played so few games so far. I only have two more days of work and then hopefully, even with Christmas going on, I'll have time for some more. Please feel free to check out The Gods Are Angry if you haven't already, though!
T-minus 2 hours to the jam deadline and we still had to build the level for our platformer Way of the Dodo.
We had the mechanics and assets all done, now we just an experience that would show them off.
Level design - how hard could it be?
The platformer is a mature genre with conventions well established. Nevertheless it can be difficult to understand which conventions give rise to which experiences. As big adventure fans we wanted our sacrificial dodo simulator to have a similar feel to its inspiration Yoshi's Island. How does that game create the feeling of a wild journey in a living breathing world while the Mario games before it felt more like obstacle courses?
Let's examine a couple of famous levels through the lens of objectives. We'll be looking for three aspects:
Although secondary objectives help give players a sense of ownership, it is the secret areas that are the true heart of exploration. They are the players' own discovery and so are the experiences those players will hold as their own.
In these classic first levels from the Mario canon
The original Super Mario Bros contains many secondary objectives. If you were to count every question block as one it'd have many many more than are displayed here. The level even contains an area with two equally valid paths just before its centre. It only contains one secret area (which serves the purpose of speeding up progress for seasoned players) but provokes exploration via hidden question blocks. The main line is straight and there are only three 'levels' to the course, all of which are visible at all times on the screen. Others stages in the game will provide secrets (warp zone and vines to the clouds as examples) but these are exceptions rather than the rule.
Yoshi's IslandIn stark contrast the first level of Yoshi's Island has four whole secret areas. The main line also changes direction twice during the level, and undulates at lot throughout the rest of the course. Furthermore many areas are off-screen and hinted at via various visual cues and pattern repetitions. The first secret, heavily signposted, informs the player that this is game where going right is not always the only path. This idea is repeated in the fourth secret area, where having climbed the beanstalk the player can go the opposite direction as the signpost to find a Smiley Flower and hidden question cloud in the crevice below. You can really tell that this was designed to be a different experience, something mirrored in the slower pace and expanded move-set of the game.
If you've played these games this makes a lot of sense. The earlier Mario games feel 'more hardcore' akin to later masochistic platformers like Super Meat Boy, N++ or Oco, while later games like Yoshi's Island and the 3D platformers feel more like grand, accessible adventures.
Way of the DodoAs we wanted Dodo to feel less like an obstacle course and more like an adventure, we wanted to ape this latter style, and so...
So we know what aspects we need in our level, but how we can create them? The original Super Mario Bros. uses coins, lives, power-ups and shortcuts to act as goals for their secondary objectives. Yoshi's Island additionally uses red coins, sunflowers and health, all of which unlock additional content for the game. The greater the rarity of a collectable however, the more restrictive their placement becomes. With this in mind, let's look at the most common of collectables, the 'coin'.
Coins (in our game, bolts) are so versatile they have become a fixture of the platform genre. When I first started laying out the level, I was placed them all along the floor like breadcrumbs. It wasn't engaging. Why not? Why is it that in most 2D platformers coins are very rarely placed directly on the 'main line'?
Because when they're on the main line they add nothing but a juicy particled dopamine hit on collision. Their placement needs purpose and fortunately for coins they can have several. This can sometimes lead to their placement appearing haphazard, but knowing why a coin is somewhere firms up the visual language of the level, making it easier for the player to parse.
Here are three reasons behind coin placement.
Posing Optional ObjectivesThis is the bread and butter of coin systems both in 2D and 3D; they provide a low-effort secondary objective just off the main path. Players can decide whether to engage and collect them (they are, of course, rewarded with coins) or ignore the objective altogether. This may not be as explicit as a secondary objective in an RPG or other, but the player nevertheless has the same choice, and can organically move in and out of the objective without much effort. As a trivial example, think of coins placed just above the main line, forcing the player to jump. It's short, simple and entirely optional.
Providing the Player HintsAs secrets are often hidden off-screen, it is important for a level designer to give the player opportunity to discover them. This can be achieved through object placement, set dressing, or even coins. Here for instance, we used a bolt at the top of the screen to indicate the presence of a secret area above.
This is closest to bread-crumbing and can easily be overused, but sometimes the player might need an extra incentive to drive them forward. This might be because of a convention being broken (i.e. moving left instead of right) or a challenging hurdle (yes, you can make this jump!).
➚Our collectables: bolts and eggs
One issue you may have noticed in the original Super Mario Bros. is a secondary objective or secret area's payoff can sometimes be out-of-proportion to its buildup. A secret pipe only leads to an small increase in coins, a trip to the clouds perhaps a few more. Beyond extra lives (and the rare but mind-blowing warp-zone) there is little the level designer has to dangle in front of the player. It's no wonder then that each subsequent game added more and more rewards to complement coins.
As we wanted to give the player a big(-ger) payoff for discovering secrets we made a second, rarer currency in the form of eggs.
Here's a look at how the level turned out.
As you can see the main line is anything but straight forward, going up, left, right and down in different places. We used bolts to create secondary objectives that allowed players to practice new mechanics, hint at new areas and provide forward momentum. We also created four secret areas, three of which feature an egg as a reward.
We also tried to teach the player the mechanics in an intuitive and pressure-free way, but that didn't go quite as planned!
So ends this non-exhaustive review of our approach to level design. If you have any thoughts or criticisms on the topic we'd love to hear from you, and if you'd like to read about our inspiration for the game my partner-in-jam @pilchard did a great write up here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/way-of-the-dodo/way-of-the-dodo.
And if you'd like to give it a spin you can play the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/$133195
Thanks for reading!
If you're still playing games, why not checking out Archibald's Snobbish Journey? Embark on Archibald's hot-air balloon and throw away his belongings to stay alive!
I'm actually quite proud of myself: I managed to create a tiny game for my first Ludum Dare! Would be awesome if you could check it out.
Happy 43rd Ludum Dare everyone!
This is turning out to be so much more fun and rewarding than I ever expected.
* Inspiration*
A few weeks ago I watched a video analyzing Super Mario world record run Super Mario World Record Explained and I was amazed at the level of hardcore frame timing and how important it was to leverage bugs and glitches in the game to achieve fast runs. That video game me an idea. When I created my LD43 platformer Blót, I knew it would contain some bugs - which Ludum Dare game does not? =)
Inspired by the Mario World Record runs I made one level in Blót but I broke it up into 6 stages (you could call it 6 mini-levels). Since most play+rate period game playing probably lasts in the region of 2-10 minutes (my own uneducated guess) I aimed towards a playtime of around 5-10 minutes to complete the game. I figured that I can add more levels and content post jam if the game seems to generate some interest.
* Hosting my own Speedrun Competition *
A couple of weeks following the LD weekend when the dust started to settle, I decided to host a speedrun competition for Blót. When I play-tested before release, I completed the game in about 5 minutes. Before posting the official launch of the competition I recorded my own speedrun as a demo and the time I achieved was 3:28:279.
I have implemented a timer in the game so one can get an accurate score and the idea of the competition is that you have to record your screen to prove your run and post it to YouTube.
* What can you win, and why am I doing this? *
My main driver for this was to just do it for fun and maybe get some more eyes on the game. I thought I would add some motivation by offering some prizes to the winner ($50), runner up ($25), and third place ($10) in the shape of Amazon or Steam gift cards as a token of appreciation for taking the time to participate. I was a bit concerned if this would be considered unethical in terms of LD since it's all about having fun, training, sharing your game and code for free, and so forth - but at the same time, I figured that if people decided to possibly pour hours into playing the game for the competition there should be some type of reward so I made the decision to give it a try at least.
* Let the speedrunning begin *
The first day, nothing really happened. Then I got a notice that a Twitch streamer, Hagge (check out his stream: https://www.twitch.tv/ahagge). I noticed he was really trying to set a fast pace and he was starting to identify glitches in the game to exploit. For example, I had a keystroke in the game to test the ragdoll during the development which I forgot to remove before I released the game. That keystroke can be used when you reach a runestone to kill the character which saves you a couple of seconds for each runestone as the Viking would otherwise do a little celebration gesture. I also noticed that the resource count did not reduce if you quit to the menu and restarted the game, which means that you can save precious time by not chopping down trees as originally intended when designing the game.
* Today, two new world records were set *
One by Hagge with a time of 1:39:974:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlH9Jb5-zNg
And within the hour, a new one by HexaBit with a time of 1:33:882
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Hj7unJ2h8
These are amazing times already. Only 3 days into the competition. And I see in the videos above that there is still plenty of time to shave off which makes me wonder what the final time will be when the competition ends on midnight of New Year's Eve!
* What's fun and what's rewarding? *
So, I started this post by mentioning that it is turning out to be more fun and rewarding than I expected.
The fun (and rewarding for that matter) part is seeing people playing the game. I do worry a bit that it will become a bit obsessive though. I noticed myself trying to set a score that adrenaline and nerves kick in and frustration sets in when you throw away what started as a good attempt.
The rewarding part is that the game is receiving extremely thorough play testing and I even get detailed glitch reports (such as this one Blót Glitch Explained how to reproduce bugs. When I make the post-LD version of Blót, I have very valuable information when it comes to reducing and eliminating bugs.
* It's not a bug... *
Finally, I am enjoying the glitches and the bugs. Even though I strive to eliminate them during the development process, it's funny to see them become tactics in the game when trying to set the fastest possible time to get from start to finish. I suppose, in this sense, I can really say "It's not a bug, it's a feature" and really mean it =)
* Want to play? *
If you want to participate, there is still plenty of time. Check out the announcement video with the rules and prizes here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShieefdTYqA
* Have a great Christmas! *
For now, I wish you all a nice Christmas holiday - take care and have fun making games!
Throughout the story of We Were 5, you can find 5 medallions. Only with all 5 can you get the true ending, are you cunning enough?
If you're interested in playing an easy, fun game in your browser - then look no further than Penelope! It's a platformer where you must sacrifice yourself to become part of the level.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/penelope
Geta Game Jam is an online event occuring between January 5th and January 8th. * Make a game in three days * Work either individually or as a team * Share your progress with our wonderful discord community * Vote for which theme you would like to win
Rate Blood for Magic at:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/blood-for-magic
https://youtu.be/DoDnb_WO6jM I didn't know it started until three days ago. There are only 11 days left. Anyway,I made it. It is my second game in ludumdare. Welcome to play. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/sinking-boat
Hi there, you fancy being a reaper hunting for souls? Well you've come to the right place. In this game you'll be harvesting souls while on the lookout for soul guardians, they will rip the souls back from you.
Ya ain't got no souls? Well you're most likely very dead then :-)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/soul-reaper
If you leave a comment with your game, I'll check out your game aswell and rate :-)
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