LD 39 July 28–31, 2017

Need 2 more ratings

I would really appreciate it if you could rate my game to reach 20 ratings. I rated a lot of people but it appears that some didn't rate me back :(

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mission-power-on

Thanks.

Post Mortem

title_big.png LD is almost over and we wanted to make a conclusion.

First of all, thank you all for the kind words. Many people played our game and we are so glad, that all of you have given us a thoughtfull insight on what was good and bad about our game.

This is not the first LD we participate in, and I hope that's noticeable. Our previous entries weren't exactly bright because we usually chhose too big a piece of a pie and rarely could handle it. This time we specifically spent a lot of time trying to moderate our appetites and come up with the plausible idea. We actually did come up with such an idea and we actually made the game on time this time. It just suddenly struck us that that accomplishing everything we wanted was not enough.

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The game was planned as such: players see the ultimate goal - accumulate 5000 science in time. Then they see what threatens to end them quite soon and try to handle that situation - the lack of oxygen, food and water growth. They can handle that, though, since they have enough resources to balance the growth of all three at the start, learning to build things in the process. And then they would have to start destroying buildings to reach higher and eventually would come to a pleasant state of mind. That's when they realise that sun in the background wasn't just making stupid faces, it was dying and now your solar panels are useless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpQ-sHGdfM

What we actually achieved was a game with a shaky balance to say the least. Not very fun to play and not nearly as understandable and intuitive as we planned (so yeah, not everything was achieved, actually).

What was the problem? Players proposed us to make easy levels first and maybe not giving them the ability to build everything at once, but I considered this game to be a rather small and fast and whole experience, it shouldn't be played like that. So I think we actually should've spend a lot more time balancing staff, polishing the building menu and most importantly emphasize on the need for constantly balancing resources by sacrificing buildings for more productive once. Probably adding the ability to produce more crew thus increasing consumption, but adding more possible working hands to the pool would be great too.

Overall I think the primary, most obvious mistake was being obsessed with system and never noticing the player. The player should have been choosing when to move forward and take risks and discover new staff to build, not the game just pushing player in game and saying "here is a sonic screwdriver, you don't know how to use it but fix everything in this room in like 3 minutes, fuck you". Player is not a maintenence worker. And we shouldn't treat him as such.

You can play our game right here!

Need 3 more ratings

Hi, only need 3 more and last time I wasn't able to get a score because I didn't get enough ratings, hopefully I will be able to this time https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ionium

Ludum Dare to Believe! Season 10 : EPISODE 2

Hey everyone! We are the Button Masher Bros!

Today we present Ludum Dare to Believe! It's S:10 Ep. 2!

(May contain strong language)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4mbNxYUt7A

With so many submissions, there was absolutely no way we could play them all.

Special thanks to our friends at Reddit, twitter, and Youtube who all stepped up to give us suggestions - you guys are the BEST!

If you like the games you see, be sure to check them out on Ludumdare.com and let the developers know what you think!

Today we will be highlighting:


Title: Zombies and RVs

Category: Compo Entry

Creator: pixelgriffin (@pixelgriffin)


Title: Powering Down

Category: Jam Entry

Creator: jwin (@jwin)


Title: Everust

Category: Jam Entry

Creator: boaheck-artgent (@boaheck-artgent)


Finally, we'd love to hear what you think! You can comment on the episode linked above, comment in this thread, or tweet us at:

@ButtonMasherBro - Show account

@MathBlasterRitz - Chris

@SuddenlyZach - Zach

or @jwowBMB - Josh

Thanks Everyone and HAPPY LUDUM DARE!

[Discord Community] Game Dev / Game Jams

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Hello there wonderful developer person!

I heard a rumour that you Ludum Dari (plural?) like making games. We run a partnered server over on Discord called GameDevNetwork for all things gamedev, whether that be in the form of code support, bouncing back story ideas or just sharing your lovely work.

GDN is a friendly, supportive development community that aims to help you become the best developer you can be!

We host monthly(ish) jams with fabulous prizes (by which I mean stickers and PR mentorship, we strictly avoid monetary prizes, we're here for creativity after all!) and love spreading community flair.

We also have a #gamejam channel reserved to contain the intense action of fantastic jams such as Ludum Dare.

Drop by and talk about anything from your Ludum Dare project to what your favourite pizza topping is over here: https://discord.gg/gdn :tada:

I'm also an avid game jammer/hackathoner, feel free to poke me about AR/VR, code things or just some of the cool projects you've worked on :heart:!

Oh hey! we've also got an awesome game jam coming up next month! Check that out here: https://itch.io/jam/game-dev-network-dragon-jam

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LD39 is almost over!

I had a lot of fun participating in this game jam. It was my first one ever, but I did very well, I think. I wanted to thank everybody for participating and I wish them good luck. :smiley:

Results for Ludum Dare 39

And finally, Ludum Dare 39 has ended.

The results for each category can be found here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/results

You can check your game page for your individual results (My Game up top).

Congratulations everyone! You made a game!

Ludum Dare 40 - December 1st-4th weekend

Our next event will be early December, right at the start of the Month.

Technically that would mean our 3 weeks of "playing and rating" would end on Boxing day (December 26th), i.e. the day after Christmas. Because of the holiday we'll push-out results a few days after. We will be finish with Ludum Dare 40 before the year is out.

Stay Informed!

Want to be reminded of the upcoming event?

Sign up for our mailing list here:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-mailing-list/

Or follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ludumdare

Wrap up

I hope you had a great time taking part in Ludum Dare.

Before I go, I need to give a big shoutout to @sgstair and @jezzamon, two of the most active contributors to the website code this past month. Much appreciated! If you want to help us make the website better, you can start here.

That's it for me. We'll see you again in December!

A Pleasing Result

With this being my first PROPER Ludum Dare, I was hoping for a top 250 finish in the audio category (my responsibility), and am more than happy the 264th I eventually achieved in this, regardless of just missing out on my target - as a sixteen year-old student, I feel that this is definitely a result I should be proud of.

With that in mind, I look forward to returning in December for LDJam 40, with a fresh team, theme and target - 263rd!

Well done to everyone who took part and, regardless of your result, you have made something you should all be proud of, and happy to call yours!

See you next time! ~Wolfie @ OliSimpson2001 (Twitter)

Soft feelings after LD39.

ld39-results.png

ZETPACK-99 was very well received!! Thanks to all who played & had feedback. I was unsure of developing further, but I'll reconsider given the demand.

For more verysoftwares:

☆ You can follow on Twitter or Itch.io.
☆ Maybe try the LOWREZJAM entry, Sunray Valley. It's an hour-long game about exploring and discovery.

aesthetic4.gif

Future radar:

☆ There's the A Game By Its Cover jam, 06 Sept - 20 Sept.
Music Game Jam runs 22 Sept - 25 Sept.

☆ A full world of Sunray Valley is underway.
☆ Open-source the engine to answer TIC-80 community requests.
☆ Consider how Dropplet & ZETPACK could be made into full games.

☆ Game design articles! Updates on a large project! Even Patreon!!

Congratulations everyone!

I was quite happy with my Ludum Dare 38 results and I am even happier with my results this time around! :grin:

Ludum Dare 39 Results.png

My game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/asteroid-scavenger

I give out a huge congratulations to the many of you who entered in this Ludum Dare, and I hope to see you again in December! :grin:

Thank you for playing! ;)

So, results are in and I'm worse than the last one I took part. But, hey, that's ok! Since I kinda thought things were far too rushed this time for me (and I did spend a lot of time watching tutorials) it was expected.

But I'm really grateful for the feedback, so thanks to everyone who played my project and left a comment or pointed some of its faults! :thumbsup:

And I didn't want to promote this while voting was going on, but since it's over now, after I finished my project here for LD, I joined the LOWREZJAM and built some kind of a post-jam version of my game, which is kind of a mix between a demake/remake! :sweat_smile:

I've attemped to correct some of the things I thought were faulty in the LD version, but there's a lot to work upon still. But bots number increase and on further levels different types of bots appear! :smile:

This version is called PLSMGN! (because PLASMAGUN! was too big for 64x64). If anyone wants to check it out, you can download it here: https://yuigoto.itch.io/plsmgn.

Here's a video on this remake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsQlpIKK3Q

Thanks again, everyone! ;)

Ouch

ouch.png

worst LD yet

That's Improvement

Better than last time

This is my second Ludum Dare, and I think it went better than my first. For both events, I prioritized graphics, audio, and overall feel to the actual quality of gameplay, which is evident from the ratings I have received. While this meant that I spent the majority of the event drawing sprite sheets and writing music, it also got me ranked 23rd in Graphics *and *10th in Audio for Ludum Dare 39. Not bad, considering I only broke top 100 in the "Innovation" category last event.

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Improvement on most fronts

I plotted my ranking as a percentile for all Compo submissions for both events, and I improved in every category except Fun. This is pretty consistent with the comments I received for both games, which followed the general trend of "looks pretty, but mostly unplayable."

MyLudumDarePerformance.PNG

Anyway, so long, and thanks for all the fish.

Looking forward to LD40 in December!

Trial by fire and I did okay!

The results for our games are in and so is mine.

Buzzy Bee did okay I guess!
Considering it was my first complete game and first Ludum Dare, I'm pretty pleased.

Overall: 633rd (2.553 average from 49 ratings)
Fun: 625th (2.298 average from 49 ratings)
Innovation: 596th (2.383 average from 49 ratings)
Theme: 618th (2.553 average from 49 ratings)
Graphics: 559th (2.511 average from 49 ratings)
Audio: 478th (2.128 average from 49 ratings)
Mood: 561st (2.295 average from 46 ratings)

All ratings are pretty much near each other.
Considering about 1503 got rated, that puts me between the top 31% and 41%. It's not precise, but it gives me a rough estimate of were I'm at.
Placement aside, I'm most happy that I even got over 20 ratings. I tried rating and commenting others every day, so that may have helped. At the very least, I got to know the community.

Concluding, not too shabby, but there's lots of room for improvement.
I'm going to train hard, because Ludum Dare 40 is definitely going into my agenda!

Delighted with first LD Jam!

Thanks everyone, really pleased to finish so high in my first game jam, particularly as I only had about half the weekend to work on it. Can't wait for the next one!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/powerhouse

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Ludum Dare is over, congrats everyone !

So there we are, the ludum dare 39 is now over ! I'm happy with the rank I got, for a first participation and a first complete non-web game it's not that bad I think, and as I've said in my post mortem, the real problem with my entry is that I maked a game that I couldn't make realy fun in only 72H.

Screnshoot1.png

Congrats to everyone who maked a game / or just participated without launching something !

screenshot1.gif (early screenshot of the post-jam version, and it's different now !! Graphics are being reworked to look better - see bellow - and there is new features and interactions already implemented - and other to come)

Just to say it a last time, I'm making a post-jam version of Bead On The Moon that'll be waaaaayyyy better, with all the features I wanted at the begining (and even more ) ! You can check the twitter account here : https://twitter.com/beadonthemoon

screenshot2.gif

Thank you for all your feedbacks and see you in another ludum dare ! (Maybe during LD40 !)

Results are in!

I would like to thank everyone who played and rated my game. I was overwhelmed by the positive feedback I received and the ratings have left me in shock. Personally, I cannot believe the results. Thank you to everyone who participated.

My Results: results.JPG

Cover.png Capture2.PNG img1.png img2.png img3.png

LDL 39 - Ep 6 - Defend Home Mars, Long Distance Runner, & Glow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJUjtYyZRuA

Looks like LD39 has drawn to a close! Im going to continue to work on a few more videos, including taking a look at the top 2 overall winners in both Compo & Jam. So stay tuned!

Game Links

Defend Home Mars http://bit.ly/DefendHomeMarsLD

Long Distance Runner http://bit.ly/LongDistanceRunnerLD

Glow http://bit.ly/GlowLD

Got a game you'd like to submit? Use this handy Google Form! http://bit.ly/LarryDoesLudum39

Demotivational or Learning Experience?

edit -> Thanks for the positive comments. I didn't mean to sound so overly depressed by my scores. Also updated main post with the details from what I found from the the ensuing discussions.

At first I thought I did worse in ever category LDJamPlacement.jpg (% based on rating vs total compo submissions - higher is better)

Then I recalculated based on some feedback LDJamPlacement2.jpg (% based on rating vs calculated compo submissions - higher is better)

Then I got the actual numbers I needed to get exact stuff LDJamPlacement3.jpg (% based on rating vs total ratings by category - compo submissions - higher is better)

Can't say that I disagree with the ratings. 'Juice' plays way more into a well received game then the code that can't be seen. I spend some extra time putting on the polish that the game was missing a few days after the jam and I can even hardly tell that it is the same game.