Just link below if you guys need an extra rating :D

We decided to make a twist on classic twin stick shooter bullet hell games. We tried to make the game as challenging yet rewarding as possible to push players interested in trying out something difficult.

Looking back, we think that we nailed the art given our lack of artist. In terms of gameplay and level design, we took a Mario based approach whereby we introduced enemies and mechanics slowly to the player while increasingly making them more advanced.

Give it a try: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/exocharge-infinite

We suggest downloading it for Windows if you can. There is a known input issue with Unity and WebGL. If you decide to go the WebGL route and the input bug happens, just die and go again ;)

Want to try this project? We worked hard these 72h to finish and polish it. Now it's time to you to play it. Write your feedback down in the comments, we'll try to answer it :)

Hello! Thanks to all that have tried Chimster Gigafactory. We love the feedback you all have left.

We'd like to give another shout for our game, please try it and leave a comment so that we can play your game :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/chimster-gigafactory

Here are two examples of stories you might find in our game:

See you around! :)

Fixed a critical bug with not working checkpoints. Now they works :)

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

That was my first ld and I did it ! You can try my game which is here ! (and rate it if you want !) -> https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/runn-score This is runner where you control a gear based robot. Place to screenshots ! :

• Main Menu of the Game
• Game played

Hey guys!!

This was my 6th Ludum Dare: Captain Lettuce.

You are a vegan super hero, the Captain Lettuce, who has to rescue hostages from evil enemies. You'll lose power because you have no animals proteins. (No offense please, it's just an easy joke x'D)

You can play it here

LD39 was my first attempt at a rhythm-based game, so I put more effort than usual into making a catchy and rhythmic soundtrack. You can listen to it on Soundcloud here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-565506175/fredericks-theme

In general, to what extent does music impact the enjoyability of a game? Can a game be good with a mediocre soundtrack? Alternatively, can an otherwise mediocre game be really engaging because of the quality of its music?

(You can also play my game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mountaintop-groovy-robot-laser-battle)

It took less than 24 hours but I managed to receive over 20 ratings! Thank you all!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/running-the-marathon

Submit your game to: https://form.jotformeu.com/72126959326362 I will play them in a Twitch stream!

Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/pixelformedstudios

Thanks for all the lovely feedback so far! For those of you who haven't tried Lichometer yet, please leave some feedback and a rate!

See it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lichometer

Check out our game at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/flicker

We spent a lot of time on it, and made it as available as possible (HTML5, Mac, and Windows)!

We hope you enjoy the atmosphere it brings, as well as the uniqueness of the puzzles!

Do you know that Tiled is something more than just timemap editor? It allows to put some useful meta-information on map, so you may not only paint levels, but change the behavior if needed.

In our Galvanica game we «painted» ship’s inner walls in Tiled, like this:

Then we added Objects layer called «zones» and located logical rooms and doors between them. Each room has unique id, and each door - list of room ids. This is used to process hull breaches (when ship is damaged by asteroid, for example) - the whole room is grayed out and doors locked.

Next useful layer - is «objects» layer. This is how the items are located within the ship. Initially we generated them in random places, but that did not look accurate, so we decided to place them manually:

The last layer - is «waypoints». After previous LDs I was lazy to implement A* one more time, so I just drawn possible ways in Tiled, like this:

Each moving object (alien, for example) follows these waypoints. When it finished its way, it looks for nearest waypoint and moves further. Someone may say that there will be problems with obstacles avoiding, but actually there are not the problem: aliens just eat anything on their way.

Sometimes hardcoding is just enough (that how we did in LD38), but powerful level editor like Tiled may save your nerves in many cases. Which good tools you using for level designing?

Here's my game Woundlings! It's a turn based strategy game with wind up toys. I had a lot of fun making it, thinking about making it into a full game. The ai is also very dumb.

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

Hello everyone, If you have some time left between playing and rating other games. Maybe you can try my Game as well. If you play the Game, Please leave a Comment with some feedback, so I can rate your game as well!

Hope to see you.

It's finally over, LDJam39 is finished and I managed to get some sleep! So comes the breakdown of how the jam went and for this LDjam I made:

You can go and visit the Ludum Dare page 'ere

Or you can watch a full playthrough below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX3oHUIWc4w

Dawn of the First Day

I ACTUALLY SLEPT! I usually awake at around (2AM my time) for the announcement of the theme but this time because I'm currently unwell I just slept through until the morning! Anyway once I found out the theme I basically just got to work. I did a little brainstorming within me 'ead while making the morning coffee and I decided because I'm unwell I'd take it easy hence why I decided to construct a run-n-gun. My favourite genre within the video game world

Mr VoltGun, or as I like to call him, George

Now to keep it within the theme I decided to add some sort of timer that continuously keeps ticking down and when you defeat enemies it recharges it slightly. With this basic concept I started to draft up some sprites which actually pretty much became the final product. I somewhat wanted a hybrid human/robot with plug ears because I have a huge love for designs with them. It was around this point I had the engine complete which a handful of weapons, a wall jump mechanic and a dash boost. I added in the main character sprite and it was around here when the game started to take shape. It was now when I could start adding in the enemies.

The Doombots, I used to draw these lil' fellas way back in my university days almost ten years ago.

With my hype for Sonic Mania growing day by day I decided to inject some Sonic-y style and gameplay to this run-n-gun. Considering you're always on a ticking timer I felt the speed and cartoony approach a wise one although I would of loved of to added in a 360-platform engine in but alas I just didn't have the time to do so. It was around this point when I was adding in the Doombots to include the low-high weapon/dash settings. I wished I could of explored this concept a bit more but yet again, time wasn't on my side but at least it's still there. Anyway it was approaching the end of the first day and I needed my sleep (again I'm unwell currently >.<) I had the engine all finished the next day was to start creating levels :D

Dawn of the Second Day

The Evil Unnamed Villain in his flying Doom Machine.

Again I actually had a fair amount of sleep so I was ready to take on the task of creating and spriting up some levels. I originally had five levels planned, the fifth one being a short final boss stage. These stages were; Fort Sapling, Neopolis, Turbulence, Temper Gadget and Final Fever however in the end only three got made. I also wanted each level to have four scenes with two bosses with the second pair of scenes having a different variation in the looks, ala Sonic3&Knuckles but this too sadly had to be scrapped. Given if I was well enough and could power through with hardly any sleep I could of possibly achieved this but I wasn't up to the task.

Mmm lovely end of stage boss fights, delicious

Anyway it was this day where I completed the first two stages and got at least half of the third stage sprited/tiled out. I didn't have any bosses at this point because I was mainly concentrating on the stages themselves and finishing off extra engine detail, (like destructible blocks, springs all that lovely jazz.) Anyway around 3am I finally got to bed.

Dawn of the Final Day

So colourful, much bounce

Sadly the final day was the least productive of the bunch, I was really hoping to get the fourth stage Turbulence created but I just didn't have the time of strength to it. It took me much longer than I expected to finish the final stage off, mainly due to being unwell. I thought also it wouldn't take me too long to finish off the end bosses but again I mis-judged and then they took about a couple extra hours longer. All this gave me only about a 45 minutes to compose all the music. I really wanted to add in some cutscenes and menu gubbings but I just ran out of time. I'm actually surprised looking back I've created what I did considering my health and the time I wasted sleeping.

Feeling hot hot hot.

Not to worry because I had an extremely fun jam, things somewhat came together and I had an amazing time creating this game. I hope people enjoy playing it! I'm going to take a couple of days rest and then get cracking on playing some lovely jammy games! Hope everyone had a fun jam!

-Joel

You can go and visit the Ludum Dare page 'ere

It makes me happy to hear you enjoyed the experience my game provides.

It is a game about power down rather than power up. If that sounds interesting to you, do spend a few minutes and give it a try :)

Play the game at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/i-once-had-power

On this 1st of August, I took the time to test and rate a few games. Here are the ones that impressed me the most! If you want me to take a look at your game, feel free to comment on this publication.

e Negative

by jhandsy (@jhandsy)*, and Jones (@jones)

Platformer at its finest, this game deserves some love. You are a robot with a sword trying to reach the top of a tower. For the fans of Megaman and NES-type platformer with a twist.

Abandon Ship

by Jack Folkner (@jack-folkner), and Futil (@futil)*

You are a spaceship AI that it able to take control of passengers. Refuel the ship's battery to reach Fleet Command in this beautiful game.

Wave

by logiraffejustin (@logiraffe-justin), and logiraffeshawn (@logiraffe-shawn)*

This "game" is a journey. A dark journey, deep in the ocean. A story worth telling, that screams a million words.

Low Batt

by simonhutchinson (@simonhutchinson)

A game that is more on the artsy side of things. A musical journey through the loss of power. It only takes 5 minutes for you to experiment this game. Do it.

Lighbringer, responsible for keeping the balance and sending the Light of Life to the Light World, was taking a break from her work and wandering around the Palace of Light when she heard a huge bang coming from the control room, immediately felt her powers begin to weaken, her energy was being drained and she was being taken by the darkness, it could only mean that Void, her archenemy, had invaded the palace to bring unbalance to the world, she had to get to the control room, but she need Catch Focus of light to keep your energy strong enough to face it.

PLAY here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lightbringer

Rover needs your help to navigate the martian landscape of mars

Play Now!

Navigate your way through the environment, picking up all collectables to proceed to the next level!

Search all corners of the map, but watch out for hazards throughout the levels

Play Now!

So I've decided to create a little trailer for my game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x09NpgvwLXc

I put together a combined time-lapse and narrated post mortem commentary video from the making of my game "Robot Power":

Time-Lapse and Post Mortem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCYn3dQX_4

Game page

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

Re-experience the joy of playing pokemon Go with Poke Mongo, a super accurate description of how it felt to play the original game, and with levels of polish far beyond the imaginable! You can even catch a cool version of Mew before it even gets to the original game!

Good luck, and catch them all!

Rock on Jammers! :tada:

Tiny Warlock

Finally added builds for Mac and Linux, and fixed some minor issues. So check out our first game jam entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/system-relight

This is my entry. a turn-based strategy boring game :D I really wanted to make a turn-based game for months but I just didn't have time. Ludum Dare let me do that. turned out I just needed 3 first days of the week. I couldn't finish it but at least I tried what I wanted to try for months.

In case you want to know:

Graphics: Paint + Vector Magic

Engine: Game Maker Studio 1.4

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-box-of-power

Five levels, five constellations to collect their stars.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/constellation-exploration

• Why are there buzz-saws floating in the air?
• What in the world are those spikes?
• How come those blocks aren't falling down?
• Is that supposed to be a robot?

#QuestionsNeverAsked

#GameLogic

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/wayside-a-little-robots-journey-in-search-of-an-end

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

Just looking for some feedback. I know its pretty lack luster because i ran out time but even so it would be pretty cool to have someone at least try my game. Thanks

game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/five-nights-in-biah-village

This is the first time I programme a game :joy: so there are many unclear instructions of what to do in this game lol, so let me just clarify it here

there are four metres in this screen, so the first one is the fire metre, where it shows the level if the fire of your fireplace, one of your task is to keep the fire level high so you dont get killed by the ghost

the second is the energy metre, it shows the energy you have to run, just in case the ghost chased you.

the third it the timer, so every nights, you have to survive until 6 am in the morning :3

the the last one is the cold metre, lower cold metre means you are colder, and 0 means you die from the cold

====

yeah the output might not look so good, so in the future, i might will reproduce the same game with improved interface and instructions, :smile: also, you might not be able to beat the game, just saying so because i couldn't lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-6tpqeoos

You can play the game here! Enjoy! :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/theres-no-place-like-home

Got a friend of mine to build it for me since I don't have access to a Mac. It should work fine but let me know if it doesn't!

When we submitted a game, are we allowed to update the game after the submission of the game ends?

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

My game available on iOS, Android. :)

Thanks for voting.

If you haven't play my game yet, please do so :0)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/defend-home-mars

Can somebody using windows check if my game works? It does for me but I've gotten tons of reports saying it doesn't work. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/one-in-the-chamber-one-in-the-socket

Yea, more shameless self-advertising, but what are you gonna do? We all gotta get ourselves out there! Try our game Lichometer here on our site!

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

Please play my game MoonBall and rate this game and don't forget to comment that did you like the game or not!

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

Leave a link to your game so I can check out your games too, I need your support

We're really happy with how Inverteb came out. I spent all my time on music and sound effects while @Whackta programmed most of the game. Connor and Bailey worked on modeling/texturing and particles respectively. It was the first time all of us worked together, but it went really smoothly.

We wanted to make a game that looked kinda rough but compelling. Something bold, atmospheric, and slightly surreal. The artistic design of the game was definitely the foreground, but I think the gameplay came out better than I expected. It's a quick game and very different from other projects Whackta and I worked on in the past.

I'm really excited to get feedback on it. I really think it's the kind of game that we could expand on in the future.

:tada::tada::tada:

Come hang out and I'll rate your game!

https://www.twitch.tv/cudabear

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

I tried to do something very different of what I'm used this time. This is a on-rails shooter with a heavy narrative focus and pretty atmospheric direction.

Hope you like it! Play it at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/fade

I hope you like the game!!!

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

You are a programmer and your cigarettes are gone, you have only one coin, and you have to go on the street behind a sale to buy, but outside there are people (also thieves who can steal your coin), and they suck your energy just by Watching. What I wanted to pass on is life, when I need to go out and face the world, even if it's to pack my cigarette, it's difficult, I feel people sucking me the little life I have left, that's the problem of cities, many minds emitting Frequencies that are most often pessimistic intensities, if I can say "pessimas", we only exist, and this is too heavy.

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

I've uploaded a port to WebGL, so any platform with a capable browser can play it (sorry, no mobile touch screen support)

I'm hosting it on CheeseGames.net, a hosting site specifically for Unity WebGL builds.

http://www.cheesegames.net/games/1404/index.php?gameDataId=1404

Enjoy!

Kinesis

Escape a planet ravaged by a massive meteor shower! Use the prototype Kinesis Cannon to refuel your ship from the kinetic energy of passing meteors. Release the meteor from the cannon before it overheats to gain a speed boost! How high can you go?

Finding the perfect direction to get out bed.

Did it in style.

Try to go to the bathroom. Failed.

Try again...

LDJam finished, but it's just the beginning of real challenge.

Meet the challenges in this 3D Platform Crawler:wink:

Play https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/killer-clown-night now and see how much will you survive!

Can you find the good ending?

A wizard struggles to find peace after an old enemy moves into his territory. What does this conflict have to do with this Ludum Dare's theme? Find out by playing Saito's Transgression!

but if you want to play an epic and totally hectic, fast based fighting game, it's right HERE

We're happy to present our newest Ludum Dare entry, Solar Snoop's Star Trek! We worked tirelessly all weekend - fueled by coffee, pizza and beer - to bring our game to you in Web Player fashion (because it's the future)! We'd love for you to check it out and leave us a comment.

Set phasers to fun! (I'll see myself out...)

Those who've seen our previous entries know that we typically aim to create games with interesting gimmicks. This jam, we technically did the same thing, but with a twist: we've decided to boldly create the worst social game we can possibly think of.

Introducing Everybody Plays Golf, a game where anyone with an internet connection fights over the control of a single golf ball on the most boring minigolf course possible. Oh, and the theme? We've added Farmville's Energy System for a good measure. It only recovers when a very specific and very secret condition is met...

Good luck, everyone! We're sure you'll need it.

I think I did great for my first Game Jam.

I would love if you tell me yourself: My game

I learn a bunch of things though.

Lessons learned:

• Always plan out what you need to do and set your priorities

I spend too much time in the character model, and at the end you only see it in the menu -.- I should have thing what was the essential things to do and focus on that. I could have had time to do more useful things like an in game tutorial.

• Keep the game as simple as possible without giving up gameplay

I think I made my game too complicated, and that's the reason it's not very intuitive. You really need to read the instruction to know what to do. I should have kept the mechanics simpler.

• Gameplay over anything else

I'm a musician, and I spend around 12 hours of the time composing and producing the songs of the game, time I could have used for other important things in the game. I'm really proud of the end result of the music nonetheless.

• Sleep!!!

In my fear of not be able finish in time I did an all nighter on Sunday, and that was a bad decision. I wasn't thinking straight the next day.

Conclusions:

A Game Jam is no easy task. But it's an awesome challenge and without a second doubt I will participate in another one.

i know the majority said my game is just too hectic. aside from this, please tell me what you would like seen added, changed, removed, etc in a full post-jam release of Tiny Warlock

maybe a full open world instead of an arena?

maybe boosts and Health ups stay on your character after death, or can be regained, allowing for a more SOULS-Like progression?

maybe items and weapon upgrades? potions?

Any Feedback is much appreciated. thank you all!

Play and Rate our game here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/power-planet

Hey guys, I hope everyone was able to learn something new this time around. I know I did! Anyways, now for some shameless self promotion. We made a game for the Jam. It's a FPS Platformer with a low-poly cartoon style, and I think it looks pretty good. The GIF below is a pretty good indicator of what it's like.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

The windows port of my game does not seem to work correctly on some computers. As such, I will depend mostly on linux users to get ratings. If anyone knows how to deal with potential undefined behavior in c, please let me know.

Here is a link to the game if you are interested: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/plasma-arena

This really was a gratifying and cool experience for be my first time in a Ludum Dare. Hope this can be the start to something great for me.

Im really feeling happy with this experience! Link to the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/led-adventure-running-out-of-power

Just making more clear how to use the slash attack(shift + left mouse button)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/dont-ask-me-to-stop-being-a-outdated-junkrobot

Check out CLIMATE CLICKER!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/climate-clicker

Ever have your TV remote batteries go dead at the worst possible time? Us too!

Now imagine if you were ruling a world from the heavens, and your WORLD REMOTE went dead! Who's going to hit that bear with lightning or stop that tornado or put out those fires or make it rain so that ocean doesn't dry up?

This game puts the player in a passive role of only being able to control the climate (and smite stuff with lighting or revive dead people or cause immaculate conception but that's every-day stuff). For the most part you watch your people grow and prosper and you help out where you can.

Sound easy?

Try it.

In case anyone was curious - this is how not to animate a whale.

(Unless you're attempting to show that he's trying to push through his last set of squats on tail day)

This was the point I realized it was probably time to take a quick nap Saturday.

DerpWhale brought to you by Wave: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/wave

The WebGL version is up on itch.io

(PLAY IN FULL SCREEN FOR BETTER EXPERIENCE) (Designed for 1600x900)

PLAY LINK: https://spaceship-rescue.itch.io/spaceship-rescue

Thanks for playing!

Before I ramble, please check out my game. It's greatly apprecated!

Ludum Dare 39 was my fourth (and a half, since we don't really count LD36) Ludum Dare. I've done compo for every one I've participated in, since that's how I roll. The first game I made was a simple puzzle maze game, which was followed by a puzzle-platformer which defined my artstyle. After that was a non-character based puzzle game (noticing a theme?) which placed 41st out of all Compo entries over all.

This is the first time I've ever strayed from my puzzle design, and went for a genre I don't play that often: RPG. I liked the idea of a faux-3D approach with 2D sprites, similar to Pokemon. So that's where I decided to lead my art down.

I got bored and frustratred in the middle of developing and that's where I recorded my audio. It came out fantastic in my opinion.

Choosing an idea for the theme was not easy, since Running out of Power was one of my least favourites on the list. Funnily enough, the more I detest the theme, the better my games seem to come out. Regardless, I chose to follow an idea I've had brewing for a while, which is a modular power weapon that uses cartridges to swap out its abilities.

Problems

I had a lot of daunting tasks that I had to come up with unique (yet somewhat dodgy) solutions to. How will inventory system work?, What is the story/reason this game is happening?, What is the fighting like?, How the heck am I gonna program a store and all this other stuff in time?!?.

The inventory system was something I was dreading and it almost kept me from finishing my game. I was afraid of moving data around tables consistently and luckily my weird system decided to just... work.

I actually developed a completely modular Animation, Texture, Timer, Object, and Item system that I will definitely be using in future projects. I also had to heavily modify a library I was using to not only make functional but also make functional for my game.

Takeaways

Overall, I learned that giving up is almost never worth it. The rewards of making a (in my eyes) good game with great graphics and great audio is totally worth it. So if you're ever giving up on something, take a break, and come back. Your problems will most likely not look as bad as they used to!

Thanks for reading through my ramble. It'd be greatly appreciated if you play and rate my game. I play and rate all of my commenter's games as well. :)

Happy Ludum Dare!

...win Ludum Dare, I said.

I was only joking about the "win" part, but I still set Ludum Dare for holiday homework. I think I might do this every year, I've had a blast!

Anyway, I would be a pretty horrible teacher if I asked my students to do something I wasn't prepared to do myself, so I geared up and got more game made in 3 days than I normally ever get done in a month. In fact, this is the only game I've ever really finished. Ever.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-torches-are-burning-low

My jamming went pretty smoothly, although everything took about twice as long as planned. Also, I had an epic fight with Unity's lighting model to get hundreds of realtime lights working together and dimmable at runtime.

I thought I would talk a little about how I got so much maze done in the time. I'm sure there are plenty of level creators out there, but for the jam I wrote a really quick and dirty Unity editor script that post-processes a texture to produce a level object built from prefabs.

The script is frankly embarrassing, but it got the job done. And I got to do my level design in GIMP.

And just in case you were wondering: the game is winnable.

So far, I have found at least one game made by one of my students. It's pretty awesome. Whether students or not, I know a lot of games here were made by people new to game design.

When you give feedback, please remember: * Be kind * Give practical, constructive feedback

Managed to put out an HTML5 build up! Putting out a post-jam version soon (will be marked as such) with some quality of life changes, nothing major. (Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/zapdune)

Now that I've recharged, started playing them games!

Does anyone have programmer art to share? It's one of my favorite things to see in projects.

Before:

After:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/how-i-met-your-great-great-grandmother

Wow! In a single day Candy Wars managed to get 14 ratings in all categories!

That is a lot more than I would've guessed! I was expecting like 5, or 6. 14 is more than double that!

Let's aim for 20 within the next day! I think it's possible! :smile:

This time around, we decided to do a print-n-play pdf tabletop game. It's called "You Can't Handle the Tentacles."

My wife Rachel and I also host a podcast, called "Live from Barsaive", about the Earthdawn tabletop RPG from FASA.

We decided to take a short break from Earthdawn to devote an entire episode to talking about Ludum Dare. This is the link to our podcast page if you're interested.

Rachel also made a video showing off the deluxe tabletop edition of our game, complete with a Cthulhu inspired dice roller. (When you put dice in the top, they randomly roll down six different tentacles to indicate which buildings are being attacked.)

We have not gotten a chance to make a gameplay video yet, but we will soon. "You Can't Handle the Tentacles" video

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-castle

Hello,

Take a look in our game!

GAME: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/running-out-of-butter

This is our second game jam and this time we tried to make a harcore plataform...

It's really difficult :sweat_smile:

If you get stuck, check our walkthrough

https://youtu.be/0kl4Ds2fzVU

Hope you enjoy it!

So my game is called “Rulesquest” it’s a project I wanted to do for some time but I never got around to start it.

Well I started yesterday and finished a few minutes ago

Entropy is taking over the world. Obtain the 5 crowns to restore the order and rule once again!

Controls:
– WASD/arrow keys: move
– Space bar: pick up items/ drop items
– Escape : restart the game (useful if you’re stuck)

Features:
– Auto-attacking
– Levelling up
– 4 bosses with unique AI and dialogue

Play the game here:
http://gamejolt.com/games/rulesquest1/272688
Source code:
http://gamejolt.com/games/rulesquest1/272688

The Ludum dare page:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3m8cjthr0ds4wm/RulesQuest1.gmx.zip?dl=0

Here's our LD39 submission, check it out! Click here

Finally got around to making some gameplay footage of our puzzling puzzle game, Phil.

What's beyond that door!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8az8xBszZr8

I blogged a postmortem here: http://www.codedojo.com/?p=2050

And the LD page to play is here!: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-last-e8

Oh, I learned a lot from Ludum Dare 39!

What Went Right:

-I already knew what type of game I was going to make and didn't waste precious time brainstorming, leaving plenty of extra time to focus on my game.

-I tested my tools before the jam started and made a virtual "Warm-Up Weekend" for myself.

-I used a bunch of base code from my "Warm-Up Weekend" as it was similar to my compo entry (both 2D platformers) and was quickly able to fire up a rapid prototype for my game.

-The art was very simple to make with GIMP, and it turned out to be very nice. I used a bunch of techniques I learned from Gimp from here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7F1MwEOf1E. This is actually my first time that I actually made some decent art for a 2D game( I only had experience with making one 2D game in the past and that game had simple art. Check here for "evidence" : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DStudios.BoldJumper&hl=en )

See the awesomeness of the art of my game here:

-I managed to easily create obstacles quickly with code. This game jam really did increase my coding prowess as I coded a lot of things by myself, including the moving platforms! I also kept my code neat and tidy and only had to write simple code, which I could reuse for other aspects in the game!

-Unlike other Ludum Dare 39 entries, I managed to add some great sound effects into my entry!

-I used my time that I had wisely while building the game and did not rush any mechanics.

-I slept on a regular schedule, ate food, and lived a regular life, which caused me to be very productive in my game.

-I made the game kind of atmospheric and moody in my opinion.

What Went Wrong: -A player who played my game couldn't determine whether they were moving up and down on a moving platform when no other platforms were near them.

-My game didn't have particle effects or animations. This would have especially juiced my game when the main character jumped, landed on a platform, or died.

-A player in my game said the game would have been better if the main character's facial expression changed when time is running out for each level (e.g. the robot should have had a smile on its face when the level began and slowly become more and more worried when it starts running out of power).

-The music in my game is annoying (at least in my opinion). It is very repetitive and the loop is less than 90 seconds. It doesn't even sound that good.

Overall, even though my game isn't perfect and people may not like it, I am very proud of my work and what I achieved and learned from this event.

If you want to check out my game, you can do it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/losing-power :)

Hey guys! Thank you all for the feedbacks and so many positive comments! We've just updated the game fixing bugs and balancing some stuff. Even more challenging and enjoyable to play now!

PLAY NOW: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/night-driver

Updated version on second download link.

PLAY NOW: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/night-driver

Hello all! In celebration of 4 ludum dares in a row (I'll be it one was incomplete), and that I haven't given up on game development for 2 years, here's a free asset pack! I was making it this afternoon as practice, and it went surprisingly well, feedback/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Feel free to use this in a jam next LD, or for any project that you want. It's open source, so commercial games also count (although I doubt anyone would use it for a commercial product).

HERES THE LINK TO THE TILES: https://fisherg.itch.io/gppack

I do ask of one thing though, if you DO use it, please tell me! Comment on the Itch.io page with a link to your prototype, or just DM me through twitter (@TheFish523)

If you wish to support my efforts, please rate my LD39 Entry, INVISIBRO: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/invisibro

So Puppies in Sea Trouble was an experiment about how long would a lighthouse be lit, if you need someone to click the game in their browser once every 20 seconds.

Turns out, not that long. We had our first puppy death in about an hour.

After the first night, the situation doesn't look much better. (so many dead puppies 😥🐶)

However, where the project was a success was the choice of tech for the project.

I chose to try a monorepo Typescript backend + Typescript frontend. Here is the general stack:

• Typescript game server backend with Express + Socket.io
• Typescript game frontend with Phaser.io.
• Webpack for frontend
• Docker for local development environment
• Heroku deployment
• PostgreSQL + Redis for data persistence + cache
• CI capability. Currently only testing with tslint + David
• Bonus: Web3 for connecting to the Ethereum blockchain (Wound up not using this)

The reason I implemented access to the Ethereum blockchain (and even spun up a geth instance), was that originally I thought it would be a cool novelty if keeping the lighthouse alive would expend some Ethereum as fuel. Upon further thought, I realised this might just seem like a way to make money off the game and ditched the idea. The code is still there though.

Anyways, the source code for Puppies in Sea Trouble is available here under the MIT license:

https://github.com/anttiviljami/puppies-in-sea-trouble-ld39

Game link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/puppies-in-sea-trouble

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/cubes-run-out-of-power-too

You’re one of the best detectives around, newly moved to Voltimore City after a long-term breakup. You’re not looking for love but it won’t be long until the sparks of romance start flying. Also there’s a murder you should probably stop.

Play it here!

There's a post down below explaining how I made a tileset to share with everyone but I somehow managed to forget to put the link down. So here it is:

https://fisherg.itch.io/gppack

im so tired duuude

I made a game about doing that. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/unleaded-the-story-of-a-van-1

Hello everyone! This Ludum Dare is not over yet and we're already excited thinking about the next one!

This was the first time we all worked together, and for some of us it was our first jam, and yes, it was hard in the beginning but we did it!

We loved the experience, we learned a lot of things, and we are proud of what we made, despite all the difficulties we had.

And wow, seeing how people spend time on playing our game and leaving feedback, as well as being able to play other people's games (some of them are awesome!!) and give them some support, is a lovely experience.

TL;DR: We had such a great time participating at the ludum, we learned a lot of things and we are loving receiving and giving feedback to other teams. We can't wait until the next ludum Dare!

And finally, this is the link of our game, we would love to hear your thoughts about it!!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lost-soul

Love,

How many hamster children will you have?

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/hamster-habits

https://rongomatane.itch.io/hamster-habits

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/cubes-run-out-of-power-too

Everyone contributed something to the project and made it really unique.

We would all LOVE to hear what you guys have to say about our game. It only takes a few minutes to play.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/turn-towards-the-light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24sdAiVpPBk

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

Hey folks! Zombies and RVs has been updated to support both 32 and 64 bit Linux and Mac versions, as well as a few bug fixes here and there!

You can play the zombie slaying physics-crazy action here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/zombies-and-rvs

Hey there fellow LD jammers :D

So I've gotten a couple of comments on the physics of my punchy mech game Assault//Battery, and I thought I'd give a brief run down of how damn hacky it all is :)

The mech can jump like this:

It looks like it actually walks and jumps and whatever, but really it's just a bunch of low-drag objects that kinda flail about with joints and limits:

• The most important hack is the big ball at the bottom of the mech. It's a collider + rigidbody with no renderer, has a relatively high mass, and low drag. It is the anchor on top of which everything else is joined to. Physics layers are set up so that it collides with the rest of the world's solid geometry (the ground), but not with any of the mech's own parts (which all still collide with the world). It literally props everything up, no need to mess with legs and whatever. Because that's super higher-grade Boston-Dynamics stuff.

• Everything else is joined to each other by various joints, some hinge, some spring, depending on what's needed.

• The "wobblejoint" gameobject is the thing that keeps everything kinda upright, it's a hinge joint with a default position that leans forward a bit, and a high spring value. That lean drives the whole thing forward because of the weight distribution.

• From the side you can see another hack - the left and right shoulders are not in line with one another :) This is because if they were, the fist behind wouldn't be as visible.

The walking is done with some code that gives one of the legs some torque upwards alterantively. So the logic is if a feet is far back enough, it'll put on some torque for like 1 second or so. Then the next one will when it gets far enough behind, and repeat.

That's it really. Go forth and hack your own mess of joints! :D

And please give my game Assault//Battery a play and rate if you haven't already! :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/cubes-run-out-of-power-too

The Feedback Friends game browser now lets you explore and search all the games submitted to LD39. Have fun reviewing games!

Ludum Dare Feedback Friends

Playing and enjoy - this is reward for US. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/scale-of-life

At around 1 AM, with a solid two hours to go before the jam deadline, I uploaded and published Dryad, my 3rd Ludum Dare entry.

It's a platformer about a forest creature wishing to become human, and, uh, killing a whole bunch of humans in the process. As you become more human, your magical powers wane, and you become slower, weaker, less perceptive, making each successive level harder. You can choose the order in which you lose your powers, and some orders are easier than others.

This was actually an idea I'd been carrying around me for a few years, and this week's theme seemed like a decent fit. Development was... uneven: I'd just come back from a week of teaching and mentoring gamedev in stuffy classrooms, and so I was frankly exhausted and kind of demotivated. The original plan was to make it a compo game, but by midnight on the second day, I still had no levels for the game. I could probably have pushed myself to put something together in the final three hours, but I opted for sleep instead.

This was also the second time I used Unity for a Ludum Dare game. With Annulus, I had aggressively bypassed Unity's way of doing things, basing everything on data files and generating the game world on the fly. For Dryad, I felt that it was a good match for Unity, and so I tried to do things the Unity Way, using prefabs and levels.

Design

Having decided on the basic game idea, I wrote down a whole lot of different abilities that the player could have and then subsequently lose. I was specifically looking for downgrades that would require the player to deploy more skills or consider more things, rather than just making them weaker. A bunch of ideas I eliminated because the downgrade would just make the game slower rather than more interesting. Others, such as flight, because they would make the level design very hard: each level in the game had to be playable with any combination of downgrades, after all.

In the end I settled on the following three:

• Stamina: Initially, you can move at full speed and jump repeatedly. After the downgrade, moving and jumping deplete a stamina bar, which means you have to plan how to use your limited reserves of mobility in a given combat encounter.
• Telepathy: Initially, humans you encounter have an indicator that shows whether they're hostile. After losing this, you have to either treat all humans as hostile, or move out of cover and see if they shoot at you.
• Energy Blast Stun: Apart from your primary attack, you have a powerful secondary AoE attack. After the downgrade, using the AoE attack stuns you for several seconds, making you vulnerable to any enemies you did not take out. Again, this means you have to deploy the ability more carefully.

I also was not sure if the whole game should be side-on or top-down. Both had their advantages in terms of what scenarios they made possible, and I had more experience making top-down games. On the other hand, I couldn't really think of a way to make the game look nice in top-down, so I ultimately went for side-on.

Initial Development

I started out developing the basic platformer mechanics, player abilities, and enemy behaviours using a bunch of coloured rectangles in Unity. This involved some looking up of tutorials and rapid skipping through videos to get the information I needed, but after a few hours, I had what was theoretically most of the game in terms of mechanics and controls.

Graphical Design

Next up was the artwork. I wanted this to look decent, but I also wanted to avoid spending all my time on it. I decided to use a method I'd used in some previous jam, which was to draw the art using a single fixed pen and eraser size in GIMP. Having a fairly large pen size meant that I couldn't go and obsess about small-scale details, or at least that was the idea.

I put together a quick colour scheme vaguely inspired by Airships and Pioneers, heavy on browns and greens, with a blueish tint to the shadows. I also intended to use some basic skeletal animation for the player character and the enemies - which was probably too ambitious for a jam game, but I am terrible at hand-drawn animation, so this seemed like the easier option.

Over the next hours, I put together the parts of the player's dryad, an enemy bowman, some shots, walls, floors, and so on. I was especially pleased with the tree I drew.

Animation

In the week, we'd been looking at the 2D animation tool Spine, and I dimly remembered that Unity has its own basic keyframe animation system. I imported the spritesheet I'd made, had Unity automatically cut it, adjusted the pivot locations, and put together a simple skeleton for the player character.

Walk animations were something I'd stumbled over before, but I found a nice animator's cheat sheet to copy from, and the resulting walk cycle, while not great, at least looked like actual walking. I then added some animations for shooting, jumping, and being stunned.

Audio

Because I originally aimed for this to be a compo game, I needed to do all my own audio, which meant it was time to make some foleys using whatever random items I could find in the jam location. A tape measure being extended provided the sound for the player's magic spells, a gently tortured book on software development provided the sound of a firing crossbow.

Pictured: The traditional sacrificial foley melon, held by my glamorous assistant.

The resulting soundscape is pretty sparse, but it has the basics. Ideally, I would have added music as well, but I didn't really know what to go for.

Level Design

So by the end of the second day, I had all of that working, but still only a tiny test level. It wasn't really clear if any of the mechanics I thought of would actually work. I decided to go to bed and tackle level design in the morning.

The whole idea of the game really hinges on its level design: the levels have to interact correctly with the various abilities the player can have or lose. If choosing a downgrade makes no real difference, or choosing the wrong downgrade makes the next level completely impossible, or really tedious, the game doesn't work right.

In practice, doing this right would require way more time and level design experience than I had, so I created levels that were basically linear sequences of very specific scenarios where certain abilities would be useful: walls through which you could use the AoE attack, sequences of platforms to jump past if you had the stamina, set-ups where not knowing if an enemy was hostile required you to take a different route or enter combat at a disadvantage.

I put this all together using pencil and coloured pens on some squared paper, then set to work building the levels in Unity. In the end, the levels were pretty short, but I think they manage to present some interesting challenges depending on what downgrades you choose.

With that done, I did some quick shakedown testing, compiled and packaged the result, and put it up on itch.io. In retrospect, some more balancing would probably have been a good thing, but the game plays OK.

What Went Wrong

• I went into Ludum Dare already quite exhausted, which was a bad idea.
• Despite my attempts to reduce art time costs, I still spent way more time on visuals than on gameplay.
• Unity was at times intensely frustrating, as I was trying to figure out how to do something The Unity Way, but the only available information was in hour-long video tutorials and gently outdated StackExchange threads. In a less heavyweight environment like HTML5, I'd just have quickly coded a solution. I guess the fact that there is a defined way of doing things, even if it's buried inside a long video tutorial, is what attracts a lot of people to Unity, but it makes me itch.

What Went Right

• On the other hand, Unity was very good at letting me create a visually pleasing and actually animated game in relatively little time. Being able to visually edit the levels was also very useful once I got used to it.
• I'm really pleased with the graphics. I'm really a coding type person, so graphics are more of a side-line, but I think this once again proves that a consistent approach and colour palette can make up for a lot of missing skill.
• I would tentatively say that the core design idea may have merit that's worth exploring further.

So yes, if you want to try it, you can get Dryad here, in Windows, Linux and Mac flavours.

Thanks @togis for playing Surge on your stream last night. Watch it in the embed below.

Play in browser: https://machinescreen.itch.io/surge

Ratings & feedback appreciated: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/surge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keOuAGnyh0I

We thank @Togis for playing our game The Breach and making it available on youtube! It was a challenging experience but he made it with our help in chat :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQeWZgHlDg&t=125s

We have gained a lot from watching somebody play our game for the first time, mainly understanding of the flaws in explanations, balance and level design.

I just noticed a bug that doesn't allow you to even start the game! Once you open the game, it opens up the error log! Can't belive nobody told me! (Or maybe no one got the bugged game update. That would be nice!)

Anyway, that bug is now fixed, as well as another one that messed up with an M&M. That one is now fixed too. And another one that mixed the path timelines, mistaking the second path for the third, changing the resulting ending!

(Wow that's a lot of bugs!)

All those are now fixed and you can get the game here: https://jason200101.itch.io/candy-wars If you find any bugs or glitches, tell me. The less bugs there are, the better! (obviously!)

A big thanks to @togis which tested my game while streaming ! It brought me important feedback :)

You can check the replay here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7GOe8lO4FY&feature=youtu.be

Play games and have fun :smile:

Game's link : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/escape-2

First off link to the game if you want to try it and haven't yet : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/wires-and-robots

Second off, thank you too all the people that took the time to leave feedback. I loved reading it and it gave me some good ideas of things to change and do better for next time.

Now finally, onto to reflection. I felt like I did a much better job this time compared to my my first jam. Last time, a combination of not getting as much time as I wanted and being a bit too ambitious resulted in lackluster art and balance. For this jam, I felt like I did a much better job at not going overboard with a lot of different mechanics, and keeping it more in line with what I could reasonably accomplish.

As far as the game goes, I felt like the main wire mechanic was a success. It was simple enough that people could figure out what was going on pretty easily, but complex enough that I was able to make some complex levels with it. One goal I tried to accomplish was trying to find a good difficulty curve with the levels, and make sure the first few levels taught the player some of the more complex ideas so that the later levels would make sense. I felt like I did ok in this department but there are definitely a few places where the difficulty spikes up a bit, and a few levels that were a bit too precise with how you had to wire it. At the very least it seemed liked people enjoyed the levels so that's a good thing :D.

One of the biggest changes I would have made looking back on the game were the more "action" type levels in the game like the one in the screenshot below. I felt like some of these levels lost focus on what the game was truly is, which is a puzzle game. These levels didn't really embrace the main wire mechanic and were overall just not as good as the more puzzle orientated levels. There were a few levels that I feel made good use of the spikes and lasers, but others were just challenging and not that fun to play. One thing I would like to do for the future is to make sure the entire game stays more focused on the main mechanic rather trying to shift it in a direction that it is not.

Overall, I was very happy with my improvement and I felt like I learned a lot of of this jam. It was a fun time and one of the most satisfying feelings is getting to read/listen to people enjoying something that you made. I can't wait for the next jam.

Our game received a small update to fix a bug affecting powerups and it is more enjoyable now! WebGL version runs smoother now too.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/last-job

We invite you to try it and give us your feedback as we want to continue working in this game to make it better in the future. Of course we will appreciate your votes too ;)

Cheers!