It's been a while since I've been able to join Ludum Dare. Since the last time, I've been blessed by two kids that's now 5 and 8 years old. Becoming a parent comes with some caveats it seems. Well, finally I'm going to be able to join the Jam once again and it pains me to say that I probably haven't finished a single game since the last time I joined. Friday, I will pack my bags and travel to an old friend to keep me company during the Jam.

This time I'll be trying to limit myself somewhat. I'm going to try to do everything I can to only use my Raspberry PI 400. So whats my game plan? Well... I'll tell you.

Environment: I'll be using plain HTML and JS (I'm a frontend developer after all). The project will probably not hit anywhere close to 60 fps on my own system, but I can probably handle a bit of lag during development.

Editor: VS-Code probably, but I'll try to learn a bit of VIM as well. VIM is a whole lot more performant than Code but old habits die hard they say.

Graphics: MyPaint for sketching and doodling around (RPi works amazing with MyPaint) and probably Piskel for final art.

Music & Sound: This is the biggest hurdle. I'm used to FL Studio and Renoise which is quite modern software. Unfortunately the system isn't capable of those tools, so I'll go with Milkytracker and Audacity for the sound bits I think.

I love to work with limitations and see how much I can get out of as little as possible. Hopefully this won't bite me in the a** to much. From the start I was going to program in C using RayLib, but I don't have the energy to compile for all systems at the end.

Good luck to you all. I'm looking forward to trying out some amazing games!

So here in Sweden, the start of the jam was a bit unfortunate since it was in the middle of the night. I had to stay up until theme reveal and then go to bed to get some rest. Fortunately I got a good idea for my game while getting to sleep and progress this morning has been quite good. Hopefully the 7 hour loss of time wont be an issue.

Level loading is working and some animation tests are in as well. Next up is player controls!

So I think that most of the mechanics I can realisticly have is in the game now. Air tank is working, hidden areas explorable and many of the animation systems seems to work as intended. I'll try to find some time to make a quick and dirty level-editor to speed up that progress later. Then it's time for some juice, and later some sound!

The objective is to explore the under water caverns. But you need to refill your tank every 10 seconds!

...but in the end, I really needed one. It took me maybe two hours, but I feel much more confident in being able to build a fun game now. It's simple but works really well. Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow, it full ahead with sound design.

Well, I've been spending my time coding together with @vidarn but in a moment it's time to go back to my own place. The game is fully playable now, but there's soo much that I want to add still. Hopefully I'll be able to when I get back home without breaking anything. Focus now is fixing some smaller bugs and then build the full level.

The gif doesn't show all the bells and whistles, but gives a good image of what the game is like :)

The game is now done!

First time in a long while I managed to do the compo and I'm happy with my result. I had to throw away so many great ideas but in the end I feel like I cut just enough to make it doable and be finished with it. I hope you enjoy testing it out. Good luck to the rest of you, and especially all Jam'ers who still have some time left. Tomorrow, game-playing will commence!

Play Oxylunky

* Settings in the post-compo version of Oxylunky *

First of all

Thank you all for playing my game! I love the feedback I'm getting and it seems most of you enjoy playing. It's really cool to see others experiencing a thing you made. I'm sure many of you others feel the same way. Also, Thank you for all great games! I'm having a blast trying out all your crazy ideas and it's amazing to see what you guys have been able to push out in the short time we have been given.

I'm really hitting myself about this, but many of you have been asking about the lack of checkpoints in the game. The reason is naturally the fact that secrets are hard to try when you know of them. As a result of that, the game became a lot harder than I was trying to make it. Hopefully most of you stuck around to the end, but I get that you don't want to feel forced to play the same thing over and over. As such... I choose to implement a settings system that allows for a more relaxed way of playing the game. It's annoying that I didn't think of this before hand since the implementation was done in a heartbeat. Eitherway, feel free to try out the game with new settings added. Both the "hardcore" version and updated version are accessible through the game page.

Play Oxylunky

I'm also planning on adding more features to the game. The gameplay feels solid enough to make it more than just a compo game. I'll probably start tinkering with random levels and some roguelike features added to it, since it would be awesome to experience the feeling of not knowing the map myself.

Once again, thank you for a bunch of awesome games to play!

I've decided to throw away most of my knowledge about game engines and web development this time around. I'm working with ansi-c and SDL2 this time around. At first I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get very far at all, but at the time writing, the first section of the game starts to feel quite fun to play. Nothing original at all, but that's fine. First part is stacking your packages. Next step is delivering everything in a safe way :)

First part of the game is mostly done now. Next up is driving all packages to where they should go :) Even though the game itself is super simple I really like the juicy feeling right now. I just need to carry it through tomorrow as well!

Alright, so first time working in a proper game engine for quite some time. A lot of looking for answers online, but the game is getting closer to being a thing at least. I'm trying to use only Open Source tools this time around which means a lot of learning while i go. (Godot, Blender, Gimp, LMMS)

First day is slowly closing in even though I have a couple of hours left before bedtime. It's always about this time I start to feel like I don't get anywhere. I need to really focus on nailing the main stuff down now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruXIBKGNK8c

I just finished the first part of the pickup system and also realized I could embed a video to show the game. Enjoy!

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

Things are starting to take shape, but I believe I'm going to have a hard time teaching how all the systems work together. The idea is that you have to keep close to the drill that gives you passive income as long as you keep it running with energy. You also need to stay inside the drilling safe zone to not take environmental damage. Once the drill hits a pocket, the safe zone will momentarily grow and you can pickup a lot of loot that would be hard to get to otherwise.

The other part is an upgrade system (not implemented yet). Every time you hit a threshold of cash, you'll be given an upgrade that helps you. If you survive long enough you'll need to take down a boss.

Once again, I find myself pondering the meaning of the words "Luwdurm Dawre". As many nights before, I've rolled around all night in bed, my mind filled with strange incantations and questions. The number forty eight floating by my consciousness... All alone... I need to start my sketches, need to scribble down what my minds eye is telling me. I'm hoping I'll survive long enough to see another day.

(I've started with mockups of what I want the game to look like. Soon it's time for code)

In a dark corner of the office closet, I found a mysterious tome. It's old and dusty, full of tears in the pages. Something pulls me in... the pages whispering. It will let me summon things. Old artifacts it seems. I wonder what they will reveal to me.

The glowing symbols on the floor is so mesmerizing. The note was not there just moments ago. Am I going mad? I doesn't feel like it. The knife feel so comfortable in my hand... my hand... my... hand...

I managed to get the book to open up! Strange noises seems to be coming from deep inside. Something beyond. I recognize the symbol, and it asks me of favors. But how? Why? I don't know yet... My wrist doesn't hurt anymore.

(I've made some work on the tutorial part of the game and have come a long way on sounds. Hopefully I'll be done with most "missing" features quite soon. That would mean I'll have a lot of time for adding content)

The book... it sank right through the table! There's a rift there now. To where, I've no idea. But it's calling me from beyond. Something is watching me...

(I've worked in some more dynamic animations for a bit of a bigger impact in the later stages of the game, it works well and now I just need to add more puzzles. And sound :P )

So, with a couple of hours to spare, I managed to finalize and publish my game. This is the first time that I haven't been totally stressed out in the last hours. I managed to set a good scope for the game and found a fairly quick way to realize it. It actually started out as a cookie-clicker but I quickly realized that it wanted to be something entirely different. Thanks to the community for all the love and hope it goes well for you all! Feel free to try it out.

Devotion - A fairytale

Thank you all who partook in the compo, and good luck to all of you who are finishing up your jam entry! It has been a blast developing this weekend and I'd like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you participating. The reason Ludum Dare is such fun to get back into every time is because all of you. Getting inspired by all your updates and following along is a really fun time.

To cap of the weekend, I'd like to give you a small list of a couple of games that you all need to try out. Here's some of my favorites so far:

Cosmic Misadventures by @vidarn

pent8cle by @sahm

HEXX by @andrewkennedy

(If you want to play my game, you know where to find it. I didn't want to add a link to it here to distract from the other games)