hi guys,

I’m a hobby game dev dude from Germany and delighted about the next Ludum Dare.

So far I didn’t really make much stuff, just fooled around with RPG Maker back in the days – but I recently found out about Flash development libraries (namely flashpunk) and fell in love with it!

Ludum  Dare seems like such a great idea, I have to take part – although I’m yet quite inexperienced.

If you want to take a look at my (so far only) game, you can check it out here:  http://flashpunk.net/forums/index.php?topic=3689.0

Also, that’s how my “coding station” looks like – however – this is normal mode. I’m curious how it’s going to end up in Ludum Dare mode

and this was not ludum dare ...

it’s the first time for me – so wish me some luck

I’m going to use flashpunk and my supreme pixelart skills (sadly, this is sarcasm – my pixelstuff is horrible) to make a hopefully neat browser game

tools:

• FlashDevelop 4.0.1
• Flex 4.6.0
• Flashpunk 1.6
• Ogmo Editor 2.0.0.38
• GIMP 2.6.11
• GraphicsGale Free Edition 1.93.19
• Audacity 1.2.6
• sfxr
• Autotracker-C
• gedit 2.30.1
• Resource Hacker 3.6.0
• lots of coffee

I’m going to use the next two days to test my tools and improve my skills so I can actually start developing/designing something when the clocks start ticking

 //edit

I’ve added Autotracker to my tools of trade – since it produces stunning results and I really suck at music composing – so it will most propably serve me really well

Also added Resource Hacker – which I might use to change the icon of the projector executable for a windows standalone file

sadly – because of university stuff and some private reasons I can’t participate in LD#23

have fun guys !

for protocol – here’s the idea I had:

you’re playing an insane person in an asylum and think that there’s a monster around you, trying to kill you. however, you can “shoot” mental rays or something that can scare the monster away for a short time. (of course you just imagine all of it)
so – you’re starting in a little tiny cell and have to scare the monster away from you – after some shots it disappears for a while and you’re alone in your tiny world. the only thing you can do is to shoot and jump around until you eventually realize that you can destroy the walls with your shots – and enter a “new” world, which is populated by similar monsters and the game is consisting out of 2 or 3 action platformer levels with the “monster” as your end boss, but you can’t defeat it, so it kills you.
after all of this the screen fades out and you see your character lying on the floor in your cell. a doctor comes in and diagnosis your death.
-the end

Here’s a little test-prototype I’ve done though: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2667903/test.swf

ok – I’m actually done with all the stuff I needed to do (other than LD) and I’m still having over 8 hours to work on my game (which at this point I only worked about 5 hours on, yesterday) – so this makes this Ludum Dare into a 13hour competition for me

… I can live with that !

so – here I come – coding like a monkey on caffeine until the deadline crushes me

//edit:

here’s a little screenshot of my progress

It’s done !

I only had about ~12 hours for this, but I’m pleased with the result – especially since it’s my very first Ludum Dare entry.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=10771

have fun

Play Asylum

what went right:

• I did use the tools I know – so my workflow was quite good and I could jump into the action right away
• reading through the Flashpunk documentation before LD started turned out to be a quite good idea. I learned of some function I didn’t knew exist – and although I didn’t use this specific one’s – reading the documentation of your engine is never a bad idea
• this old-school 8bit style graphics are very easy for me to produce and many people like my stuff – so I assume I’m good at it. it’s a good idea to stick to what you’re good with for LD
• I took some time to think about the theme and develop a pretty good concept in my head which I played through “with my mind” several dozen times. prototyping with your mind is something that people should invest more time for

what went wrong:

• time management … oh boy did I screw up.
  initially I thought I’d have the whole 48 hours but suddenly stuff happened and I even ended up abandoning my LD entry completely at one point. it was only several hours before the deadline that I got time to continue working and had to code in lightning-fast mode. the complete development only took about 12 hours.
  because of this I also had to cancel several features and make my game a lot shorter than I initially planned
• I didn’t do any sound … mainly because I didn’t have the time. but also because I’m quite inexperienced with audio so I figured to finish everything else first.
  as the development progressed it turned out sound is very much needed in this game and it could get literally 10 times better with some good audio – so I recorded some effects but sadly didn’t have the time to implement them
• the beginning of the game is much much too long. everybody who played it in the context of LD told me so. and that’s exactly the point. I playtested it only on it’s own and didn’t realize that most people would play it in a series of LD entries, so my game would start quite lame in comparison. this is a lesson learned – always account for the fact that your game is going to be played in a series of games.

what didn’t make it in the game:

the main level was planed much much bigger. I planed platformer elements (canons, enemies, moving platforms, portals…) that should make it more of a game. during playing this the background story would have been unfold and the player would have learned how the character ended up in the asylum and a bit more about what the monster represents. I also tried to use a bit of psychology for this – the hanging chains, the long fall and the shrinking room are all symbols for his story.

the game would be much better and much more disturbing as well as thought-provoking if I had the full 48h instead just a quarter of it – it also would feature sound

what my conclusion is:

I’m happy I didn’t abandon the project and finished what I could. all in all I’m quite proud – I don’t think it’s to shabby and it’s my first LD after all.
however – for my next LD I’m definitely going to make sure to no be kept away from working on my entry.

Tags: postmortem

so far I played & rated about 70 games … which are mere 5% of the entries. this is incredible!

here are my favorites so far (in no particular order):

Tiny Visitor

such a charming style and classic gameplay. also a very good example for controlled color use

Gods Inc.

wonderful style and concept

Kumiho

this one blew me away. it eludes me how people can make such a polished thing in mere days
the amount of playtesting to get this result must be incredible

eat, sleep, work

a great concept and metaphor for modern life

ANT SURF HERO: THE SURFENING

one of the most solid games I’ve played at this LD

Tiny Wizard

this is one of my most favorite ones. I love everything about it – give it a try

A Super Mario Summary

one of the few games that already hyped even outside of ludum dare

Dwindling Worlds

not necessarily a game but a very surreal experience. something everyone should try out

Drop of Life

everyone who is interested in AI, computer science and philosophy knows the game of life – this is for you

Buggy, Tank and Missile Launcher!!!

possibly one of the games with the biggest commercial potential – I want a fleshed out version on my phone (and multiplayer)

and last but not least , check out my game: Asylum
(but give it some minutes to pull you into it’s world – it’s very twisted)

Tags: favorites

I’m in again!

I’m going to use Flashpunk again – although I hope I can make the transition to something 3D  next time

tools:

• FlashDevelop 4.0.4
• Flex 4.6.0
• Flashpunk 1.6
• Ogmo Editor 2.0.0.40
• GIMP 2.8
• GraphicsGale Free Edition 1.93.19
• Audacity 2.0.1
• sfxr
• Autotracker-C
• gedit 3.2.6
• Resource Hacker 3.6.0
• lots of coffee

Tags: LD #24

Ok – I just woke up and found out the theme … what ??

Every idea I’m having is much too complex for LD, so I’m going to make some graphics first … I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a huge disaster

most likely I’m going to do something zelda-type, with some sort of awesome twist I haven’t invented yet ^^

here we go – let’s get this started

my project starts to become something that looks like a game … but time is running out, big time

I’m pretty sure I will not finish in time

I’ve got some enemies now … but it became clear that there is no way on earth I’ll finish what I planned to do … I have to derive some other idea from what I’m having so far

coding an AI is like creating a fierce beast that does whatever it wants to do – and then trying to tame it

where’s my tranquilizer rifle …

after long 2 days – I’m done!

check it out: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=10771

here’s a list of some games I enjoyed playing so far

I’m sure there are many more waiting to be discovered and played

Super Robocade by VoEC

very entertaining little game
I’m sure it would have been an awesome bestselling game,
if it would have been released for the actual game boy (with more levels of course)

Evolution of a Monster by Eld

I absolutely love the graphic style
it’s also a very interesting experience.
Personally I think Eld is one of the best Ludum Dare Participants around

Unnatural Selection by pereubu

this game is an absolute blast if you have some
other person around to play it with.
Lots of fun !

The Legend of Elzad by arkeus

It’s astounding how much content this entry has.
it also has tons of features, like a fleshed out
inventory system and a flute minigame

Evoland by ncannasse

 very enoying experience
the features and graphics of the game evolve as you play

Dinosaur Survival Bash!! by Orni 

Of course I want to promote my own game a bit
check it out!

First things first, you can check out my entry here:

Play “Dinosaur Survival Bash!!“

now, let’s take some time and evaluate what went good,
what went bad and what went simply ugly ~

What went right:

• I (again) used tools I know and used the flashpunk library which I’m getting very used to – I think by know you could say that I’ve ‘mastered’ it
• by now I seem to have advanced in pixel-art. I’m quite pleased with the overall graphical quality although I could have improved a lot of the graphics further
• another thing I noticed is that I’m actually developing a professional workflow and feel I’m an actual indie game developer now (although I already made several games before)
• the gameplay turned out pretty good – many people like it and the comments I’m getting are astoundig, I’m very happy

What went bad:

• my motivation sucked. I’m a fast coder (I made my last LD entry within 12h) but I also loose motivation very easily therefore negating that “bonus” completely. I could’ve done so much more if I would’ve gotten my ass up from procrastinating a lot
• music is sort of my weak spot – I’m very bad at composing. although I did try making some stuff it didn’t turn out decent and I threw music over board all together
• although the gameplay is quite good, there are some things I would like to tweak and add, like better AI and some more abilities and pick-up items
• I have to polish my games better, there are some simple effects (like screen shakes, shadows and more sound effects) that could’ve improved the graphics and game experience significantly

What went ugly:

•  the theme … I didn’t have any idea what to do with it, so I started coding some basic stuff (collision, camera movement …) without any idea what for. the gameplay somehow emerged out of it during development and it all felt very unpleasing. somehow I couldn’t think of something good to do with it for the first day

Play “Dinosaur Survival Bash!!“

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2012 at 9:51 am and is filed under LD #24. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I’ve just finished building my very own Arcade Dev Kit!

this is huge fun – who yould have guessed making stuff for two players on the same machine bashing aroung a joystick would be so awesome ?

(also, this is possibly the best thing you could do with an old crappy PC lying around) 

Tags: arcade

I think I’m going to try out a super hardcore mode of the ludum dare 48h compo … by only using about 6 hours of it to make my whole entry.

this is due to the fact that my girlfriend is coming home from her semester abroad and seeing her again after 4 months outranks ludum dare (double checked it to be sure 😉 )

so 6 hours are about everything I have until I have to leave for the airport – but I won’t back out of ludum dare because of it, no, I’ll work even more efficiently!

because of this:

• 2D game, since the graphics take much less time to make
• low resolution (same reason)
• possibly only a 1-bit game (trimming down the graphics work even more)
• all sound and music will be generated by sfxr and some music generator (like autotracker-c)
• I’ll use a framework I’m very comfortable and experienced with -> flashpunk
• I’ll concentrate on core game play features and make something fun instead of a game depending on lots of content
• no time for anything but furious game development
• possibly no time to eat during the 6 hours – every minute must be spent developing!
• I’ll try to upload the game before I leave – most possibly making my game the very first to be submitted 😛

I hope I’ll be able to come up with an idea immediately so I can complete the core game features within the first 3 hours. after that I’m going to make/polish the graphics for about an hour and finish the game in an epic 2 hour showdown – I expect high amounts of caffeine in my blood stream to help me with this.

maybe it’s impossible to make something like a game within 6 hours (completely from scratch and alone) but maybe it’s not – I’ll find out 😀

/edit:

it seem’s I won’t be able to take part after all …

well, there’s always a next time – I’m just hoping the theme isn’t going to be ‘time loop’ since I’d hate myself for not being able to take part with that theme

so I think I’ll be able to make it this time – since I had to abort last LD.

here’s what I’m going to use (probably):

tools:

• FlashDevelop 4.4.0
• Flex 4.6.0
• Flashpunk 1.6
• Ogmo Editor 2.1.0.4
• GIMP 2.8
• GraphicsGale Free Edition 1.93.19
• Audacity 2.0.1
• sfxr
• Autotracker-C
• Sprite Generator 1.2
• gedit 3.2.6
• Resource Hacker 3.6.0
• lots of coffee

however – I do not know how much time I’ll exactly have :/

so, by now my little thing seems to actually grow into a game – however, limiting myself to merely 1-bit of graphical representation is both easy and hard at the same time

So – I woke up about one hour ago and found out the theme! wow!

I immediately started doing stuff, because of reasons. here it is:

I have no idea what this thing is going to become, but I hadn’t any clue what I was making last time as well – and it turned out alright