Well, this was GOING to be my first LD, but I have to work unexpectedly today, which will cut into the time I was planning to have.  Plus, I don’t really have an idea for Evolution.  I might hold off for now, work on my programming a little more, and join the next LD instead, unless I can come up with a great idea in a short time that doesn’t require much time to work.  So we’ll see, but probably not.

Ok, I decided to take a crack at LD24 anyway.  Honestly though, I couldn’t really think of much I would be able to do for Evolution, so instead I did what I apparently do best: worked on a short, scary game.

As an absolute stretch, the ‘evolution’ in the game is the gradual change in overall mood and visual style as you walk through the endless hallways of wherever it is you’re at.  It goes from just walking to (I hope) a scary situation.

The only major problem I have so far is that I don’t do well with graphics.  By that I mean textures and models and such.  So the scare at the end is kind of silly-looking, but hopefully it won’t matter.

Unity Webplayer: http://www.parsecproductions.net/games/whereami.html

Will make a Windows download shortly.  Does anyone know how to include the source code from Unity?  Are we talking just the scripts are needed, or do I need to include the entire project bundle?

I’m in if: (A) I can find the time this weekend, and (B) I can come up with an idea for the theme.

Wraith is done:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=12468

I’ll add the source link once it finishes uploading.

I’ve only done two LD’s so far, and I was happy the most with this one.  I’m sure there were improvements I could have made, but I accomplished my goal with it, and that’s really what I was aiming for.

Some notable things about the process:

• I tackled gameplay first and worried about graphics and sound later, which was the right way to do this.  Previously I tried to do all of them at once, and it ended up just confusing me and causing me to run out of time before I could get everything right.
• I made all the sounds from scratch using my microphone.  The footsteps and the gun firing were both me making sound effects into the mic and then editing them heavily in a .wav editor until I was happy with the result.  It should go without saying that I composed the music as well.
• On a technical note, this is the first time I’ve written coroutines (used during the map generation), and the first time I made a maze generator out of prefabs.  (The process I used for “Where Am I?” was clunky and barely worked.)  Regardless of how the scoring comes out, I can definitely say I came out of this with some additional experience.
• Because I had enough time left over, I implemented Oculus Rift support, and I was very pleased with the result.  In hindsight though, I should have paid more attention to the size of the objects on the map.  I had shrunk the player down to fit the prefabs, and I think it caused the camera to show everything extra tiny as a result.  The only way to fix it would have been to redo everything in a larger scale, and that didn’t seem worth it since the 3D effect was still there, just not to scale.  I’ll know next time.
• On retrospect, I should have used more colors in the textures.  While the grays do give it a dreary sense, it felt too visually similar to “Where Am I?”, which was completely monochrome as well.  (But at least the muzzle flash was in color!)

On another note, anyone who knows me knows that I love to watch play through and reaction videos for my games.  If anyone has done one for Wraith (or knows of one that someone else has done), please let me know!

Finished in under 24 hours, my demake of one of my own games, “Slender: The Eight Pages”.  Enjoy!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-50/?action=preview&uid=12468

After looking over the themes in the final round of voting, I think I’ve come up with a game plan which will be safe to use no matter which theme is chosen:

The game is set on a deep space station (Deep Space), where you’re all by yourself (Isolation).  You have a monotonous task that you do every day (It Never Ends).  The game doesn’t even keep track of how many times you do it, and does not show you the passage of time; the clocks don’t even work (Time Does Not Exist).  Eventually, as the player, you will do something wrong or decide not to do it at all (Break the Rules).  At that point, the systems on the station begin to malfunction gradually (Glitch) (It’s NOT supposed to do THAT!).  Finally, the normally brightly-lit station goes dark (Contrast), and everything begins to break (Everything Breaks) as you escape.  The escape pod lands on a planet with a very fast rotation so that it changes between day and night very quickly (Night and Day).  Eventually as you explore, you find some ruins (Ruins), and the ruins lead to a hidden civilization beneath the surface (Beneath the Surface).  You are obstructed by cyborgs that are replaced with smarter and adaptive ones as they are defeated (Generations).  You keep going deeper into the hidden city (We Must Go Deeper) until you reach the core that is controlling everything (Everything is Connected).  You fuse with the core and gain control of some of the immediate cyborgs (Control More Than One), which you guide into the power core to act as fuel to finish powering up the city (Death is Useful).  Eventually, you complete the power up and gain control of the whole planet (You Are The World), which immediately spawns a clone of you (Two Worlds).  Finally, you have a celestial battle to the death with the other planet (You Are Your Own Enemy).

…No, I’m not serious.  That would be a nightmarish 48 hours.  I’ll wait for the actual theme like everyone else.

I finished my entry, “Seed”.  I might still go back and add some additional effects, but even if I don’t, I’m happy with the result.  It’s kind of a pleasant departure from my usual scary stuff.  I hope you like the music, too.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=12468

Fixed bugs, and added a cool root-growing thing off the side of the main root.  I think that’s about it.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=12468

I had a lot of fun making my LD29 entry, “Seed“.  For once I decided to make a game that wasn’t tense, scary, or overly monochromatic; I think I did it that way just to prove that I could.  This also gave me a chance to write some pleasant music for a change.

Things that went well:

1.  I was worried that the method I was using to draw the plant (spawning multiple objects) would cause massive slowdown, but it turns out Unity handled it well.

2.  I was actually done after only 24 hours, but there were still a few minor bugs (the flower would sometimes grow out at an angle at the surface), and I wanted the plant itself to look better as it was growing.  I’m glad I took the extra time to draw the little roots that come out of the side of the plant randomly; it really looked cool in the end.  On a similar note, my script for it worked right on the first try (save for a few number tweaks).

3.  The four layers of music fading in and out at different times made the music feel dynamic and was worth the extra effort to get it all to sync up.  (For reference, the cello part always plays, the medium piano part plays only when the bud is moving, the high piano part gradually fades in as you get closer to the surface, and the low piano part gradually fades in as you start running out of water.)

Things that needed improvement:

1.  First, the “endless” method of adding additional rocks and bugs works as a short game, but doesn’t offer much variety.  If I go back and revisit this at all, I’ll probably add additional things to find underground (like worms, for example).

2.  It looks fine on my monitor and is supposed to be dark as you’re underground, but the darkness was a common complaint.  If I had time, I probably should have put some kind of brightness adjuster.

3.  As much as I like how the music came out, a much longer piece would offer a lot more variety and be less repetitive.

Overall:

I had fun, and I hope other people did as well!  Bring on LD30!

I decided to give my LD28 entry, “Wraith”, a quick face-lift.  I basically replaced the low-res textures with better ones, added some models, fixed the problems with the Oculus Rift settings, and made it so that killing the wraith doesn’t win the game (it only causes it to go away for a minute, giving you more time to escape from the maze).  I’ve renamed this version, “Wraith: Haunted Halls”.

Here’s the link to a YouTube video showing it off:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1lUSYzyGaE

The download links are:

Windows:  http://www.parsecproductions.net/games/wraith_hh.zip or https://www.dropbox.com/s/fntgdl7nnnu3q0q/wraith_hh.zip

Mac:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5caehsww8q3p3x/wraith_hh_mac.zip

Feedback appreciated!

As always, depending on the theme, I might be in.  If I can’t think of something good for the theme that I think I can pull off in 48 hours, I’m going to skip it.  But I should have the time to work on it at any rate.

Since the last Ludum Dare, I’ve learned more about how to make 2D animations in Unity, so I’ll try to incorporate this if possible.

Only about 3 minutes to go, and I have a massive headache.  Good timing on that.  I need you, brain, stop punching the inside of my skull.

I’ve completed my entry, “Dreamshift“:

Guide our exhausted hero between the real world and the dream world to solve (simple) puzzles and make it to the exit alive!

There’s only 2 levels of the game currently.  I know I still have about an hour and a half, but at the current time I don’t want to risk breaking something by trying to add a third level.  If people here think I should add more, I may expand it later after the competition.  Feedback greatly appreciated!

As I mentioned before, my entry in the 48 hour comp was “Dreamshift“.

THINGS I LIKED:

• It was my first time making a side scrolling platformer in Unity.  There was a bit of a learning curve, but overall I think it was successful.  I got the important parts down (moving and jumping), and when I realized a 2D box collider would ‘catch’ on the edge of tiles sometimes, I was able to fix it by switching him to a box collider for the top part and a circle collider for his feet.  I also learned more about how 2D physics works in Unity, which should be helpful for future projects.
• The special effects were pretty simple, but still took me some time to get right.  In the end, the parallax background and various dark effects that occur as your stress level rises was worth the extra effort.
• As always, I was pleased with how the music came out.  But besides that, this has some of the best sound effect work I’ve done in a Ludum Dare game.  All of the SFX I made myself, from the simple yawn/pain recordings, to the jump and switch sound effects, to the creepy shade noises.  (I’ve done that on my previous LD entries as well, but I really like how these came out.)
• I’ve never really done sprite animations before, and while I’m sure there were easier ways to do it in Unity than the way I did it, it still worked in the end.

THINGS THAT NEEDED IMPROVEMENT:

• There was some kind of bug with the sprites, and I don’t know what caused it.  I was certain everything was lined up perfectly with them, but at some point they started pulling part of the neighboring sprites on the sheets on the edges, causing weird black lines to appear.  I was never able to sort out what caused it, and for some reason it was EXREMELY present in the webplayer version, which is why I decided not to include it in the submission (it looks terrible, trust me).
• I really wanted more than 2 levels.  I actually completed an hour and a half before time ran out, but I didn’t want to risk breaking something so close to the end, so I decided not to make any more levels.  On reflection, I probably should have done at least one more.
• The title screen is very lacking.  I threw it together pretty quickly and probably should have spent more time on it.
• I would’ve liked to include more interactive elements in the levels.  Pretty much all of it is figuring out whether to flip switches in the real world or in the dream world.  More ways to interact between the two worlds would have led to better level variety.

I’ve always felt that LD is supposed to be a learning experience after all, not just a showcase of talent, and I definitely learned a lot doing this.  I hope everyone else has as well.

P.S.  No, I don’t know what the hero of the game is supposed to be.  A cat?  A rabbit?  I’m not an artist; I honestly just drew until something looked right.

I know I say this every time, but I’m tentatively in, pending theme.  I’m actually pretty busy trying to finish up another project, but if I have an idea to go with the theme, then I’ll participate like I have in the past.

For anyone interested, here are links to my previous compo entries (I’m leaving out my entry for LD 27 because it was awful):

Where Am I? (LD 24)

Wraith (LD 28)

Slender: The Eight Pages (Tiger Electronic Version) (Mini LD 50)

Seed (LD 29)

Dreamshift (LD 30)

I always appreciate feedback.  😀

I just finished my compo entry, titled “Finish Your Project“.

A lonely mouse must finish his project while taking care of other needs in order to keep his inspiration up.  I hope it resonates well with all the other game builders out there.  😉

The Post-Mortem for my entry, “Finish Your Project“.

When I started out, I spent about 4 1/2 to 5 hours working on a puzzle game.  I actually managed to make it playable, until I realized that (a) the game was boring and repetetive, (b) it didn’t really have an attainable goal, and (c) it didn’t have a clear way to ‘lose’.  Rather than try to fix it, I scrapped the whole project and with with plan B, which was “Finish Your Project”.

THINGS THAT WENT WELL:

• Animation!  I’m usually terrible when it comes to graphics, but I was super-impressed with how well I managed to make the game look this time around.  I’m really starting to get the hang of the animator in Unity, and though I know I made some mistakes with it or did things inefficiently, I ultimately achieved exactly the look I was going for.  I learned a LOT on this one, and it’s gotten me excited about future projects (not just LD ones, but normal ones as well).
• Music went well, as always.  My last three LD projects have had music that changes to match what’s going on in the game, and I’m beginning to realize this is becoming a theme with me.  I’m also beginning to realize that I’m perfectly okay with that. ^^
• While the gameplay is ultimately repetitive, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do: convey the monotony of the situation that the main character is in.  I added a few random elements to add some variety, but for the most part it becomes ‘same @#$% different day’, which is what I was aiming for.
• For once, I squashed all of the obvious bugs before uploading.  There’s still one weird animation glitch, but it happens so rarely that you pretty much have to be trying to get it to run into it.  The gameplay runs perfectly though.
• It’s kind of a shame that most of the people playing it won’t get to see the ending, but I realize there are a lot of LD games out there, so spending what is typically around 30 – 45 minutes completing this one seems unreasonable.  I actually really like how it ends though, because I like to think it’s unexpected.

THINGS THAT NEEDED IMPROVEMENT:

• I learned a lot about the animator in Unity, but I also learned there’s a lot for me still to learn.  I know there’s a way to mirror animations left to right, and I just didn’t feel like I had time to figure out how to use it properly, so instead I just made separate animations for facing left and right.  This almost broke the game, because switching to these animations caused a weird “Paper Mario” effect where it would flip in 2D fashion.  I eventually found a way to correct the problem, but it told me there was a better way I could have done this.
• I should have had some kind of visual indicator of the areas on the screen you can click on, or some indication that you clicked on them.  The method I was going to use initially ended up not working right due to the way sprites are drawn in layers.  I came up with a solution but ran out of time to implement it.  At the very least, I should have had a sound effect to show you successfully clicked.  Which brings me to…
• No sound effects.  Up until the very end I was up in the air as to whether or not to have sound effects included, and ultimately decided not to include any; I felt the music and actions tell the story well enough.  Part of me still thinks I should have included some, though.
• More random events would have been nice, and might have also made it easier to keep the player engaged for the full length of the game.  I just couldn’t think of any to put in that would (a) make sense in the game’s “story”, or (b) didn’t require a lot of extra work that might have run me over on time.
• As mentioned before, it’s a shame most people won’t see the ending.  I thought it was clever, but maybe it’s just me.  It’s the risk I ran for making a game that takes so long to beat, in a setting where people want to move on to the next game ASAP.  Ah well.

On to future projects!

With just over 8 hours left, if anyone’s interested in giving Finish Your Project a try, please do so!  For those that have already played it but were not able to see the ending, I’ve added a link to a video of the ending since I didn’t want people to miss out on it.  I’d prefer that you see it in-game, but I realize it’s a really long game so consider watching it if you just can’t make it to the end.