First Ludum dare for me too !

My 2 months old son will be my wingman. I can trust him to keep me awake all night long.

• ideas : pen/paper/post-it
• Engine : Construct 2
• Graphics : Flash/Photoshop
• Sound : good question
• Music : Spotify
• extra : baby bottle, diapers…

See you in 48 hours…

After this first Ludum Dare, it’s time for the Postmortem thing.

Lucy’s journey is a classic platformer where the player needs to reach the end of the level without dying (too much).

Lucy can teleport from a a dimension to another, making platforms appear and disappear. That makes her a link between worlds.

But she dies if she teleports inside one of these platforms.

What went good ?

• The simple concept : straightforward, easy to understand, yet full of possibilities
• The fast prototype : thanks to the Construct 2 engine, I have been able to build a running prototype quite fast and test the concept
• The engine : Construct 2 is a great tool for 2D game.
• Working game : there is a beginning, a middle and an end.
• Amazing LD community : I could have looked at the Twitter posts of the community all day long. Refreshing,  motivating, funny, beautiful…

 What went wrong ?

• Playtesting. Early feedbacks claims the difficulty rises to high to fast.
• Sound/music : hum.. no comment.
• Replayability : no leaderboard, best scores, timer, items to collect
• Only one level : even if the concept came fast, I only managed to create one short level. Why ? Because I tried to add new features, like enemies, puzzle… Bad idea.
• Polishing : Instead trying to add more features, I should have focused on the basic concept, improving the level design.

Conclusion

Amazing experience. I will definitely come back for more. I will polish this one as best as I can.

Now, 1600 games to test… and waiting for your enlightening feedbacks, guys.

The game is here : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=40976

See you…

 

I’m in for this LD #31.

My weapons :

• Engine : Construct 2
• Graphics : Adobe Flash pro
• Sound : working on it, leave me alone
• Brainstorming : post-it, pen, wall, healthy food, wine, alpine fresh air.
• Mind Cleaner : Freeletics training session next morning

Go !

 

Waiting for the post-mortem of  Wreck a Goblin, just look at its time-laps video.

21 hours of work, summarizee in 2 minutes. Depressing, isn’t it ? But strangely nice to watch.

The video : http://youtu.be/IGrEQhNABZY

The game is available there : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=40976 

Please rate, comment, give feeback, scream, send money, do something…

See you…

The time-lapse

The game : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=40976

The Postmortem :

Saturday 12/06 – Belgium – 3.00 am : Aah the theme just came online. Oh Okay… « Entire game on one screen ». Not the theme I wished for but what the frack, it’s Ludum Dare time, don’t give up because of the theme. Let’s make a short brainstorming.

Saturday 12/06 – Belgium – 3.09 am : felt asleep. No idea, no brainstorming. But a good night sleep.

Saturday 12/06 – Belgium – 7.00 am : Let’s do a old arcade style game. Yeah right, extremely original. There will be hundred of other game like that. Then take a vintage game almost forgotten and add some features. Take “wreck a mole” and put goblins instead of cute mammals… Stupid goblins.

Saturday 12/06 – Belgium – 7.01 am : Sure, why not.

This intense discussion between me and myself started this Ludum Dare. The theme was, in my opinion, more an obstacle than a source of inspiration. So I decided to go KISS.

“Wreck a Goblin” is therefore a fantasy style “Wreck a mole” arcade game. As the wizard of the town, you must stop the goblin invasion with your powers and close their tunnels for good.

WHAT WENT GOOD… 

• The art : I’m quite happy with the graphics of the game. the main menu should have been better but it was too late. The lightning effects appeared to work fine and the design of the wizard too. Huge improvement since previous LD(30).
• The idea : Found one idea, stick to the plan. And the best ideas come when you do something totally unrelated with the game. Went running, found features
• The workflow : No great problem with the process of game design.
• Construct 2 : what a great tool. The more I learn, the more I like this program.

WHAT WENT WRONG… 

• I deleted part of the project 2 hours before deadline : no comment. Just distracted.
• The sound : I really need to improve my skills there… Any suggestion where to start ? Let me know
• The features I had no time to add : I wanted to add other types of Goblins, a way for them to reopen a previously closed tunnel, but no time.
• The controls : seeing the feedback, I should have made the controls more intuitive…

WHAT NEXT 

• More features
• Decent sound/musics
• Mobile version : first time I do that. It’s gonna be interesting.
• Post compo version in a week or so.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and ratings.

See you soon…

Arnaud

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click on the image to play

Unlike my two first attempts, for which the workflow was as calm as a windless sea, this third Ludum Dare was an emotional roller-coaster.

• Slept 40 minutes the night before the event, 800 km road trip => Best condition ever to start the jam.
• D1: 12 hours doing a first prototype to finally realize it sucks => Day lost, need brilliant idea
• D2: 18 hours left, came with the final idea. Torch light in the dark? Good, because I don’t have time to work on art. Dark is good, it hide ugliness. The main character doesn’t move, brilliant!! The enemies’ teleport in the darkness? No move animation. What the heck do I wait to start?
• Ho wait, family dinner… A man must eat
• Deadline – 12 hours (3.00 pm): Breath, warm-up… and go !
• Deadline – 6 hours (9.00 pm): I’ll never make it…
• Deadline – 4 hours (11.00 pm): cut this features, and this one, and simplify this… Keep it simple, stupid.
• Deadline (3.00 am): Will I really dare put this game in the compo? Or work 24 more hours and compete against entire teams.

I truly hesitated to post my entry. I had maybe too high expectations for this third attempt, or I was too tired to think clearly.  Maybe afraid of the feedbacks. I had forgotten how friendly, welcoming, and constructive this community is…

    

What went good

• I finished my little game on time.
• The Pixel art needs polish (a lot) but at least is effective
• The mechanisms are simple yet full of future opportunities
• I create faster, I focus easier on the present task
• I’m not afraid to cut features if needed
• Post deadline promotion.
• Never give up
• I had fun

What went wrong

• That’s the third time I say it, and it will be the last: it miss sound!! Neither time nor skill to implement it. Need to learn. Shame for a game playing on a “creepy” atmosphere
• Waste a day on useless idea : should have took more time at the beginning to sort best ideas (newbie mistake)
• Need more sleep
• I must remember my life doesn’t (completely) depend on it.

Conclusion

It should have been worse. As always, it’s a pleasure to take part in this event. The theme was great, the community as awesome as usual. Can’t wait to do it again.

Ho, you want try my game? This way: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=40976

 

Click here to play.

Click here to play.

 

Fellow jamers,

brace yourself. Time is come for a timelapse video !

Still not rated my game ? Please, be my guest : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=40976

See you… soon.

 

Hi guys.

A short post to announce you that we reached today 400 players on Just a Dream… and I didn’t expect it.

I wanted then to thank you all for this support.

The two best days on this chart are :

• 04/28 : the publishing of the Evil Teddy Poster
• 05/02 : the release of the timelapse video.

This little marketing tools are quite useful.

You have played the game yet ? Please, be my guest : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=40976

Have a nice day.

 

 

OK, I swear, last self-promo.

I need twelve brave players to rate my entry.  Are you mighty enough to catch the Evil Teddy ? Click here.

Don’t hesitate to put your game in the comments, I’m looking for games to rate ;-).

Thanks a lot,

 

Click here to play

Post your game in the comments for last minute rating

 

 

First of all, congratulation to every one. Managing to create an entire game in 48-72 hours is a huge achievement, be proud. The work provided by the winners of this LD 32 is just amazing.

One week has past since the results and I think it’s time for a last post over “Just A dream”. An almost not submitted entry turned out to be my best experience on Ludum Dare so far .

It still lacks of everything : decent graphics, sound, music, solid gameplay and content.

First time I score below #200 in one category, happy.

But it brings some mood and innovation.

Knowing that the game itself would not bring me glory, I turned the marketing engine on.

I promoted it by any means available:

• Marketing content : Post-Mortem, timelapse video…
• Posts on some indie game developers Groups on Facebook
• Tweets
• 7 promotional messages here on the homepage

The result still surprises me.

GameJolt Statistics :

More than 450 people played my game. This is more than my #LD30  and #LD31 entries combined. I got some nice ratings too.

First time ever I receive ratings on GameJolt

This brought light on my two previous entries as well. Ho, and I earned 0.15 € in advertising.

Here on Ludumdare.com :

“Just a dream”  appears in two jamer’s TOP

1. @farwyler’s TOP 5
2. @OmiyaGames’ recommandations

99 people rated “Just a Dream”, it’s more than the previous two combined. According to http://ludumdare.itch.io/, It places “Just a Dream” #77 in terms of number of rating. On 2800 entries ? Hard to believe. But Thank you very anyway for this.

To briefly conclude this post, delivering the game before the deadline is just the tip of the iceberg. Be proud of it, talk about it, promote it, bring some well deserved light on it.

See you in 94 days.

Hi everyone.

Stay focus thanks to this Ludum Dare 33 wallpaper.

Yep, I had fun with Blender today.

Enjoy this weekend.

Resolutions :

1024×768

1280×720

1280×800

1440×900

1920×1080

2560×1440

This time with Unity instead of Construct 2.

No pressure…

Engine : Unity3D (C#)

Graphics : Flash-PhotoShop-Blender-Pyxel Edit, I don’t know.

SFX : SFXR-BFXR

And remember :

 

 

OK, my game is now done. And I’m astonished by the knowledge I gained in the past 48 hours. It’s the first time I use Unity3D for a gamejam and the first time ever I try to make a 3D game. The result may appear childish, and it certainly is, but I learned :

• to make a GameObject move in 3D, and Jump
• material
• to move the camera to follow the player
• to use collider and collision
• to use Blender to design the meshes
• to use GUI
• to animate parts of an object
• …

The game is here : click ! (problem with WebGL and the keyboard… will see this later)

Have a great night and good luck for those finishing their game.

Created by by AgentParsec in the compo category. You play the beast of the Woods. Even knowing that I was the monster chasing poor humans in the woods, this game freaks me out. Great concept and execution. Favorite of the day.

Enter the woods : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=12468

 

Run, Edmund ! Ruuuunnn… Hum, this way : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=40976

Thanks for playing…

By charliecarlo, simply one of the most polished entry of this Ludum Dare (so far), made in 40 hours non stop by one single dev.

Amazing.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=15812

3.500 screenshots of fun…

The game :here

Lying on the edge of the swimming pool, it’s time for a post-mortem. Let´s make it quick.

I hope you enjoyed this jam as much as I did. The theme was not that original but the final results of the community definitely were. This marks the first time I used Unity3d for a jam, and the very first time I tried to make a 3D game. I always worshiped 2D game and always imagined games in a 2D perspective. But learning Unity for the past weeks and playing with Blender for 15 days now, I decided to give it a try. I of course knew that to start a game jam without proper knowledge of the tools is the best way to fail bit what the hell, I’m here to learn and have fun…

So, what went good.

1. The theme.
This theme was straightforward ! Be the monster. Ok then, but let’s switch role this time. Don’t be the sneaky nightmarish creatures hiding in the dark or beneath the bed, but the chased monster, hatred for the color of his skin, some exotic nutrition and mating habits. The enemy would be an angry mod of overpowered peasants.. Go !

2. What I learned
Starting nearly from scratch with 3D games, is learned a lot those 48 hours. Collision, camera movement, GUI, 3D modeling. That was definitely exciting. I took a lot of notes and should maybe write some simple tuts.

 

3. Low poly “ art”
Crazy what you can do when blender and Unity work hand in hand. And, for non artists, simple 3D models are faster created that 2D draws. A tree in 5 minutes and thanks to a well placed lamp, it renders good enough. Never forget the 20/80 concept 😉

And what failed

1. Not a mind-blowing idea, not an original idea either.
That was definitely the most original idea of the jam. That’s for sure.

2. Polishing
Lacking time to polish the game, nor add the features I wanted

3. Newby code issues
Example : how can I make this troll jump. How works the GUI and why is it so ugly (haven’t find out this one yet). I had to learn to walk… But that was expected.

4. Strange things happening, sometimes
Some funny glitches happened. And strange and not yet explained Unity problems disappear once you reopen the software. Lost precious time on those frustrating issues.

5. Socialize/PR/Marketing
I had no time to promote the game during the jam, as I would have. Some early screenshots, thoughts, updates… I think sharing progress is important during a jam. It is fun, and the feedback always rewarding, bringing extra motivational boost in your work.

Don’t miss the time lapse of the game here

and rate the game here : http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=40976

I said short…

See you next time.