After a bit of collaboration with an artist, some sleep, and a couple hours of programming, I present to you the first screenshot of our entry!

And now onto why I think this is the first theme in Ludum Dare history that allows for absolutely anything.

As I’m sure you’re aware, Ludum Dare themes have no set meaning, and is completely up for interpretation.

You could interpret this as one level, one window, or somehow the game literally taking place on a literal screen mesh.

Why does this allow for complete freedom? You can also interpret this as being on one monitor, in which case you can do pretty much whatever.

Here we are, close to 24 hours in, and we got screenshot #2!

I’ve gotten addicted to my  own game.! 😀

On another note, if you look back at my Ludum Dare history, it’s quite grim. I think I may actually finish this time, though.

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad, and it didn’t really detour people from playing.

But still, for whatever reason I felt like I HAD to kill that bug.

Things are finally back on track!

I finally broke the quitting streak and finished a game for ludum dare!

The last game I completed for LD was LD 25. I’ve tried everyone since then, but dropped out.

BUT NOT THIS TIME!

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=9732

First off, the timelapse.

Post Mortem

We faced several problems right off the bat. My original intentions was to program it in Game Maker: Studio completely by myself and submit for the compo rather than the jam.

A friend of mine offered to team up with me about 5 hours before the jam. I wouldn’t be able to help with the programming due to the language he was using, but I agreed anyways. It was decided I’d work on audio on concepts.

Fast forward towards the beginning of the competition, and I was running off of 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I’d tried previously, but couldn’t get to sleep, so I just opted to stay awake until we at least had a concept done. ‘We’ included me, the friend from earlier, and one of his friends(an artist).

Then we get to the theme being announced. We all dabbled with some ideas for about 10 to 20 minutes before the programmer decided to opt out and leave me and the artist to our devices. I prepared to program while we continued to concept.

Our initial plan was a top down twitch reflex maze. The walls would be moving at you at an accelerated rate and you’d have to us WASD to navigate without hitting a wall or falling behind. We in a way kept this concept, but just changed it around to being an endless runner.

He began on the art, I began importing it. About an hour in, he went to sleep, and I followed shortly after. Luckily realizing I had forgotten to start the time lapse. I started it, and ended up getting some sleep.

A couple hours later, I woke up, and started on the main game. I faced quite a bit of problems. The floor was initially tiled, and I was hoping I could make it sync to the obstacles. I eventually gave up and just made the floor one seamless line and added in some obstacles. After that, I had my initial concept of how I was gonna do anything, and added in some more obstacles. A short bit later, Brad(the artist) woke up and I sent him a build. We ended up getting a bit addicted to it, and didn’t get much work done for about an hour.

From then on out, it was pretty much just him doing art, me hacking away at the programming, occasionally sending builds to him and some friends, occasionally us finding ourselfs in a skype call, and a lot of the time us joking around about things.

We ended up finishing about the time the regular compo was ending, and submitted for the jam(albeit with some undiscovered bugs) and the rest is history.

Fast forward to a week later, I just released a bug fixed version of it, and Brad and I have decided to carry on development from scratch on an entirely new version of Duck, Jump, Die for mobile!

The Good

We ended up with a final product! That broke a 6 competition long quitting streak for me, with my last completed Ludum Dare being LD25.

We ended up making a pretty fun game! Even after the horrors of the battlefield, I still find myself playing it when I get bored(on occasion).

We ended up meeting each other! We actually work out pretty well as a partnership, and if it hadn’t of been for this Ludum Dare, we never would’ve met.

The Bad

We didn’t use the remaining time we had on polish and bug fixing, when it really could have used it.

The game is highly unoptimized, and tends to slow down for some people.

The music is incredibly loud, and ends up hurting peoples ears first time around.

Play The Game!

Obligatory Cross Promo!

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=9732

Tags: motivation, post-mortem, postmortem, progress, screenshot, timelapse

We have began work on a post compo version of Duck, Jump, Die!

Play The Game!

Duck, Jump, Die Will:

• Be an entirely new game designed from scratch
• Be made with mobile devices in mind, rather than just a port of a PC game
• Feature new and improved graphics
• Feature hundreds of new obstacles, collectibles, and costumes

Duck, Jump, Die Will Not:

• Just be a bug fixed version of the jam submission (We already have that!).
• Just be a port of the already bug fixed PC version

Tags: progress

I was thinking back to a couple old products and unpurused projects of mine.

I realized that in a way these defined more of who I am as a game designer than all of my released projects do.

I propose that on January 1st, everyone posts an old prototype or unpursued projects of theirs to help usher in a brand new year of game development!

As I’m writing this, we’re still unsure of our results.

I love each and every one of you. You’re amazing.

Thank you all for the kind words on Duck, Jump, Die!

This was important to me, because for the past few months I’ve thought of myself as going nowhere.

And now, as destiny would have it, me and Brad have began development on a mobile version of Duck, Jump, Die!

Thank you.

Really.

Me, Brad, and recently Squid4Life have joined forces to create a post compo version of our endless runner Duck, Jump, Die! for mobile.

This game is going to be drastically different from the ludum dare game, made completely from scratch in an entirely different language, and will have loads more content!

We’re shooting for a March release, but nothing is currently set in stone.

To follow us along for the ride, make sure to follow our brand spanking new twitter account, @RealTeamOmi!

I’m honestly not entirely sure if this type of post is allowed, so please forgive me if it’s not.

We have continued development on our ludum dare 31 game, and are hoping to launch for mobile devices in March. There’s one giant kink in this plan, though. We no longer have a programmer.

While I did the programming for the original game, I don’t have the knowledge required to do it justice. This is where the community comes in to play.

We’re currently looking for another programmer to join us (you’ll be using java with LibGDX). If you’re interested, contact me either via twitter (@DivitosGD) or on Skype(bkghwh).

I’ll be competing for LD32!
I’ll be working in a team with the artist from my Ludum Dare 31 game, Duck, Jump, Die!(which is now in the process of being made into a mobile game!) and hopefully learning a lot and producing a game from start to finish, just like last time!

Oh, and I’ll be timelapsing.
Tools:
Game Maker Studio
BFXR

(not sure what ??? will be using for art. Probably PyxelEdit)

I’ve been doing great!

Up until last December, I consistently quit on Ludum Dare’s. The idea of completing a Ludum Dare, let alone an actual game was unfathomable to me. Shortly before Ludum Dare, I started work on what would later be named ‘Never Stop Fighting’. It was on and off until Ludum Dare came, and I actually completed a game for it!

That completion got me hyped up and carried me through until just about a week ago, where ‘Never Stop Fighting’ officially released!

I have to say, it feels great to not only break my quitting streak on Ludum Dare, but to also release my first real game!

I’d seriously appreciate it if you’d check it out and maybe leave some feedback so I can maybe get things a little better next game I make!

Check out Never Stop Fighting!

I never ended up really even starting last competition because I couldn’t get with the theme. This time I’m planning on competing no matter the theme, however things do change.

I’ll most likely be working on the solo competition, which means terrible art and music, but hopefully a fairly decent game.

————————————————-

Tools I’ll Be Using:

Construct 2 (Maybe. I’m experimenting with it a little right now and it seems like a solid game jam engine)

Game Maker: Studio (This is what I’ll most likely be using if I decide not to go with construct.)

Flash (Most likely going to be using flash for art)

Abundant Music???

BFXR

————————————————-

I look forward to seeing and playing everyone submissions. Happy Ludum Daring!

————————————————-

Shameless Plug For My LD 31 Game: Duck, Jump, Die!

Click To Play

There have been many powerful developers throughout the millennia.

But ages of Ludum Dare have begun to tear the fabric of the realms. The critical point has finally been reached.

It was foreseen that developers would one day grow too powerful and too numerous.

If left unchecked, their intensifying development would weaken and shatter the realms and bring about the apocalypse.

The Elder Gods demanded a safeguard put in place to avoid total destruction. One that would make use of the developers’ insatiable bloodlust.

Like moths to flame, they would be drawn to battle. At the apex of destruction, alliances will be broken, and old hatreds will be revived.

At last, it has come to this final battle.

Armageddon has begun.

“You Are the Monster”

Huh. That’s pretty similar to the first ld I ever did, LD 25 which was “You Are The Villain”.

Seen it before and still can’t think of something.

We’re going to be making a platformer where you play a demon(shocking, I know) trying to get back from the earthly world to the underworld. You’ll have a short fly period that can be controlled and charged either by landing or with orbs in the air (Though platforming will play a bigger role than flying most likely).

You encounter innocent animals, people, etc around, and you have to kill them and steal their souls. You see these souls orbiting around you, and they act as both your main weapon against other demons (Who are trying to stop you from reentering the under world), and your health (When you get hurt one of your extra souls shatter, if you have none, you die).

That’s about it for the idea right now. Enjoy a small demonstration on what the games art style should look like though!

Almost 12 hours in, and the game isn’t exactly looking pretty yet, but there is progress being made!

There’s still some place-holder sprites visible in this screenshot, but the game’s definitely starting to take shape.

Still not looking all too impressive, but a  lot of the base is there!