I’ll probably join this LD. It would be my first one, and I’m hoping to learn lots of stuff in 48 hours.

First time participant here.
Let’s start of with tools:
Language: Java (with Slick2D library)

Graphics: Paint.NET

SFX: sfxr (Love that tool).
Not too shabby, but nothing fancy either. Since this would be my first time, then I’ll try to go easy on myself. Unfortunately, I would be unable to provide a timelapse, but that’s the least of my problems. I’m totally trying out for the Jam first, by the way.

I’ll probably make one of those simple top down shooter games with time limits, with a kill getting you more time.
I would expand more on that, of course, since the idea itself is a bit bland, although simple.

My first ever  Ludum Dare (and game jam in general) experience is coming to a close. What can I say about it?

Well, first, the theme. The theme is actually pretty okay. In fact, if it were any other theme then I would’ve most likely had a harder time in thinking of a game.

Next, the game. It was originally called “Shoot The Clock”, but then for some strange reason I thought “hey, it might be a lot cooler if it was named shoot o’ clock, with no capitalization whatsoever!”.

The concept came to be in a minute or so, since I already had past experiences in playing games with an “increase the timer” kind of mechanic. My idea wasn’t really that innovative.

What (miraculously) went right:

• Theme – I managed to follow it pretty nicely, squeezing in every last bit of the “10 seconds” mechanic I could in the game.
• Music – I learned how to use PixiTracker, and make various mediocre tracks with it! Only two were included in the game, though, with at least one of them being incredibly annoying.
• Save System – I managed to squeeze in a basic save system. I just reused the code I used way back then for a school project (which is why I entered the Jam
• Finishing – Hey, I finished it on time! That’s pretty damn good already

What went kind of wrong:

• Overthinking – Once again, I was able to think of too much possible mechanics to the game. This really slowed me down, as my dozen or so ideas conflicted with each other.
• Graphical Existential Crisis – “Should I change my sprites? Ugh…”, and other similar gripes. Also, the graphics are extremely simple bordering on mediocre.
• Horrible code – I recall some parts being poorly put together. An optimization nightmare.
• Lack of timelapse – I wasn’t able to prepare a timelapse video.

I’m pretty sure there are a lot more (especially on the wrong side), but that’s all I can think of for now. Anyway, it has been fun making my first LD game. It taught me a lot of things, and I did more in the first day than I did in a week or so (during my early days in making a game). I also learned how to balance the mechanics, and to consider that what might’ve been easy or hard for me might not be the same for the player.

Also, my BGM creation skills suck.

Tags: jam, postmortem

I’ll be using the HaxePunk library, a FlashPunk port to AS3. For art, probably Paint.NET. Pixitracker for possible music and Bfxr for sound effects.

I’ll also be using my HXP-Resizable library, which I use to facilitate easy letterboxing in HaxePunk.

https://github.com/Anheurystics/HXP-Resizable

This is my 6th attempt in joining Ludum Dare, and hopefully it would be my 4th successful one. I’ve kept in mind the reasons as to why I wasn’t able to submit for the previous failed attempts. Here’s hoping to a successful Ludum Dare!

Engine: HaxePunk, or maybe OpenFL.

Art: Paint.NET, or maybe even procedurally generated ones (ie. simple quads)

Music: Pixitracker

SFX: Bfxr

I really hope I get to submit something this time. It’s been a long time since I’ve made my last game, and I’m read to give it all I’ve got!

There is still time for me to modify my game, but I am already worn out from all of the unnecessary hoops I had to jump through.

As I was challenged to try something new this Ludum Dare, I decided to attempt the following:
1) Make a game NOT using Haxe/Flash
2) Not use a third-party framework
3) Successfully submit for the Compo instead of the Jam

I managed to do 2 out of 3 of those. The first two really took at toll on my work flow, and as such I encountered problems and situations I have not encountered before. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed fiddling around with JS HTML5 canvas.

What Went Right
1. Game idea – I already had the game idea around ten minutes after the theme was introduced. A baker, trying to escape after being imprisoned by robots. Throwing baked goods everywhere. Obviously, I had more projectiles and enemy types planned, but the core gameplay was there.

2. Adherence to an art theme – Not being an artist, I had to tighten my “graphics budget” a lot. I decided to stick to the color palette of the Commodore 64, along with the font. I wish I could’ve done even more and changed the resolution and controls, but it was already too late at that point.

3. Level editor – I also made my own level editor in JS, which made it easier to define sections of each level. It was certainly easier than manually editing JSON entries and whatnot.

What Went Wrong
1. Not relying on a framework/engine – Even if the HTML5 canvas already took care of things such as drawing and event handling for me, I still had to do stuff that frameworks normally would’ve done for me immediately. Even if I did expect this from my “no framework” challenge, I still ended up being overwhelmed by the amount of work.

2. Not having a good grasp on the design – While I had the mechanics down already, I wasn’t able to fully conceptualize the things I could’ve done with it. As with most of my attempts, I ended up over-engineering and implemented a lot of systems that I ended up not using all that much.

Things To Improve On
1. Make sure to have a good grasp already of not only the technology being used, but also on the nature of the game being developed
2. Taking breaks is fun, but there’s always the risk of slacking off too much
3. Be careful with the possibility of losing faith in the idea– a lot of factors (bugs, fatigue, disillusionment) can end up ruining hours of work.

Even if I ended up tired and somewhat disappointed, I still ended up having lots of fun with making the game. I don’t usually expect to win anything when joining game jams, anyway. As I said, the Jam is not yet over, and I might even end up fixing the game at a later date.

My submission can be found here