Hey there!
Hope all is well with everyones games. This is my first Ludum Dare as well as the first time I’ve tried programming a game. So far it’s been super fun and the games direction is starting to take shape. I’ve been using Flash on my little macbook air along with my trusty wacom. Temporary office photo below along with a temporary title screen and a poorly rendered gif of the “subject”. Anyways, back to work!
Music! I hacked together a quick little song for the title screen. If I knew how to make music it would probably be nicer.
Also the main game is basically set up via timeline animations and event listeners. This is probably not the proper way to make a game, but it’s all I got!
Next up, the instruction screen and adding random thoughts for the “subject”…
About done for tonight, here’s a teaser of just the title screen in action:
http://supersogood.com/system_control/
The rest of tonight will be creating some interesting dialogue. Tomorrow after some quick laundry will consist of finishing the instruction screen, cleaning up the game interface, end game state and quality assurance. Really happy with how my first game is coming along. Can’t wait to show ya.
aka The Home Stretch™
Hope all your games are coming together! My game { System Control } is now mostly complete. The only things I have on my list are:
• Adjust interface design.
• Add more thought bubbles.
• Add a few more sound effects.
• Create screenshots & submit final build.
Hoping I can get that all done in the next two hours…
System Control is finished:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=31095
I think thats the link to view it. If not I’ll update it later.
Just wanted to say over all this first Ludum Dare has been really amazing. Such simple time constrains on a game are truly welcome. I have no doubt that I will do this again. I also very much look forward to playing all your games in the next few days!
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=31095
Can’t wait to play all your games now! Thanks everyone for making for such a fun weekend!
A kinda quick-ish post mortum for System Control.
This was the first game thing I have programmed by myself as well as my first game jam. For a long time now these are two things that I’ve very much wanted to accomplish, so when I saw a post for Ludum Dare #28 I thought it was probably high time to dive in.
After the theme “You Only Get One” was announced I decided to make a simulation about controlling a test subjects internal organs, giving players the chance to keep him alive for as long as they choose. This is an odd idea I’ve toyed around with for awhile and seemed simple enough to complete in the timeframe. Plus think how fun it is to repeat the same basic tasks at the same time over and over and over…
The initial animations and design were created in Flash and went fairly quickly as these skills are part of my profession. In general I’m really pleased with how they turned out, tho I would have loved to animate the test subjects escape from the underground facility. In the end I had to settle for him talking to you via text bubbles to create a short narrative. This part came fairly late in the weekend and was a bit rushed. I’ve since gone back and tweaked some of the dialogue in the post-compo version.
Coding for the simulation was very very simple and done in Flash AS3. The test subjects lifespan (healthy to death) moves forward on the timeline while pressing buttons for each of the systems (digestive, circulatory and respiratory) moves the playhead back several frames. So pressing buttons will buy you a little time, but again the test subjects playhead is constantly moving towards death. The controls were a bit wonky and there was nothing preventing players from mashing buttons to keep him alive. In the end wether you mashed the buttons or not doesn’t really matter, the point was how long do you want to keep doing these repetitive actions. Tho for fun, in the post-compo version I tightened the controls a little and made the pressing of some buttons at the wrong time advance the subject closer to death. Haha. The longest part during the weekend was probably setting up the introduction which I think also turned out nice. Maybe a little long, but nice.
Music was created on my iPhone using Figure by Propellerhead. This amazing app only creates short little loops, so I made three that could easily transition into each other. After exporting those I stitched them together in Sound Studio 4. The pseudo song was really one of my favorite things to come out of this. The few sound effects that made it in were made by cutting up some misc sound clips.
All in all this was a truly great experience and I can’t wait to participate in another Ludum Dare. I am still incredibly limited in my programing skills, so next time I’ll create something crazy like a text adventure or something.
Thanks for reading.
Just flew across the country and ready to roll on MiniLD #48, tho starting a little late! This will be my second adventure into the land of game programing, the first was System Control for LD#28 which placed 60 overall! The remainder of tonight will be used setting some stuff up and finalizing the plan for the weekend. The idea I have was inspired by a Roald Dahl short story that I’ve wanted to make for a long time. My goal for this weekend is to get the code complete as graphics, sfx and music will be finalized later after the jam. The tools I will be using: Flash AS3, Figure and Sound Studio 4. Good luck to everyone and can’t wait to see the weekend unfold.
Hi there. Hope everyone’s games are going well. Even though I still have a few more hours to go tonight I thought I’d post a quick update on “Lucky Lighter”. The majority of the code is finished and just need to finesse a bit. The title screen is complete with temporary art and I’ll try to finish the intro tonight. Also all the music is finished! Here’s the track for the title screen:
Back to work!
Finishing up some dialogue then revising some graphics and hopefully adding a few new scenes if there’s time. About five hours left, think this is gonna be a close one.
Hey there, I’m in too. This is my third time around and can’t wait to get started. I’ll be using these tools:
– Flash CC AS3 { mostly just timeline animation and simple actions }
– Figure { music creation }
– Sound Studio 4 { audio editing }
And this will be my physical set up: a macbook air on a dresser with a wacom and a yoga mat to stand on. I’m a little wary of this new arrangement because I was just leaning my left elbow a little too hard on the dresser and now my left pinky is numb. Think I may have pinched a nerve or something, but I’m sure the numbness will go away soon with proper posture. Anyways, be safe at your standing desks, hope you have fun and good luck to everyone!
The first few hours are coming to a close and I think I have an idea, tho not entirely sure how it’s going to turn out. Basically it is going to be a randomly generated, bright and colorful artsy fartsy exploration piece. It came down to that or a wallpaper removing simulator which I don’t think I’d be able to make in time, but really hope someone does. Anyways I’m calling it “Delve” for now. The placeholder title card is below. While concepting I was able to make some music and will hopefully save some time there. For now I’m stepping away from the computer to make some sketches then sleep. Full steam tomorrow!
Finished the music (tho not entirely sure it all fits the visuals), the title screen and set up the shell for the rest of the game which will get added tonight and tomorrow. So far things are going smoothly and I am definitely feeling more confident with my mediocre game development skills. That’s all for tonight, but here’s a sneak peak at the intro till tomorrow: delve
Evening friends, just submitted Delve which is ready for some playin’ and really curious what you guys think. Not quite sure what to make of it myself. I’m going to post some thoughts on the weekend tomorrow, but for now it’s time to play some games! Thanks everyone for making the weekend super fun!
The Delve postmortem.
First off, thanks so much to those who played Delve and left such nice comments and feedback, I truly appreciate it. And also thanks to everyone for making such fun and creative games! Very inspiring as always.
The Concept
I struggled a bit with this theme and landed on a simple rummaging “down the rabbit hole” searching game that I wasn’t too excited about. Not a great way to start a game jam. It was a toss up between that and a wallpaper removal simulator, which I really hope someone ended up making. The direction I ended up taking at least let me practice some animation which is something I love doing.
The Visuals
This part of the project took about 95% of the time. For example I spent all day Saturday just on the title screen and half of Sunday on the end screen. In hindsight that was probably not the way to go since it left hardly any time to make the actual game, but I had a great time animating those parts and that’s what counts, right?
The Gameplay
Ha, not sure this section counts. I literally spent about two hours before the deadline scrambling to connect the title and end screens together. Since each letter of the title represents a world and had an animated looping component, I simply grabbed those loops and threw them on some backgrounds with a mask to reveal the world underneath. This ended up making the gameplay very shallow and for sure the weakest part of the piece.
The Audio
Most of the music was created Friday night while concepting. I used Figure on my phone to create multiple loops that I piece together later in Sound Studio 4. For the most part tho I don’t really think the music fits super great with the visuals. Ambient sound would probably have been nicer. The sfx that are there were created quickly with the amazing online tool as3sfxr.
The Time Management
I’ve recently started using a task tracking software called Tyme and used it for LD29. It’s kind of interesting to do this and would for sure recommend it. I found it helped keep me focused and minimized distractions. Here’s where I netted out:
Concepting / 1hr:43min
Audio / 2hr:18mn
Programming {includes design + animation} / 17hr:43
Submitting / 23mn
For a total of 22hr07mn
The Future
I’m not sure if I’ll make Delve more than it currently is, which is an unintentionally poor knock-off of the amazing pieces by Vectorpark like Windosill. I have several other game ideas that I may merge with it to give it its own unique voice so it can stand apart. But before that, I need to finish production of my miniLD48 game, Lucky Lighter, which should be done soon-ish. I’ll be periodically publishing dev updates on the twitter if interested. Thanks again for looking!
As LD29 comes to a close I just wanted to say a big “Thank You” to everyone for making this jam so amazing. You’re all diamonds in my book!
I’m in and I’ll be working from this adjustable tiny sit/stand desk in my tiny house.
At first I wasn’t into the idea and got all pouty, but after some thinking I landed on a fun little idea that got me excited. It’s probably more than I can chew, but hey, that’s where the magic is. The song below was made while brainstorming tonight using Figure then tweaked in Logic. I find that just playing around with music sometimes helps with idea generation. Anyways I’m off to sketch some stuff and get some sleep. See ya tomorrow and best of luck to everyone.
Hi! Just a quick post to show some stuff. Still have a long ways to go…
