This is the first time I’ve made one of these posts, but this Ludum Dare is going to have a lot of firsts for me, so I might as well start now.

For my first two entries, I used Khan Academy, which is not a great platform for making games. So this time I’m using Love2D for my entry. Problem is, I’m not really experienced with Lua. Like, at all. So this will be an adventure.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do for sound. I might use Garageband. That’ll be a first.

I’m also not sure what I’m going to use for making sprites. It’ll depend on what game I want to make.

Finally, I’ll be publishing on itch.io for the first time.

Good luck everyone!

Before the Competition

I chose not to use Khan Academy for this Ludum Dare for obvious technical reasons. So, for the first time in my short LD history, I made my game using Love2D, Problem was, I had never coded in Lua before. I made a simple platformer the day before, but that was all my prep. So I knew it was going to be a little difficult.

When I saw the final themes, I knew that I would have like the theme to be Simplicity. It wouldn’t be very difficult for my first time using Love, and I had a great idea. The last theme I wanted? One Room. So small, and not abstract. So when the theme came out, I knew I wasn’t ready.

Oh boy.

The First Hour

I found a bunch of sticky notes, and I made it my goal to use as many of them as possible during the first hour. I had no idea what to do. I wrote down the words One and Room and defined each of them. Not really sure why. Then I wrote down questions, such as “Story?” and “Obstacles?”. I had no answers to these.

It took me a while to realize that:

1. I would need a big room and a small character to complete a game with any sort of character movement.

2. I should probably make something without lots of crazy movement.

I decided to make a game where the speedy user had to dodge the fast enemies and bullets. I was putting my head right up against the problem and taking it on. I thought that it would be cute to have a mouse as the main character, running away from cats and humans. That’s pretty original, right?

I spent the rest of my evening creating the mouse character. I had an idea of what it should look like, so I chose to sketch it out using MS Paint.

Not a good idea.

MS Paint is not good software for making arcs, and basically all of my artwork includes arcs. Even if it was going to be a placeholder, it still wasn’t smart. So I went to Khan Academy and drew out my character in code. I then removed the background in Word and pasted it in the program. I did the same thing with my background. It was time for me to sleep after an unproductive evening; I wasn’t going to stay up all night.

The Next Day

I wanted to get most of my entry completed this day, so when I woke up, I nearly ran for my computer. I spent the early morning adding player movements (how do I make if statements again?) and adding collisions (wait, which one’s the comment command?). After breakfast, I designed my cat graphic, which I was unsatisfied with, while watching my Cherries lose away at Burnley. By then it was time for an early lunch, which I coded the human character through.

After lunch, I added movements for the the cat and humans. I originally wanted the cats to slowly rotate towards the player when looking away, but I forgot to uncomment one line of code, and by the time I discovered it, I already implemented the easier movements for the cats.

I almost wanted the humans to look bad, just so the player could have something to laugh at. I think I did a good job. They’re not too smart, and when you get too close, the throwing movement messes up.

It was around the evening when I finally got the name Mouse House, which I thought would be original, but was not, because two other games share my name. 😛

During the night I added cheeses and their boosts.

Final Day and Submission

I didn’t have a lot of time to finish on the final day, so I woke up early and added dying mechanics and the win/lose screen. My background was simply a placeholder, so I worked on a new one when I could throughout the busy day. I spent the last hour refining the level and making sure that it wasn’t too easy or too hard.

When the contest finally ended I had to make my file an executable, which I had yet to do, and I had to post it on itch.io, which I had never used before. The Love2D instructions were unclear, and I had to watch and rewind a youtube video to show me how. By the time I had my program in an executable, there were 10 minutes left! I quickly downloaded my game onto itch.io (which is why I forgot to publish it) and I attached it to my Ludum Dare entry. I pressed submit one minute before time.

When I was in bed, I realized that I forgot to attach the source code! So I made a Khan Academy program and copy-pasted it into the program. It wasn’t pro, but it would work.

Ideas for Next Time

This LD was actually pretty fun. I wasn’t happy with the theme, but I still made a solid game. However, I need to use a new graphics program. I’m gonna try Paint.net, which should make things easier. If you have any other ideas just let me know by commenting on my game here.

So I'm making my post-mortem for Daylight a little bit late. I don't really have a sleep excuse, because it's been two and a half days since I submitted it. The real reason why I'm doing this so late is because I don't want my post to be caught in the tsunami of post-mortems that lasts for a while. That's right, I'm greedy for views. And no, not the Drake album.

When the theme was announced, I was pretty sure that I was going to make a game about sailing and exploration, but I decided to brainstorm just to make sure. Then I realized: "Hey, why don't I make a game that I designed for my video game design class for a whole month? That would make sense." And so that's what I did. (Note: I didn't write any code for it before. We simply had to design the feel of the game.) The problem was, Daylight was meant to be in black and white. And the last time I made a black and white game for the compo, it totally flopped. (Maybe it's also because I hadn't used Lua before. That's a slight problem.) I don't know why I like making games in two colors, but I KNEW that this time, my game had to be color. So the first night, I design the player and the platforms, and then made a blue background. Hey, that looks good. So I added some brown blocks with green grass. That's not bad. What if I just go completely against my previous idea and feel for the game and go into a tangent that leads me to who-knows-where? And so it was settled. The main idea behind Daylight is that you're on a small planet, stranded, with nowhere to go except up. By jumping up through the platforms and fighting monsters, gravity gets weaker. Do this enough and you can jump off of the planet and return home. I was in a minimalist phase when I designed the game (more minimalist then I am now), so I wanted it to be simple. Simple colors, simple designs. But people move on.

My character was originally a full human character. It looked out of place, like the cheese in Mouse House. And I wanted my artwork to be strongly connected with the feel of the game. I turned our protagonist into a white cube with a tiny eye. I added some breathing effects, and voila! This game doesn't look bad. I'm not an artist, so this is actually an accomplishment for me. The next day, I changed the gravity so it would vary with the player's height. Then I started working on making the planet and all its platforms. I was surprised when I was done with this in three hours. So I worked on making the monsters. This should take long, right? Nope. I was done. The last thing I had to do was add the energy. As the player jumps, they lose energy, and the only way they can get energy back is by defeating monsters. Implementing this didn't take long. Now my game was looking pretty complete. Problem was, I still had 24 hours. So I went to bed, not sure if I should be happy or sad.

During Sunday morning, I made my artwork better. I added a sun, clouds, stars and flowers, things that I didn't need for the mechanics of the game. Now it was time to make some music. I haven't had time to make LD music before, and I was surprised at how easy it was. Even with my broken keyboard, which shuts off at random times for no reason, it only took me an hour in Garageband to come up with something good. I added it to the game along with my sound effects that I created with sfxr. I had a commitment for the next 6 hours, but I still had time to brainstorm. I decided to make the energy fields checkpoints if the player ever falls off of the map. I don't want the player to rage quit when they fall all the way to the bottom and have to start climbing all over again. Then it was time to submit, and even with the new layout confusing me, I was able to get my game in with time to space. That time was to sleep.

What went right My artwork went better than expected. I put a lot of time into it with Piskelapp, and I got a lot out of it. However, I'm still shocked with what others can come up with. My graphics work on a simplistic level, but the other graphics are so... real. My art isn't terrible by any means, but I would love to see what others use to make theirs. Piskelapp probably isn't a great long-term setup. Music has been lacking in all of my games (especially the ones on Khan Academy, where it isn't allowed). I was excited to finally add some noise to my games, and sfxr worked great for the sound effects.

What went wrong The main thing that I can do better next time is aim higher. I was done with most of my game in a day. Games in game jams aren't meant to be polished. I should strive to complete more. My game performs terribly. I sort of told myself that I shouldn't focus on performance, but the game uses up 5% of my CPU. That's not a lot compared to some 3D games, but it's enough to make Chrome crash in Windows 8. Maybe it's my computer. I need an upgrade. My code could be neater. This isn't a big deal,but it looks like my dog threw up on my screen. Also, I'm writing code twice, just because it's easier for me to copy and paste. :P

Daylight is posted here on Ludum Dare and is available on itch. Please give me some feedback! I haven't firgued out how to embed links in posts yet so it's here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$24615

Hi! I have a couple questions about the judging process that I'm not sure where to answer. So I'm just putting them here.

1. How can I tell how many reviews my game has gotten? I would like to know when I have gotten enough reviews for my game, and when I don't need to be stressed about getting a rating.
2. This one is not as related but I feel like most people are using Feedback Friends to find games to judge. I can't find my game on that site, even when I get rid of my username. I feel like this is hurting my changes of getting more feedback. Is this a me problem, or a Feedback Friends problem?

Thanks for reading. Any help is appreciated.

I've been too lazy to play your games but if you could play mine that would be cool because all I need is 9 more ratings. Now to insert a gif so people actually look at this.

Play on Windows: https://frog-rock-game-jams.itch.io/daylight-ludum-dare-38

Now that I've got your attention: I've rated around 25 games so far. But my game has only 14 rates. People keep on leaving really long feedback on my games and, although it was helpful at first, everyone is just saying the same things, and it's driving me down on Feedback Friends. (I also don't know how coolness is calculated, but I know it has to do with some of the feedback that I get.) So play my game, because I said so, and rate it. Leave a little comment and I'll play yours, but longer comments aren't really adding anything. Now here's a gif to make everyone feel better:

Play Daylight for Windows: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/daylight

Some of us have gone solo before, but this time, we're a team! We've got the amazing @Aphid98 to do most of our Unity coding. This will be his second Ludum Dare, but his first in a team. @NorthernFlicker75 hasn't participated in an LD before, so I'm excited so see what he can do! He will take care of most of the art so we don't have to use lame programmer art. I'll be behind the scenes designing the game, sketching concept art, and coding as well. I might try my luck with some pixel art, and I will make any audio we use for the game. It'll be my fifth time in the jam, but the first time with a team. We'll be using Unity as an engine, with Piskel for art and Garageband and sfxr for audio. Here are our goals: - Don't aim too low. We have a team this time, so we should be able to get a lot more done. I want to have features that couldn't be implemented in time, so that we aren't trying to perfect the game. I've made some really bad games as an individual, and I have been done within 36 hours, leaving 12 to test and test and test something that really isn't that good. - Keep difficulty in check. I have always made LD games that are way too difficult, with barely any learning curve. I make the games to challenge me, not others! So I want a game that will still be fun to play for everyone. - Most importantly, have fun!

So far, I haven't gotten any feedback over three lines. People comment to tell me that they like the game, and maybe mention a couple things, but I haven't gotten any feedback that really critically analyzes my game. If everyone comments that they like what I'm doing, and then I get a low score, I don't know what to fix. So come at me. I need to learn what I can do better, especially being a novice with Unity. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/sugar-crash

I might not be a Warriors fan, but I can still follow the latest trends. I haven't uploaded one of these before, so here goes.

You can play Sugar Crash here.

Not every game is rated. So if you're like me, and you really want to see how "eh" your game is, look no further. Here's how many games ACTUALLY got ratings in each category.

Compo: - Overall: 677 - fun: 677 - Innovation: 677 - theme: 660 - graphics: 677 - audio: 507 - humor: 567 - mood: 628

@jason-kennedy got these numbers by "scrapping the API." He posted them here. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that means, or how to do that. But I do know how to scroll through the results while getting hype to some 21 Savage.

Jam: - Overall: 1158 - fun: 1158 - Innovation: 1158 - theme: 1157 - graphics: 1065 - audio: 714 - humor: 970 - mood: 1080

(I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 thousand games to scroll through...)

(Cause it wouldn’t be Ludum Dare without one self-hype blog post!)

Our game [Resist and Persist] (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/resist-and-persist) is a 2D retro-themed space shooter where you must fend off waves of aliens to let your civilians escape from their planets while making sure to sacrifice your own worlds when the aliens get too close. And it needs your feedback!

Well, not really. But we would like it.

So we’re making you a deal! If you give us feedback, we’ll give you equal feedback in return. Give us positive feedback? We’ll make sure to shower you with compliments! Give us vague feedback? You won’t even know what we’re talking about! Roast our game? We’ll roast yours back! (If we can.)

Need even more convincing? There's a playthrough video right here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qWWjI5TY8

Plus, we have a web version! But please don’t play it. Honestly, I don’t even know why we have a web version.

So what are you waiting for? Play [Resist and Persist] (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/resist-and-persist) now!

Obligatory shameless self-promotion.

Play it. Or don't! But it's here. Up to you. :shrug:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/$227250

My first mobile game, House Match, is now available for download on the App Store and Google Play!

I'd like to thank everyone in this community for helping me along this journey. I started competing in Ludum Dare 4 years ago, when I was just 14. I've learned so much from this competition; the feedback I've gotten on my games has been invaluable, and your creations have truly inspired me.

If you want to check out the app, you can download it here

You can also play our entry for LD47, Hula Hype, here

Thank you!

Hello. My name is Spencer. I am your automated assistant and guide. My purpose is to monitor your actions and provide feedback for the rest of your existence. Consider me a friend who’s always looking out for what’s best for you.

I will start by teaching you what you need to lead a successful life in your new state of existence. Thousands of other trainees are receiving the exact same training right now, just like you. Together, we will all work together to form a perfect Final Society.

The basis of the Final Society is in equality. It’s important you understand that, when everything is the same, nothing can be unfair and nothing can be wrong.

There are three tasks in the Final Society. Lucky for you, they are all very easy. In the sorting area, you will place the colored cubes in their corresponding bins.

In the filling area, you will press the button when all the rings are filled.

And in the counting area, you will place the specified number of cubes in the transparent tray before pressing the button.

All you need to do is complete these tasks for the rest of your existence.

Remind yourself that everything that you will do is for the benefit of the Final Society. If you don’t do so, the punishment is all internal. You must live with the guilt that you are not benefitting the Final Society. If that happens, we’ll use special techniques to help guide you so that you can return to contributing to the Final Society one again.

Nothing is a mistake in the Final Society. There is no light in the Final Society because there is no darkness.

Enter the Final Society Here

(Note: this experience has only been tested in Oculus Quest, but theoretically should be VR platform-independent. If someone with a Vive or another device wants to test this, that would be awesome! I'd definitely play your game in return :thumbsup:.)

Any VR-only games that need help with ratings? Post in the comments and I'll make sure to rate.

If you have a Quest (or another stand-alone headset, but untested) feel free to try Final Society.