Watch me try to use Unity…Each screenshot represents 1 minute

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GUtGD Timelapse Video

GUtGD Entry Page

Creepy post heading aside:  I’m sharing my only slightly censored thoughts/brainstorm/game doc! See my thoughts vomit on your screen in real time!

The current idea in progress is about the superficial interaction between humans and being able to delve beneath the surface that to befriend/utilize others.

I’m going to take a step back and try to make a text adventure this LD so I actually finish something (in theory). I might also make two games if I get this one done…

 

 

Tags: compo, LD28

So the idea is that the current time is like the top of an object or the surface, and the past is like the underneath. Therefore you can reveal beneath the surface of time and loot/interact with objects in the past.

Here you can see me gaining some money (since you always spawn with 10 gold), but you only will have 10 days to complete the entire game… so suicide wisely if you choose this tactic at all.

Take note of the current day in the top right.

Reveal past lets you see what was in the room in previous days. (I missed a command.)

 

 

Phew. So I was trying to avoid IRC chat by giving myself a goal before I would look at the chat window again!

The goal was delve, which reveals what NPCs are thinking. However I also added a compass, inventory listing, looking at items, case insensitive commands, and the talk command.

Susan is a little boring so it makes the example well.. boring – but you can see where this could go. In theory I can flex my writing muscles* now that the system is working, but I promise nothing!

You can now Delve npcs to see what they’re really thinking!

*even the weakest of men can flex.

Still working on it…but here’s a timelapse using chronolapse since that program is a blast. If you know c++ put a blindfold on before watching!

Explore the intriguing underbelly of PLANETNAMEPLACEHOLDER!

Now you can explore the intriguing underbelly of PLANETNAMEPLACEHOLDER on linux and osx, in theory ! What are npcs saying? And what is really going on between their ears? Plus get questions answered. Like – Can you find the teddy bear?

Lore? A planet name is born.

Yeah. So.. I forgot to name the planet before the deadline…and I don’t even have a name for it now so it’s not really a typo/fix. Opps. I want to name it after the element that’s used as fuel, Cuerlium, but then that might be confusing right? Planet Cuer? Yeah! And the battle of NAME was…. Battle of Creek Ludensen. The Master of the Order could be a Ludensen too, whenver I get to adding him in for a post ld-48 version.

 

Technical info for Linux/OSX

To run in either newly supported platform download and open a command prompt (apple key+space type, type terminal, press enter) then navigate to your download folder (cd Downloads –  I think) and type

./orderofthemindOSX or ./OrderOfTheMind

You may need to make it executable first by (Ubuntu: right clicking, choosing properties then clicking the executable checkbox).

or chmod +x orderofthemindOSX

 

Learn how I learned stuff!

To get the code compiled on ubuntu I installed virtual box, and used an ubuntu iso. I also enabled 3d mode in settings and installed the guest additions by mounting that iso found in virtual box folder to increase my screen res (640*480 makes me suicidal and homicidal – in that order).

Then I tried g++ main.cpp -o ootm on the command line, but g++ isn’t installed so it kindly tells you how to resolve that. I typed that command (sudo apt-get …)

Next was fixing compile errors yayyy! null_ptr or what I was using in MSVC isn’t defined so I just changed my if statements from if(apointer !=null_ptr) to if(apointer).

Also because I was using back() which is apparently new in c++11? So I had to add  -std=c++11 as an argument to g++. The error was something like “ error: ‘std::string‘ has no member named ‘back‘”

OSX

My memory is a little fuzzy on this honestly – g++/clang are the command lines but you need to download them as an addon for xcode. I used this link that I found from this thread, but you need a (Free) dev account . “Useless” comments solved my problem! What do you know?

This was giving me the same error about back() so I used both –std=c++11 AND -stdlib=libc++ to get it working. this time. And then it worked. Yay.

 

Know an easy way to make them execute when you double click?

That’s the last task. I tried googling a bit before I gave up and usually ended up with “how do I get my shell script” blah blah. No promises I’ll actually get this done though.

 

Logos and funny headlines.

Note some things may not be 100% accurate as I just did this for fun and not cookies. Why won’t you give me cookies? Oh you’re broke too? Wait what am I doing with my life again?

Decent chart with ld dates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludum_Dare (oh dear you know it’s going to go well when there is a wiki link right?)

Ludum Dare at archive.org

 

24hr Compo in April  2002

Judging Categories:

– Gameplay (the grand prize essentially), Adaptation of Theme, Originality, Art, Sound, Code,  Polish

 

July 2002

Overall, Gameplay, Fun, Graphics, Sound, Technical, Complete

 

November 2002

Overall, Gameplay, Fun, Graphic, Sound, Technical, Theme, Cosmetic, Complete

 

Mechanical cat does some hosting?

 

Minimalist categories

2004 ish?

• Fun,Innovation,Production (graphics, sound, polish)

 

July 2006:

Noted this information which is still in great contrast to today:

• “No Game Makers”

Obviously it wasn’t allowed before this and at some point this changed.

 

2008 host?

 

Jan 2010

Innovation,Fun,Theme,Graphics,Audio, Humor, Overall, Completeness

First seen humor – not sure when it was introduced though

Interesting tool discussion from 2010:

Should we consider banning game development tools such as Game Maker?

 

August 2011

Fun Audio Overall Theme Graphics Humor Coolness Innovation Community

“As of December 2011 (Ludum Dare 22), we’ve added a new Entry Voting Category: Mood.”

August 2013

• Mood – Storytelling, emotion, and the vibe you get while playing.
• Community – Journals, photos, timelapse video. Everything you do above and beyond just making the game.

 

Some guy was QQing about getting banned from irc in 2002 ish but the thread wasn’t archived… aww! No harvesting tears from the past You can taste mine from the present instead.

 

The general feel of the competition has gone to making a game from scratch without any game engine code – to making a new game with whatever tools you want. Of course it’s without any art assets/music and having pre-declared code.

 

So it’s kind of less about rebuilding boilerplate code and more about making games! I like it.

 

Judging Criteria

What can we gather about the overall judging theme changes? Well – community doesn’t mean your game is good right? I believe this is changed to “coolness” which is just how many games you’ve rated and has no affect on your final placement, but I could be wrong as community is still in the ludum dare rules.

Minimalist category groupings don’t really work since there are many different types of games.

Completeness was totally dropped, possibly because semi-incomplete games may also be really amazing and/or it’s just unnecessary because the ratings should reflect how complete it feels overall.

I could swear there was like a health/taking care of yourself category or something idk if this was a joke one LD.

 

Warning spoilers and loud language below.

Radioactivity

What does a warehouse full of radioactive tutu wearing ninjas have to do with my post compo update? NOTHING!**

But this sample of some new commands does:

Consider, Train, & Kill

Sick of that tutorial woman talking about her favorite game? MURDERED.

Give

A cute little teddy stranded in your inventory? FREEDOM FOR THE BEARS! I wonder what else you can give…

Rest

Feeling a bit tired from all the reading err murdering and pasting? REJUVENATE!

Yeah no gif for this one. Use your imagination!

Skills & Skill Reset

Need to reveal really far back, to dig up stuff beneath the surface  of time but just got your slay on? ADAPT AND OVERCOME!

 

Wordwrap, Spelling, & Placeholders

Words. You can read them as intended now, whole. Spelling – fixed. Placeholders – eliminated.

 

IDK WHAT THIS IMAGE MEANS, BUT I’M YELLING ABOUT IT

1800 Lines of code, 1200 statements,  complexity, and other data I’m not yet sure how to interpret. But look! I’m in the green hoop sometimes! If I can’t green hula hoop, life is not worth it.  Thanks source monitor you give life purpose again.

 

*The surface of Cuer is radioactive. That’s why the game takes place beneath the surface.

**Oh wait there is a radioactive heart…I wonder what that’s for?

Holy crap that blue bird with feathers website!  I always for get to say Follow @Crefossus . Not this time. If you got this far you know you want to increase my followers over 11. We can do it! You can help! If we get to 100 I might ask for money to make stuff. Oh wait…I’m not supposed to say that here. Are you delving me? Get out of my head! Stop seeing what’s beneath the surface.

After today I can’t make that joke anymore. But I probably will anyway.

 

Play Lava Is Last 

It’s interesting to see how much time I spent doing other things, or preparing to work. Like that weird blue/red drawing I made was an idea for oranebeasts game that no one can understand.

Early feedback 

I’m glad I got some early feedback about planets being offscreen/textures. Some people on irc were nice and played an alpha with only 3 planets and no lives.

Initially I put in the reload button to alleviate this but clearly it didn’t work! So now they jump around until they are happy (not blocked/offscreen). Adding more planets and alleviating brute forcing came up as feedback too, although both were planned to be addressed.

Audio

You can also see me make the audio at  3min ish in the timelapse. Is it so bad it’s good? 

Streaming

Helps to keep me focused, and IRC keeps me unfocused – but gives motivation. Even though I had an average view count of about 1 it’s worth it. At the end when I started streaming other peoples games it went up though, yay.  It’s kind of interesting to watch the number in the timelapse and relate it to humans physically sitting down watching or leaving.

Play Lava Is Last 

 

Hi fellow Ludum Dare-ers. Tinertia is a twin stick platformer - check out the trailer below for more info! Tinertia did not start off as a Ludum Dare game, but I probably wouldn't have this job without participating in so many game jams including Ludum Dare. As the title says I did some TRC and QA testing on Tinertia and it's out tomorrow on PS4 (already out on steam, VR Launch tomorrow). You can also find us on twitter at CandescentGames if you want to show some love there.

See everyone on the July 28th for LD39!

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuojQ58DB2U

I made a timelapse of the 18 ish hours I spent into 1 minute.

I even made a whole song to go along with it! You can probably tell all the samples are me 😂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVlqz9Vufjk

I made a longer version of the timelapse and played around with the bg music in pixitracker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV9gYZhHWBo

How to make your own timelapse. Assumption: you have downloaded multiple twitch videos or other recorded videos of you making the game. Video editors tend to choke on resizing huge videos or limit you in how much you can speed a video up, so we will use ffmpeg first

1. download ffmpeg and add it to your path: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html (ref: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-install-ffmpeg-on-windows-10)

2. combine videos - ffmpeg, with option #2 - (ref: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7333232/how-to-concatenate-two-mp4-files-using-ffmpeg)

   • make a file called list.txt
   • add each video name on a new line with the word file before it like this: file day1.mp4 file day2.mp4 file day3.mp4
   • ffmpeg -safe 0 -f concat -i list.txt -c copy output.mp4

3. speed up video - ffmpeg - (ref: https://superuser.com/questions/1261678/how-do-i-speed-up-a-video-by-60x-in-ffmpeg)

   • I think I used this for an 18 hr video, afaik 60 is how many times faster so /2 would be twice as fast
   • ffmpeg -i output.mp4 -filter:v "setpts=PTS/60" timelapse.mp4 -an

4. modify final speed - davinci resolve (it's free - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/)

   • drag clip into timeline in edit mode (3rd tab at bottom)
   • right click clip and use change speed to your liking
   • go to rocket tab (last tab on right) at bottom to export.

Where is grandma's handbag? In the video of course.

I'll be live tomorrow on twitch @ 5pm PT! Drop in an let me rate your game! Or just say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/crefossus

Stream is over for now. Next one is Wednesday @ 5 PM pt (Removed image to save space for others :)

Hello all. Come join me and I'll play your game. I haven't had too much activity so chances are if you come I could play your game right away. I give feedback and thoughts live. https://www.twitch.tv/crefossus

Thanks everyone - the stream is over now!

Hello I'd love to give you feedback and chat with you in twitch chat live on stream over at https://www.twitch.tv/crefossus

In the future, I stream w,f,s 5-7PM attempting to analyze the top 100 games (I'm at #33 now). You can see that doc over here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yuDVNyRjTy7DEMhzxSoyx2pLoeDkIY6dliwg5OEkGZs/edit?usp=sharing if you're curious of the types of stuff I talk/think about during the streams.

Also if you're struggling to get ratings make sure you play & rate others because you show up higher in the list. Also leave valuable feedback in the comments for the devs of that game. That's weighted more this time.

I'm funny? Me? Uhhh ok, 100% intended. OK. Yes. I'm letting it get to my head and making a bad comic. No, you can't change your rating now.

Also sorry. It's an inside joke after reading my comments. I'm sure you can relate, especially if you had to make sacrifices in your game from the time constraint. If you didn't sacrifice anything please write a book. Take my money you scope god.

It's not the most organized or pretty sheet but it's a start if you want to input your own data. There are 4 charts. Here is my LD Ratings over time.

File->Make a copy to make it your own. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QuPtK8dCmu4-bgWC9VdOLFgQ3RYkexo8G0MxqGqxl4I/edit?usp=sharing

So I've been doing a challenge to write a one page game design review for each of the top 100¹ games. Warning possible spoilers. I'm at ~81 now and I wanted to share some of the results common to many of the top games before we do LDJAM this weekend. Of course these games were not made in 48hrs by one person, so it can be challenging to apply during a jam. I’ll order them according to feasibility and importance with that in mind.

* Obstacle/abilities matching² *

Overcoming a challenge by using your skillset/abilities or making progression faster with your matching abilities is core. It's the paper covering the rock and a smile after - gotcha! - Dash length gap - Dash. Celeste - Small hole/path, long sloped surfaces - Ball form. Metroid - Unfavorable position - Cloak, reposition. Titanfall 2 - Shield enemy - 3 hit combo. God of War - Get new item in dungeon, dungeon puzzles/bosses use that - Zeldas - Etc etc, literally all of them so far.

...Read more in comments! A lot more!

If you placed you can watch a highlight of just your game in this playlist:

https://www.twitch.tv/collections/29wuqCNI6BafoQ

Click on the top left of the first video to see the playlist.

I took light notes on the right up until about the ~22nd? game when I abandoned that to go a bit faster.

There's also a heart rate monitor in the bottom left which may or may not be working depending on the game (never working on the right).

The original broadcast: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1463733868

If I made any errors that aren't mentioned in the video description let me know.

*all except for compo #7 (sorry danman9914 somehow I skipped your game but on the bright side you get your own eventually when I'm not burned out)

Getting rated after LD55 ends

YES YELLING IS NECESSARY. The way the discovery system works is that you rate and optionally make thoughtful comments that get liked. Your game then naturally rises up the list to be played, regardless of the quality/presentation of your game. It's unnecessary to: - post your game as a blog post - post in discord - advertise it literally anywhere - do anything else to get rated

Somehow people miss this every LD and end up generating thoughtless comment spam or putting in way too much effort trying to market their game when they could just be putting that effort into rating other games. Postmortems are always fun to read though, just don't make any post with the sole intention of driving traffic to get rated. It's just silly.

Getting an LD rating is so simple though.. just rate others!

+I'm in

I'm in with possibly another unfinished game for the scrap heap. I had the most fun making silly characters in ld31 so I think I'll stand tall and try again.

LD31 is probably the only LD I worked almost the whole weekend too, but the game wasn't great. It reinforces that hard work is not productivity or value. But learning lessons and/or having fun are kind of the whole point!