Doing LD for the first time,

going to be making the game in C# with XNA game studio, probably usin paint and Gimp for graphics and probably sfxr for sound effects.

Here’s an idea: something kinda like a god game… but in reverse!

You are a small populace on a tiny island assigned with a god that has randomly assigned attributes (likes / dislikes) and your goal is to make your god as happy as possible! however you don’t actually know right from the start what your god wants, so you have to experiment….

also, kinda mock-up:

Working on my people for my game, so far they’re oddly interesting to watch, very similar to ants actually, except they’ll be YOUR ants 😀

Halfway through an all-nighter, looking good tbh: so far the god does nothing but look at your cursor, however, the rest of the mechanics are in place, and there’s some room for some rts fun right now so here’s a build (this is XNA you’ll need the .net framework 4 and XNA client version 4.0 as well):

The build

and for visual support:

Implementing god likes and dislikes right now.

Annoying my god is oddly satisfying. Espicially when said god does not like attention and praying to it makes it angry.

mmmh, tasty, tasty mechanics are starting to be tastier

Just published (right in time too, like 5 minutes prior to the deadline) my game, you’ll find it here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=11227

so, it turned out pretty well, shame there’s no music, but oh well!

So you are a small people, on a tiny island, and you like your god a lot (like, you really do) and thus you wish to make your god as happy as possible as fast as possible!

Your god’s preferences are utterly random and you’ll have to watch its reactions to understand how to please it, which may or may not prove quite hard (or, you can have fun annoying it until utterly destroys you)…

First ludum dare entry accomplished 😀

After now 2 weeks of *almost* intense work on my game (which can be found here) I’ve reached the point I wanted to take it to, I have now reached a final state for the game!

In a quest for perfection and in response to the feedback I got, this final version features:
– new stuff!
– a more expressive god!
– a god with mood swings that also changes colors!
– bad music!
– more sound effects!
– a bit more explanatory introduction texts!
– evil-er enemies!
– 100% more polish!
And brand new graphics done by my sister, see for yourself:

and without further ado, you can download a version without an installer here and a version with an installer here

Going in for the 2nd time, this time using javascript with gimp and uh… no idea yet for sound, will see later (limited in time sadly, so may not get sound or music in)

All I would really need right now would be tips for hosting the game, right now I’ve got a dropbox set up, not sure if it’ll do though

Alright, so, I’ve got an idea, which, I’ll admit, may not fit the theme entirely, but it works:

Evolution of a fisherman!
so essentially, the concept is you start off on a very small boat, with little to no ressources, and the goal is to sell fish to buy stuff for you boat, all in the mindset of evolving into the master fishing boat!
all that while defending against the onslaught of pirates and storms who may very well sink your ship, making you lose all your precious cargo…

So yeah, really, focusing on evolving that damn boat into an iron-clad-cannon-flinging-harpoon-epicness that will still fish fish (and maybe steal fish as well, will have to see…)

mock-up cause I love ’em:

well, um, I had a very long night of sleep, so I don’t have much work done (yet)

but!

I have a very fancy wave system in place that makes the water almost alive:

So things are starting to shape up, still have a bunch of things to implement (like, everything) but at least now I have a boat to play around with!

At last, after a “hard” day of work (I’m not done yet today!) I’ve got fishing to work (mostly) as well as a few other things!

Well, I’m getting pretty tired, and, while I still got soz much work to do (noooes!) I’m guessing I’ll be more efficient just stopping here and come back to it tomorrow..
in the meanwhile:
building!

So, only like 4 hours to go and so much still to implement (mostly, a goal to the game and the main part: ship parts)

but it’s shaping up!

for the curious, I’ve got a dropbox hosting a build of the game here : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80086733/Home.html
(A and D to move, you need to buy a sail / oars first, you can do that in the shop that you can open with E. F is for fishing and Q is for firing cannons)

however, I have no idea how good dropbox is for this sort of thing, so if anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Alas! I was able to “finish” my game in time, buts! it is still very unfinished indeed…

All in all, most of the core stuff has been implemented, however, there is no sound, no music, and only a few parts to buy for the ship,
still, there is *some* fun to be had in playing it, it’s just a shame I lost track of theme midway… (partly, this is due to me lacking the time to properly make several parts to buy for the ship and allow customization)

For the curious sort, a link to the game:

Alas! I was able to “finish” my game in time, buts! it is still very unfinished indeed…Alas! I was able to “finish” my game in time, buts! it is still very unfinished indeed…

All in all, most of the core stuff has been implemented, however, there is no sound, no music, and only a few parts to buy for the ship,ll in all, most of the core stuff has been implemented, however, there is no sound, no music, and only a few parts to buy for the ship,
still, there is *some* fun to be had in playing it, it’s just a shame I lost track of theme midway… (partly, this is due to me lacking the time to properly make several parts to buy for the ship and allow customization)

For the curious sort, a link to the game:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=11227

We are IN (for the jam)! Me and my partner shall be using Java with slick2d, probably some Midi if we ever have time to make music, as for sound, probably some sfxr if possible and for graphx, we’ll be using gimp/photoshop.

After hours (1) of debating, we’re ready to start (what, the ludum dare started 12 hours ago? blasphemy)! We’re a 3 1/2 man team composed of our fantasmagoric graphist, 2 programmers and a composer who will be called upon in due time. We’ve got an almost original concept that will be developped in java, using Slick (because being dead doesn’t stop it from being handy) and that will be showed more in detail later on.

It’s done!

Well, not quite…
but still!

Our jam game has shaped up quite nicely; 10 seconds to insanity, despite some gameplay issues (well, I mean, the mood is the main gameplay element…), the game’s really spooky, and it should be somewhat spookier tomorrow! (I mean, we’ve got some neat ideas coming up)

without further ado, please play it (you will get all the cookies. ALL OF THEM) here

it was only slightly painful to code…

With the 27th Ludum Dare now completed (well, the voting’s just begun, but the games themselves are supposed to be quite done), it’s time for some post-mortem joy!

The game our team made for the jam was 10 Seconds to Insanity, for those curious about it (I mean, it’s pretty slick, you should definitively check it out), here’s a link, as well as video, because god-dangit-I-made-it-so-I-want-people-to-see-it (also, shameless promotion)

Alright, now for some actual thoughts about the Ludum Dare.

What went right:
– Working with familiar languages and libraries ensured that no issues were had regarding the languages itself (by now, we were pretty familiar with Java and Slick, and as such didn’t waste any time learning stuff)
– Rendering in an isometric view, while it demanded more work than a regular view would’ve been, really gave the game charm
– Creating the game’s atmosphere was a blast, especially since we had both access to music and graphics (the best part of being a team, really)
– Having the labyrinth randomly generated really gave the game length and longer-lasting appeal
– The lighting system was easy to implement and a ton of fun to work with

What went wrong:
– Having the labyrinth randomly generated represented a huge workload that took up a significant portion of the time we had
– Having the only programmer with free time on monday night being called away by real life sadly prevented the addition of much-needed sound effects
– Ideas with dubious gameplay implementations proved to be dubious gameplay-wise, while the game was very atmospheric, the gameplay itself left much to be desired

Final thoughts:

Easily the best Ludum Dare that I (the guy writing the post-mortem) was able to participate in, also, I believe this is true for my partners as well

But that’s fine: for this time around, I’m going to shake things up and try up ruby. It’s the very first time I use ruby. Ever. While this is probably gonna bite me hard down the road, that’s all right because I’m taking advantage of the Ludum Dare precisely to get a grip on ruby and learn it a bit.
As for a framework, Gosu will be the poison of choice for this weekend, let’s hope it’s good and mellow.

I’ll be assisted by a few friends, my sister for graphxes (such pretty!) and by my cousin for sound and music (such sound and music! such wow!).