Long time gamer, first time building a game
I'm probably not the typical Ludum Dare participant - I've had a couple careers in acting and recruiting, but I've love video games ever since getting my Atari 2600 as a kid. I've been learning some basics of coding and game design, doing lots of tutorials, but I hadn't gotten the nerve to build a game yet. Then my friend Carl told me about Ludum Dare and I said, let's do it!
Carl is an experienced game developer but I am a first timer, so I felt a little out of my league. We started with brainstorming on Friday night, using post-its to write down ideas. Once we settled on one - a 3D platformer with a vacuuming mechanic - we got a bite to eat and divided responsibilities using Trello. He would do most of the coding and i would focus on level design.
Saturday we worked all day - the hardest part was the first step, just putting the first objects down to build a level. At first I had no idea what I was doing, and the first version I built showed it! But the second one was much better and the third a little better. Time passed quickly and before we knew it we had a few levels, a main character who vacuums things up for a living, and a winnable game. Some polishing on Sunday, adding a tutorial level and fleshing out the player character, Main Menu UI and we had our game.
Congrats to everyone who built a game! I imagine, if you are like me, the rush of building a game from scratch in a matter of hours was worth it. I'll add another post going over some features of the game.
I think I'm hooked. When is Ludum Dare 41?
Pink orbs make your jump shorter, yellow orbs make you bigger.
You can probably guess the strategy on this intro level for the platforms on the left and the building on the right!
