This was my first Ludum Dare, and I doubt it will be my last.

I have taken my time to document and share my experience with this jam, from the development, the immediate reflection, and now the retrospective and finale.

In short, it was awesome. The community was great, the feedback was helpful, and I have grown as a game developer thanks to this crew.

The video says more, but it's been a blast. Thanks for making this happen everyone!

https://youtu.be/kP96b5axv7Q

Finally! The 0.1 beta has arrived for Little Shop of Wall Street!

In this video, DW walks through the new features rolled out both in-game and behind the scenes for his LD46 game jam title.

https://youtu.be/baMlNqGgiV4

Side Notes

This release is an important one for me.

First, off it's the first "beta" release which I've categorized as a moderately stable release, and includes a "complete gameplay loop" on purpose. There are still plenty of bugs (as the video even showed) but it works and playable.

Second, this release is the original vision of what I pictured the gamejam submission to be when D'Arcy and I came up with the idea back in April. Many months later, I have that release which says a lot about my prototyping and experimenting process (i.e. I'm too slow).

Lastly, I have multiple versions of the game out there including Linux/X11 and Windows versions. There's still a lot more to learn and do with the while devops setup for my projects, but this is a great step forward and can be reused with all my Godot-based projects moving forward.

Until the next one-- thanks for playing.

~ DW

In prep for LD47, I did something of a self evaluation on my previous gamejam submissions to come up with some goals and learning objectives to see what I expect to get out of my second Ludum Dare.

https://youtu.be/V_zCHtZIsYw

In prep for the jam, I prepped a project scaffold based on my old projects. It ended up being a bunch game mechanics I think can be mushed together, but we'll have to see what I can do during the jam.

I made a video as part of a series demoing and reviewing my intent for the jam.

I look forward to seeing you all out there...or whatever the words should be. :v:

https://youtu.be/Qj3lL3lexaE

This is my second Ludum Dare competition, and as usual I truly enjoyed myself. Last year, I brought things to a close for myself by gathering my thoughts about my experience in a devlog/vlog sort of format.

I did the same this time around and tried to summarize "what it took" to be a solo amateur game developer in this lovely gamejam event. :v:

https://youtu.be/AFnGMS24qvg

My effort continues on Out the Door with some new artwork, a rewrite (of sorts) to fix the build process, which has led to something of a self-driven code review.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/LLXO-6Pretk

TL;DR;

• Using the extra time, post-jam to continue to fix up and practice my developer art. Not sure if it'll be the final thing, but practice is the only way I'm going to get better.
• My web deployment was broken during the jam which had something to do with my project and GitHub Actions. I ended up starting a new project from scratch and porting over code (while rewriting a lot of it) through a sort of self-driven code review process.
• No new release just yet, as I want my first post-jam release to have something new to offer than the LDJAM submission...but it's coming along!

Quick Update

Spent a chunk of the day cleaning up the refactor and managed to port over the dialogue system from the LDJAM version and mark that chunk of work complete. :smile_cat:

Did a short update video if you are interested in seeing the progress.

Now onto the scenario planning... :thinking:

https://youtu.be/VVliVGod7ZQ

The process continues on my LD47 game remake/redux you're supposed to call it. Currently working towards making it playable with more content, but managed to get the guts of the game working in a way that I like and extensible. With the tech out of the way, I am going to focus on content, content, and then more content.

YouTube video below, but just in case you don't have the time...

TL;DR;..or watch

• Been stuck on designing the "larger" game loop for the game, but managed to simplify and find something that feels true to the original design.
• Removed web-based support and focusing on Windows/Linux support for the near future.
• Added dynamic media displays that can be specified in ink script.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3RQYr4Gmtw

I've been so occupied with improving my game architecture that I managed to forget the most important part of my game.

TL; DR;

The original plan was to get a playable demo out by the end of the month. I planned it all out, implemented a bunch of features, and squashed a bunch of bugs...but forgot the most important part: The gameplay.

The release I prepared for January is a really nice tech demo...but doesn't provide a reason to really play. It's a ego boost (which is fine) but not a good release to the players. What is most frustrating is that it's been four months since LD46 ended, and at this point I have less of a game than I did after the weekend.

Lessons learned this time around don't overthink it and everything needs gameplay. There is a time and place to focus on the tech, but that time isn't in the beginning of your project.

I have a plan to get back to the gameplay and develop an ACTUAL game, but it's going to take some time. Here's hoping that by the time you hear from me next time, I have something to show. :smiley_cat:

UPDATE: Forgot to include the link in the proper format

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX1DcwJfRrE