For LD-32 I made a game called “Fun with Vacuums”. I entered the Jam with no expectations and I am satisfied with the game I was able to produce. This is what I submitted.

What went well

– Choosing an idea that I could reasonably program: The idea I chose for the game was easy to program. I am glad that I chose this idea over every other idea that I had because every other idea would have either taken too long to program, or was too complex, and involved me having to do research to learn how to implement some algorithm necessary for the game. I am glad that I was able to find an idea which I could complete, rather than a really complex idea which I wouldn’t have been able to finish in time.

– Audio: My highest score was in the audio category, which really surprised me because I had spent the least amount of time on the audio. I am really glad that I did add sounds into the game, because it makes the game feel so much more polished. In previous games I made, I never added any sound because I didn’t realize that audio improves the game. I thought that it was just a “nice to have” feature rather than a fundamental part of the game. After seeing how much of an effect audio had on improving my game, I definitely see the importance of it, and I will put extra focus on making it in future games that I make.

– Programming: I didn’t run into many technical challenges, and because I programmed the game in the language I had the most experience with (java), I didn’t have to waste much time looking at reference documentation (the only thing which I had to look up was how to play audio, but I didn’t waste too much time doing so). I had been considering programming the game using a language I had less experience with, but I decided against it because I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to finish the game in time if I did so.

What didn’t go well

– Thinking of an idea quickly: I spent an entire day deciding what I was going to make. By the time I figured out what to make, I only had 10 hours to program it. This was bad time management, I probably should have limited brainstorming to a maximum of 4 hours, which would have given me much more time to program the game.

– Testing outside of the IDE: I didn’t test my game outside of my IDE until just before the deadline. As a result, I accidentally omitted all the images from my game in the file I submitted, rendering my game unplayable. Next time I will allocate more time to test my game outside of the IDE I used to develop it, in order to avoid having problems like this happen again.

– Balancing and Bug Fixing: I didn’t spend much time balancing my game,  and fixing bugs. As a result, the game contains many bugs, and is really hard.

Overall, creating the game was a great experience for me, and I appreciate all of the helpful comments that I got on my game. I definitely plan on creating entries for future LDs 😀

I submitted my first entry for Ludum Dare in April, and even though I didn’t have much time to work on my game, I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot while doing it.

Since then, I have had some time to practice making games, and learning more Java. Hopefully I will be able to make a better game for LD #33.

I will be using the same tools as last time:

– Java (w/ Swing API) + Eclipse

– Paint.NET (Graphics), *maybe* Inkscape

– Bfxr, Audacity

Good luck and have fun everyone!!!

I am hoping that I will be able to create something for Ludum Dare #34. This will be my 3rd attempted Ludum Dare, and maybe my second submission if all goes well.
Tools:
– Java (using Swing)
– Eclipse
– Paint.NET
– bfxr
– Audacity

Good luck, have fun everyone 😀

I had a fun time this Jam making my game, Emergency Cleanup. It is a game about cleaning up toxic waste from a cave, all the while avoiding laser beams. It uses the “Two Button Controls” theme.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=49644
What went well:
– The core game mechanic: I am very happy about how the main game mechanic turned out. Using the <A> and <D> keys on the keyboard, the player controls an emergency drone which must go into a cave and clean up toxic waste. I think that the drone was pretty fun to control, and that destroying the laser beam receivers with a water gun is pretty fun.
– Particles: I really liked the way that the particles added to the game’s atmosphere. I think that they were definitely worth the time that I spent on them.
– Graphics: The graphics are nice for the most part. I think that the atmosphere definitely would have benefited from the addition of a more diverse tile set to break up the long stretches of background tiles though.
– Sound Effects: I liked the sound effects for the game. There are a few sound effects that could have been nicer, but overall, I think that they enhance the game’s atmosphere.

Things that could have been better:
– Sound Effect Volume: Some of the sounds I made were loud, and were not headphone friendly D: . Next time I need to make sure to make my audio levels are much softer, as to not be too loud.
– Level Design: I created a long passage from my game’s spawn to the first obstacle with the intention to have the player practice controlling the drone, however, I didn’t take into account that after a few deaths, spending about 20 seconds getting to the first obstacle is very tedious. Next time I should spend more time thinking about how the level will affect gameplay.
– Checkpoints: I made a game that takes about 10 minutes to complete, is hard to beat and has no checkpoints. Therefore, I probably discouraged a lot of people from beating the game because of the lack of checkpoints, combined with the tedious level design to begin with. Next time I will be more attentive to making my game much less tedious.

What I learned:
– I learned that the way I was reading in audio crashes on some Linux versions (I don’t use Linux, so I never would have known). I did some research on StackOverflow, and apparently there is a better way that I should have read in sound files which wouldn’t have crashed on Linux. I am glad that I learned about the issue so that I can avoid it in the future.

Thank you very much to everyone who played my game and provided helpful feedback and to the Ludum Dare community for being awesome!

Tags: ld #34

I am excited for Ludum Dare 35!

I am probably going to use

• Lua + Love2D
• Atom text editor + love-ide (plugin)

For Graphics

• Gimp

Sound Effects / Music

• Bfxr
• Maybe I will try out beepbox.co – not sure yet

Good Luck everyone! I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with using the theme!