Hi all!

Haven't had much sleep, but did manage to fix a small bug that was stopping the levels progressing properly on death AND record a playthrough.

https://youtu.be/UySWhPnXIWg

I have a 6 hour drive home today and then I plan to sleep... then wake up and play and rate some games! :D

ENJOY!

Not going to any locations or anything for this one. Just a nice calm 48 hours of very little sleep and game making magic! See you all for the announce.

Happy Game Making!

I am making a game about ducks. Small ones and getting them "on the road!" to safety.. yeah, it will make sense when it is done! :D Initial snapshot here of the work in progress!

I have been looking at this for a while. I needed to find a way to differentiate the ducks.. so I went with a "Pool Ball" colour scheme and it kinda looks cool.. But then I made them WADDLE... and that was it! I have a game! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfRN-PMhRq4

I am taking this evening to take one last look through the entries and vote. If you are doing the same and fancy saving some ducks in the process, swing by and check out DUCKS ON THE ROAD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCR9tVgyzec

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/ducks-on-the-road

Good luck everyone!

Hi all,

2am UK time and looking at the theme. Have my cup of tea here, brainstorming and looking at stats. I started doing Ludum Dare in 2013 thanks to @catmoo and despite a few gaps here and there for family events and having children, I am still here and loving it. My first one was LD 26 and this will be my 26th Ludum Dare! Go maths! :D

Okay, see you in a bit when I have an idea. Good luck with the depths!

Here are my initial thoughts -

Depths - Submarine Depth Charges Horror, claustrophobia Ping for signs but don't wake giant monster Make way through underground caverns to rescue lost crew

- Falling into a city
    Cyberpunk / big city scape
    Base Jumping
    Descending through layers of the underworld

- mining
    Everyone will do this!
    How to make something original that isn't spelunky / Miner dig deep
    Mine for something odd?
    New mining mechanics?

- hacking

- emotional depths

- void / chasm
    Explore into dark world depths
    Darker the deeper you go
    light is currency/progress marker

- Fishing Game
    Simple deep fishing with screens
    Robot fish
    Matrix-style broken world

- Deep Space
    Explore procedural space
    Planets, bases and space stations

- Oil Rig Drilling
    Grid based drill guessing
    Clues with probes that cost
    Make money from drilling
    Environmental message/twist end

- Sending Probes
    Send probes into chasm to find things
    Depth is progress
    Upgrade probes
    Fun audio work here

- Forest Depths
    Trad fantasy combat game
    Get to the tower, dark forest
    Attack skele/goblins, get treasure, twist end
    The Fountain

- Depths of the machine
    Cyberpunk hacking
    Physical journey into the depths
    Akira style funicular elevator

Currently thinking of the last one with some kind of procedural way of creating rooms and chambers... however when searching ref I found a rock paper shotgun article about game devs being obsessed with large elevators like in Akira.. and now am less excited! :D

Hi all. I am shattered.... so tired. BUT! I did it and only had a couple of terrible bugs to fix this morning. I normally upload a walkthrough but for this one I am following @wisstopher 's example from LD56 and made a TRAILER! :D Didn't want to spoil parts of the game as this one came together quite nicely in the end.

So here we go! My first game trailer for a game compo entry. Enjoy and good luck to everyone still jamming!

https://youtu.be/tpr2nfkjirI

Itch.io link here - https://xopsx.itch.io/deepline

and my game page - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deepline

I have had some really positive comments on Deepline and a strong urge to take it a bit further and see what I can do with it. A few friends in the industry have given some great feedback, as well as the comments on the page and I have been thinking a lot about what I wish I had done. Here is a quick breakdown of some of that swirl :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpr2nfkjirI

As a console gamer first, I NEVER think to put escape as pause! In fact, I never add pause functionality as so much of my blueprints are hacks that a pause function often breaks the game in more ways than I can fix in 24 hours. To me, escape is "Quit prototype" and in fact, my thinking is encouraged here as when I escape in unreal .... It quits the game! One I am going to consider for the next jam. I think it is more prominent of an issue in a game like this where pausing is actually something people might want to do.

The analogue control nature of the pulse, or lack of is an area I wish I had done more in and also tied to the behaviour the drones. The Drone actually works like this - - player can move past if they are not active - drones are activated if they receive the pulse - when activated by pulse, drones will slowly move to where the source of the pulse was - allows kiting and a small amount of control over the drone. - while active, if the player gets too close, they start to hunt - if drone receives pulse when too close, it detects player and goes straight to hunt - if when hunting, player is within X distance, player is killed.

However.... There was a bug where the player could ping the drone when it is hunting, and if out of that mid range, it resets the drone to active. Handy for solo drones, but risky in multiple situations.

I ended up keeping it as through play testing I found it useful and a bit of unintended gameplay.

I DID actually have the pulse on a charge/release basis but there were a few issues. 1 - ranges became increasingly hard to judge and having the standard distance each time was a constant the player could measure their environment with. 2 - being able to do it quicker leads to use that made the audio repetitive and made the player feel more powerful, which ended up killing a lot of the mood. I locked the distance and recharge times as a result but honestly ran out of time to balance it. The thing I should have done was to make the travel distance of the pulse quicker.

To be clear, If I I do take this one further, I would make it more analogue, keep the recharge times slow exactly as you suggest though. In the end I went with something that does make the player feel restricted as that fir more with the theme and mood.

A system I made but didn't finish was mines/bombs/reactor sort of things that when pulsed, have a countdown and explosion to them. Through a mixture of kiting and timing, players could lure the drones to them and they would get destroyed. But alas ... Time!

Lastly, the deaths and restarts were too punishing, but in the last 30 minutes of my jam, I added a function inside the player that when they died, it just got the level name and restarted it. This was my default way of saving progress as at least players would only have to redo the same level.

I had grand ideas of manual save points that you would have to power up etc as players returned power to the facility, but again, 48 hours, scope creep and the scale of the levels for away from me! There was next to no thought about procession, pacing or layout as the spaces were constructed more from a narrative angle, and then just filled with the bits I had to make them functional. I am just glad they were functional in the end. (Also they weren't ! My initial submission has a bug meaning players could not complete it! Fixed in post within the rules though)

Audio ended up suffering on this one as the game itself came in so hot and last minute, I would do so much mor ewith mood and atmosphere and a bit more of an adaptive audio track, but at least there was SOME in the end. The door sounds went VERY wrong! :D

There are a few other ideas like timed machines and varied enemies that I am considering, but I am going to see where the game places and make a call whether to make a bigger version one day.

Thanks to everyone for rating and playing so far and if you want to check it out, head here -

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deepline

Signing in! Here we go! lets do it.

Got the weekend clear and some days off to recover.

See you all in the jam

My son asked me why I was smashing old Jars... I needed to create everything from scratch for the compo, so had to do my own foley! :D

Anyways, after a bug fix, the game is now playable!

Will share more in the morning.

That is another Ludum Dare Success!!!

Thanks all! goodnight and good luck to all those still jammin!

Hi all, made this as a bit of fun. Here is a short trailer for my Compo entry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-_rJ79uSH0

Enjoy!!

Didn't have time to post any updates this Jam. Lost half my day travelling to London for work and am uploading from my hotel!!

So WAY less than 48 hours, but that meant I kept the game contained.

Enjoy!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/$425117

​A game of flying cars. Use your SIGNAL to change lanes, avoid other flying cars and find your way out of the Sky Lanes!

Hello all!

it's been a bit of an odd Ludum Dare for me this one. I didn't get to use all the 48 hours, so lost about 8-10 hours due to work commitments, but did manage to submit. Also haven't had a chance to rate many games but I am going to get on that this week. I also haven't posted a walkthrough like I normally do... until NOW!

https://youtu.be/R9FMwTtsLsM

Please take a look and maybe come check out my game if it captures your interest :)

Off to play some games now.

Enjoy!