I’ve been considering doing a Ludum Dare for some time now, but this is the first one I have free. I’ll be participating in the Ludum Dare Jam with bowlercaptain, and we’ll be using Game Maker 8.0 Pro to code our game, as well as probably a bajillion content generators and/or MSPaint + Gimp.

Can’t wait!

In the blue corner, we have the Baron of Broadcasting, the Lord of Livestreaming, TWITCH.TV!!

And in the red corner, we have the newbie, GIDAIO!

FIGHT!

Gidaio moves in early with some quick jabs and Google searches, exploring his opponent. Eventually he decides on the FME/VHScrCap method of attack and lays in on his enemy. In a stroke of genius, however, Twitch.TV responds with terrible framerates and bad video quality! This is one tense battle.

Gidaio is unfazed, and tries the VLC/JTVLC right uppercut method instead. Twitch.TV is unfortunately very familiar with this attack strategy, blocks Gidaio, and responds with a left hook and black screens, knocking Gidaio out! The ref moves in for the count, and…

WINNER!!

Looks like Twitch.TV holds his position, and Gidaio is sent home to nurse his wounds!

(I have no idea how wrestling/boxing or whatever works, btw. Seriously, I was working on getting a livestream going for like, two hours. I was hoping to livestream development, but it’s not looking like my computer is powerful enough… ugh.)

I’m in again. Last time I participated (LD24) it was all KINDS of awesome. Will be working with bowlercaptain again, and using GM8/GM Studio. Probably MSPaint for art, probably no sounds, though SFXR sounds good.

And that’s about it! Real life is definitely getting in the way this time, but I’ll power through it.

Alright, so this was our second Ludum Dare, and I’d say this time it went pretty good.

Brainstorming

From the outset, we decided to use the ‘minimalistic graphics’ part of minimalism, largely because we had no artist this time (last time we had TNR7), but also because it conveniently fit the game. As we continued talking, it became clear that I really wanted to make a roguelike while BowlerCaptain really wanted to make a rhythm game. So we did both.

What Went Well

More Polish

Our last entry was quite monumental, and as such, we had less time to kill bugs and give the game the overall polish that it deserved. This time, we had a lot more time. I’m not sure if it’s that we just got better, or if the game was smaller, but either way, it was good.

Less Scope

As stated previously, our last entry was monumental. This one was much smaller, which allowed more time for polish and balance, and also helped us to see where we were going with it.

More Oil in the Machine

We worked together a lot better this time. Less time was spent rewriting each other’s code (as ugly as BowlerCaptain’s is. The guy has no concept of tabbing.).

What Went Wrong

Workspace

GameMaker Studio is not designed to be used in the way we used it. By the end of the jam, we had MINIMUM 6 different projects, at least three of which were titled “RhythmRogueFinal.” DropBox is not friendly for this; next time, we’re setting up GitHub.

The Boss

To quote BowlerCaptain: “As I was thinking of the boss, I thought ‘Oh, wow, this is going to be a difficult programming project.’ Two days later, it was.” Our original boss idea, while I love dearly, did not work, and we had to replace it with the boss that’s currently in the game. Less awesome, but it works and was WAY easier to program.

Real Life

Yeah, real life got in the way. Nothing to be done about it, but we both could have done with more sleep.

You live and you learn, and come August, we’ll be ready to do it again!