Unexpected Results - Genki
So last week, I took my part in my first ever Ludum Dare!
How It Began?
For the past few months, I've been watching devlogs of youtubers not having any idea that the Ludum Dare had already already started. On Monday, the last day of submission, I saw a youtuber livestreaming his Ludum Dare Game. I was shocked! Got on the website, saw only 7 hours and 34 minutes left!!
At first, I was feeling down that I missed this Ludum Dare. Thought about just letting this one go. But then, I saw that the next Ludum Dare would be in October, and I really did not want to wait that long to submit a game! I was just impatient, so I decided to go for it!
The Process
I sat down at my desk, opened Aseprite and started drawing some pixel art, because pixel art makes me go YES! I did not have any idea of what kind of character I should draw! I took a break after spending 1 hour and responded some messages on my phone. Then I saw the last two emojis in my recent and got the idea of making the emoji enemies! :laughing: As for the player, it's just a square and a triangle mixed up! :laughing:
After opening Unity, I already had two types of game in mind! One horizontal shooter and the other one top-down shooter! I went for the latter since I wanted the game to appear like Geometry Dash. I never made a top-down shooter before so I went on Blackthorprod's youtube channel. He has one of the best content for Unity learners. After completing the player movement, the shooting and the wave spawner, I went to help my dad with some work pending in my house!
2 hours left to submit and I needed to find a way to make the game fit the theme of the game jam. I then got the idea of decreasing energy and a stopwatch. The players need to keep the main character alive as long as possible! That's when I came up with the name Genki. It means 'Energy' in japanese. While developing the game, I already I would include synthwave in game. Why? Because SYNTHWAVE ROCKS! :fire: I used Eva's music since it has the Creative Commons Licence. Here's the link to that awesome music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTsD4UPT-k I did not have much trouble for sound effects since I used SFXR!
20 minutes left! I created an Itch.io account, hosted my game, and completed my submission in Ludum Dare 46! WOOOHOOOO! :fire:
The Results
"Getting that 20 ratings is impossible for a game like this". This came in my mind after submitting my game! I was happy that I atleast participated in the jam! Tired, I went to sleep! The next day, my game got 6 ratings with some nice comments from people. I was like WHAT?! The ratings kept increasing for the next day! People were actually liking the game! Despite the off-screen bug and the dead-end situation, people were playing my game! One even made a highscore!
On the third day, my game got the 20 ratings! I was so happy about it that I literally started to cry! :scream:
Now Genki is at 75.5 ratings and this is all because off this beautiful community! THANK YOU FOR PLAYING GENKI! :fire:
Here's the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/genki
There will be a post-jam version that I will be working on. New Enemies, new features! But for now I've been playing the games submitted for the jam and it is so FUN! Do send me your games here. It can be any game on any platform! I already have a folder where I install all the Ludum Dare games I play, so, installation files, executable files, archived files, HTML5 games, not a problem! I really want to see the amazing work of the developers, so don't hesitate! :smile:
