What’s the usual plan after a tough week at work? Catch up on sleep, go for a walk, hang out with friends? There are plenty of ways to unwind.

But we chose a different path: gather the crew, accept that sunlight and a good night's sleep are now just a dream, and step into the fog of Ludum Dare. For total immersion, our squad set up a "base camp" in a single apartment. Hauling heavy PC rigs around is a challenge of its own, but the main thing is that our spines survived the durability test.

Before we show off our early progress and reveal where our boat is heading, let's meet the crew:

Dmitry — Game Designer (charting our course in the dark) (@rionisse).

Ivan — Unreal Engine Master (@towercrane).

Igor — Unreal Master in the making (@koldrif).

Alexander — 3D Guru (@ferot).

Lerka Dverka — 3D, but not a guru (at least that's what she claims, though we strongly disagree) (@lerkadverka).

Polina — 2D Master (@insomniapill).

Stepan — Master of notes and sounds (@steff).

Vitaly — The guy who dragged everyone onto this boat, and the one everyone will blame for their lack of sleep come Monday (@graf).

The stage at which you have to choose that one idea out of dozens is always complicated. Finding a concept that will make the whole team feel included, a concept that is actually doable in a short amount of time and, most importantly, will be actually fun to play (and not just to think and talk about) — this is one of the hardest stages of the jam for us, as it is the most uncertain. When the goal is finally clear, then everything that comes after is just a straight path followed by a bunch of sleep-deprived people.

Here are a few snapshots of our concept phase.

Barber: "What can I do for you, mate?"

Me: Just fuck my shit up.

The assets look great, the music is beautiful, and the project is slowly coming together. Sure, it's not without its issues, but everything is fixable... except for the lack of time. The timer says we still have 32 hours left, but that's in a perfect world. In reality, we only have until tonight... Who even came up with the idea of working on Mondays?! Let's start a petition to get official time off for Ludum Dare! Alright, I'm daydreaming too much, gotta get back to work.

https://youtu.be/6OO7OrJkXyw

Game: The Beckoning https://ldj.am/$426419

I am incredibly happy with our participation in Ludum Dare 59. We got together with friends, had an awesome weekend, and built a project together. This is our second LD with a slightly updated team, and honestly, I think it turned out great, even if we didn't manage to implement absolutely everything we planned.

We fixed the mistakes from our previous game: we now have a main menu, a proper "quit" button, better optimization, and a cohesive art style and atmosphere.

To be honest, the game turned out to be quite challenging, and beating it is actually pretty hard. We put a lot of effort into the final cutscene, but because of the difficulty, very few people will actually get to see it. I think that's totally unfair! So, after a quick team discussion, we decided to just show it to you right here.

There is also a second ending in the game, but you'll have to find that one yourselves (it's much easier to get—even I managed to reach it!).

Creative: Vitaly Bezmennikov

2D Art: Polina Zhuchkova

Music and Sound Design: Stepan Masychev