This will be my first Ludum Dare

Tools I will be using:-

Graphics: GraphicsGale

Programming: C++ with SDL

Sound: Audacity and/or Mixcraft

Goal: To finish a game in 48 hours

This is what I have so far…

This is my second Ludum Dare. My first one didn’t go too well and I couldn’t finish the game. Hope to actually finish this time.

I might be out for about 6-7 hours on the first day, so may have to enter the jam instead of the compo. Also, I may have a friend help with art if I do the jam.

I will be coding in Visual C++, SDL and OpenGL (glew).

For graphics, I will be using GraphicsGale.

For sound, bfxr, and possibly mixcraft.

Looking forward to this :D.

You can play my game here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=10767

I basically got sick of this project. Nothing would work right and it was my fault.. I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about game physics.

I did learn some stuff from it though..

What went right

-> I was using a custom framework to make the game. This meant that I was very familiar with it and that I could proceed with the development of the game very quickly

-> I had to attend school for about 5 hours on the first day of the competition. This allowed me to go through multiple ideas in my head and pick the best one without implementing one too quickly.

What went wrong

->After I got some basic features working, I spent about 3-4 hours just reading about physics engines. This would have been OK except I didn’t get any of them into the game. This is because i was totally unfamiliar with these engines.

->After I decided not to use a pre-built physics engine, I started making my own. But the problem was that I had very little experience with game physics. This led to me reading a lot of articles on physics.

Ultimately, I pretty much gave up on physics because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to learn and implement everything in the limited time that I had. So I implemented some more basic physics and called it done.

The circles still don’t work right at all as a result.

So far I have most of my game mechanics in place except enemies. This is going much better than my previous attempts at Ludum Dare. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish this.

You can play my game here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=10767

This Ludum Dare went well for me compared to my previous one (LD24). I actually finished something. I think that I’m a lot better at programming than I was then. That might have something to do with it.

What went right:

• Programming: I’m a lot better at making decisions quickly when programming. I’ve also learnt not to get bogged down by details anymore and focus on the bigger picture.
• Screen shake is a very powerful effect that’s quite easy to implement. It made shooting feel brutal and manly.
• The muzzle effect of the gun is quite powerful as well.
• The sound effects for jumping and shooting give the game character.
• I made a basic editor quickly, which allowed me to spend very little time on designing the level.

What went wrong:

• I spent about an hour making a character sprite, but then realized that I wouldn’t be able to animate it quickly. So I decided to create a new sprite in a more simple style in order to animate it, effectively wasting that hour.
• I was indecisive about the art style of my game. When I finally did decide on pixel art, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to scale the images without increasing the screen size. As a result, my game has zoomed out (bad) pixel art which looks bad.
• I didn’t prioritize well and began to add unessential effects such as screen shake and the muzzle effect without having completed the core mechanics.
• My game doesn’t really incorporate the theme in a unique way. I couldn’t come up with anything really.
• I didn’t have enough time to make and add music to my game.
• There are some bugs in the game. Also, I didn’t create a game state machine as such, and thus the game just stops rendering the player when you win or die and shows the corresponding text, but you can still move around (and thus move the camera) and shoot.
• Due to the lack of a good state machine system, it was difficult for me to create multiple levels and switch between them, even though I had an editor that I could use to create these levels.

Hopefully, those who play my game will enjoy it. I definitely want to do the next Ludum Dare as well!