Thank goodness it’s still Summer.

I have a week of my internship at Zynga left, but as soon as I’m done, I’m diving right into brainstorming for LD48!

Since I will be traveling to Pasadena to visit my sister, and then back to South Bay, then back to Berkeley, I won’t be in the optimal work environment, but so what? Still a good reason to start something new.

A few weeks ago, I finished an innovation game project  (took four weeks) with a team of interns, and that was on Unity. I basically worked on all of the art assets and about 1/3 of the code. I loved the game, and it seemed that many people did. Hopefully I can create something like it again, but in 72 hours.

So far, I’ve made games on native Android, java, python, Flash, and Unity. I might take a chance and dive into a new tool.

Some things I have thought about so far

• Definitely 2D
• Maybe pixel art. Maybe not. Photoshop as always.
• Some cutesy story element
• Use a tool to make everything easier. Probably Unity since I finally know how to use it
• Bright colors
• Minimalist design

Any tips will be appreciated!

Just initialized my git repo https://github.com/hinasakazaki/LD48

I might be done soon for tonight. Travels happening tomorrow! (5 hour drive to Pasadena)

So far I think I have a pretty compelling narrative and okay game play. I’ve sketched out (most of) the game and I don’t think it’s *that* challenging for a 72 hour jam. But then, who knows what problems I’ll run into?

The first level is metropolitan, so I’m going to be working on that for a while.

I think I’ve gotten the hero’s animation to get to somewhere satisfactory (two frame walking ftw)

Some concept art:

Kind of a spawn of Electronic Super Joy and Journey

Hopefully this all goes well! My progress is constantly updated on my twitter 😛

Screenshot Saturday is kind of ending soon. I’m not too pressed for time, especially since I’m doing the jam.

Some stuff today:

– Was on a 5 hour drive to Pasadena to visit my sister

– Worked some on the car, slept some, brainstormed some: Oh, big news. My game idea is “Stitching the ripped hole in space time”. Some alien species “invades” Earth, but that’s not it. The one the hero comes in contact with is not an evil alien. It’s genuinely worried about bloodshed. Of course, humans want to kill the aliens too. The hero is a seamstress and she can stitch the ripped fabric of the cosmos. Might sound lame now. Might be an okay game. It’s a 2d platformer.

– Speaking of 2D platformer, I got basically the first 2 levels done (hopefully 4 in total)

– Oh I had to tour Caltech. I’m not even going to try to get into grad school. Why bother.

– So yeah, “wasted” a lot of time, but had great time with family. I also got to sneak in some time for the game as well. And now I do more.

Some screenshots of progress…

Oh, and here’s a video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46716/ludum_dare.mp4

I’m back again, with more EXP!

Yep. The last LD jam game I’ve made was the first solo Unity project I’ve worked on, but since then, I’d like to think I’ve grown.

Next Ludum Dare (comp if I have time, more likely to be just jam), my plan will follow one of the following:
– An RPG focused on story and art, and I will use RPG Maker to relieve myself from coding, because I’m doing lots of coding for my current game, “Slinging Ink” [I am solely a programmer there, I have two artists working on the art. Plus, I’m doing networking/multiplayer stuff, which is new to me]
– A super quick, simple, one screen game sort of like my Valentines Day fun loop game

Either way, the plan is not to bite off more than I can chew. I’d like to make a complete feeling simple game rather than making a buggy but deep game.

Editors: Sublime Text, MonoDevelop
Language: C#
Frameworks: Unity3D
Visuals: Photoshop
Audio: We shall see

I’ve made Valentines Day, the Game, a year back, which was about managing love and work, keeping your significant other happy and healthy with gifts (mushrooms, chocolates, and flowers) and for this Jam, I feel like doing something pretty safe, something I know I can accomplish.

With a theme like “You are the Monster”, and Labor Day in mind (I’m already excited for my 3 day weekend) I can’t help but to remember recent controversies with Amazon– shedding light also to the warehouse worker conditions.

I don’t want to be too literal or heavyhanded. My goal is to make a small, cute game that has some satirical quality. Valentines Day was a quirky game that made a reductionist statement about love and money. This time, I might do something similar. It’s not easy being a operations manager, I can imagine, and things might get out of hand.

Recently, I also made a game called “Slinging Ink”, which was a multiplayer game between two players during 4 minutes (9-5pm, each minute being 2 hours) so the game was through a workday. I want to do that again. It added some interesting aspects to the game.

A quote struck out to me from one of the articles I was reading “He claimed there was 500 visible cameras and over 500 more you could not see in the warehouse. They even had to install them in the break room because people’s lunches were getting stolen. He yammered on and on about how you will never get away with stealing so please don’t try.”

I think I’m going to make a game that is a extreme take on this: multiple cameras, a ubiquitous “warehouse manager” or whatever I can come up with, a few panels on the top showing a thumbnail of the warehouse’s condition, you can flip between and react with what things that may be happening: stealing, laziness, etc.

Will update more after work!

Edit: I could distract myself forever by making these worker cuties:

This is the entrance to the factory for “DelightWorks”

Inside is a totally different story.

Will have a panel on top for multiple camera views of different parts of the factory, which will be swappable for the main view.

This is the main game screen, obviously work in progress.

Let’s see how this pans out, or if it’s even fun once I start playing it…

I usually work solo, but this time, I look like I have a team of two other engineers and two artists!

I really like the theme(s).

Probably:
Tech – Unity, C#
Art – whatever the artists will use

Will be tweeting @swaggerzaki with progress!

I’m done for the night (and for the whole jam) but we got pretty far! I had a lot of fun with this VN (writing/coding a little bit)  
Hopefully spotco (http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/spotco/) will be posting the game tomorrow!

Check out this game!

Overall, super fun ludum dare! I didn’t take too many responsibilities (my total contribution: story brainstorming, writing first draft of script, audio code) but thanks to spotco and kelsey for the great experience! And I love our finished game!

Hey, it’s hinerz!

Last LD was back in December and I contributed a little bit to a team VN game which is still in development! (I’m no longer contributing).

This time, I’m going solo. Hoping to prototype some ideas I’ve been having lately.

It’ll be less gameplay-focused (Nooooo) and more of a technical proof of concept. Hopefully, I can apply the theme to the interaction, and I can build from there.

Excited to make something pretty and interesting. Look forward to seeing all of your projects!

It's been nearly 5 years since my last LD jam! Hoping to figure out something simple, focused, and has replay value. I've been working on a VN in my spare time lately, so I'm going to do something with more of a technical focus. :smile: I'll be using Unity as usual and Asesprite for art. Going solo as usual.

• maze generation, movement
• scores and stuff
• interactions with "emotion" letters
• SFX

Tomorrow - Ending logic "saving the love" - More variation in sprites, colors, writing - Polish