So, I’ve seen a lot of games which use, and heard a lot of people talking about different libraries in Flash, such as Flixel, Box2D, FlashPunk, etc. Personally, I’ve only used Flash CS5, with the regular API and no external code, nothing I haven’t written myself.

But a lot of people use these libraries, and they seem to be particularly effective, especially with pixel based games. Furthermore, the regular graphics in Flash is supposedly inefficient, and lags up quite a bit whenever you try and get it to do too much.

So does anyone have any recommendations as to what direction I should take my programming, especially for the next Ludum Dare? I’m not a complete noob, and I have made tile-based games and things like that myself, I’m mainly concerned with efficiency and reducing lag, and also the 48 hour time limit.

SWF • Description on DeviantArt

I made a little level editor a while ago, and now I polished up and released it as a SWF. It’s not super amazing, but it’s completely free and very simple and quick to use.

I remember someone posting about using Note Pad to design levels on a previous Ludum Dare, and I remembered how tedious it is to design anything worthwhile within a text editor, so I’m mainly releasing this so that no-one ever has to do that.

So if you know anyone that’s likely to use a Note Pad or any other basic text program for designing graphical 2D levels, show them this!

Go here to play it! It’s a fairly simple platformer with gravity controls 😀

Alas, I cannot enter this time… school exams and such… OH WELL

but fun fact August 25th is my birthday so you guys are all giving me games for my birthday!!!

Last time was my first time and I came 20th for fun and 52nd overall… pretty good! Here’s my tips:

Pro-Tip for first timers:

• Buy/read the game jam survival guide
• Prepare – read people’s tips and suggestions, like you’re doing now  😀
• Stick to what you know / If you want to use anything new practice it now.
• Get in the community: Get on the IRC/test peoples game/get people to test your games. I actually probably had the most doing this  😀 (also don’t worry if you don’t think your game is as good as other peoples, not every game be ANT SURF HERO)
• Everyone is a winner! Just make something you want to make.
• Kittennnnns

It’s a not-game about the future of videogames, and the core of what videogames are, and such. Play it. Think about it. The meaning is up to you.

I ended up spending way too much time on it than I wanted, especially as I have serious exams coming up, but I’m pretty happy with the result. Especially graphics. Check out that dithering, man. Dithering. Woah.

Tags: cool people read tags, flash, future, instant gratification, MiniLD, MiniLD #37, not-games

Due to being away and stuff I was highly limited in my actual working time. I only found out the theme 7 hours after it had been annouced, and didn’t have time to work on it. BUT I STILL MADE AN AWESOME GAME!!

PLUS GOATS!!

Click to play!

It has goats!

My only regret is not including enough exclamation marks in the title.

The basic premise is to rebound lasers from other ships in order to get massive combos

Cool things about this game:

• I used as3sfxr and generated the sound in-game for the first time.
• I used box2d for the reflection angles, making this the first game I’ve used box2d in.
• This is the first game I’ve used a restricted colour palette for, and the graphics went well.
• Didn’t use any silly flash engines like flash punk because I’m cool like that.
• GOATS

Tags: as3, firin ma laser, flash, goat, goat thief, goats, goats in space, king goat, screenshot, space, space goats, thief of goats

omigosh so keen to Ludum Dare yaaaaay! using as3/flashpro/as3sxfr/gimp/MAYBE THE MUSIC SYNTHS FROM CAVE STORY????

Aware of the dangers of TL;DR, I constructed a handy pie chart to help do my explaining:

As you can see, I spent a lot of the time not working on Ludum Dare stuff (including various sicknesses and having a birthday). Most of the programming time actually comes from me switching to the Jam instead of the Compo.

And the results?

I did surprising well in innovation, and mood, weirdly. Overall I didn’t go amazingly, which I think was largely due to the lack of clear instructions on how to play.

Still, these results make me think that I should maybe spend a little bit of time actually finishing my game. Maybe.

Anyway, if you’re interested in playing a chaotic and difficult to understand game, then check it out!

I’m in, tools: flash develop, as3sfxr, flash CS5.5, melody assistant, a ukulele, maybe gimp, photoshop/fireworks.

Aiming for top ten in one of the catagories.

Thoughts on this Ludum Dare –

• I’m kinda disappointed, but the results seem fair.
• Best ranking: 50th for humor.
• I didn’t focus on a concept and the theme enough.
  • My concept was you  have 1 arm but multiple tools, you have to find ways to carry tools without your arm.
  • Didn’t have enough time to do that!
• Instead I spent time on other things:
  • I wanted to include palette swapping and NPCs.
  • I’m happy I included them, but I should’ve focused more on a concept.
• I coded everything from scratch, which made things take longer. I’m happy I did that though.
• I received a lot of nice comments
• Thanks to the 71 people who rated my game!
• If you haven’t played it, check out The Visitor.

Thoughts on previous Ludum Dares –

• My best Entry is Mondrianism, doing well in everything except humor.
• Second best would be my first entry, The Good Ship Higgs Boson.
• Super Space Goat Thief Standoff!! is definitely my worst entry, but I only spent a few hours on that.
• My best category has been different every time, interestingly.
• As you can see, there’s a clear trend of… um… well…

Wiggly lines everywhere!

Ooh, animated!

See you next Ludum Dare!

Tags: post-mortem, postmortem

Whee! This’ll be my 6th Ludum Dare!

My goal this time is to not to sacrifice a concept in favour of art or other features. I say that because last LD48 I spent a little too much time on that, and not enough time on my concept.

What I’ll be using

• Code:
  • FlashDevelop
  • ActionScript 3.0
  • NO game engines 😉
  • Libraries: gskinner’s Rndm library, as3sxfr, and some simple colour utility libraries, ColourUtil.as and Colour.as
• Music/SFX:
  • Pixel’s ptCollage
  • Melody Assistant
  • Audacity
  • as3sfxr
• Graphics:
  • GIMP
  • Flash Pro CS6

Tools

• FlashDevelop + AS3
• None of these trashy game engines 😉
• Possibly some simple color utility classes 1, 2
• sxfr in some form
• Gimp
• Pencil and Paper

Aims

• Include NPCs, dialogue
• Stream my progress/record a time-lapse?
• Post progress gifs during the competition
• Make a longer music loop that doesn’t drive me insane!!

I’ve prepared myself for Ludum Dare:

Analysis indicates perparification is at 110% !

This is my progress so far: [link] Head to the right to check out the levels.

Not pictured: The main mechanic my game uses. You’ll have to wait and see what it is!

I’ll have to cut my jam time a little short seeing as I’ll have to leave for work before the compo ends (and I can’t stay up too late either). As such, I think I’ll take LD a little differently this time. My aim is to spend a lot more time brainstorming ideas, to try and do something super interesting/imaginative.

Tools
FlashDevelop + AS3
GIMP
Audacity
pxtone
NONE OF THESE TRASHY GAME ENGINES

well I’m away for that entire weekend! hahaaa…

Ludum Dare finishes in the middle of Monday for me though so maybe I’ll spit something out then….

FlashDevelop – AS3 – Gimp – ptCollage – Audacity – AS3SXFR – (Unity and Blender???? Nah)

hm yeah well I’m busy for that entire weekend, so unless I can crank out something Sunday evening/Monday morning (in Australia the compo ends in the middle of Monday) there will be no game from me!!

I would quite like to pump out a little 1 hour thing though. We’ll see.

I thought I’d start with the soundtrack to my game this Ludum Dare. Have a listen:

Announcement Video

Rules

• Make a game that’s a fusion of two other games, game genres or game ideas
• Do it during the 20th – 30th of November
• Spend 48 hours or 72 hours or however long you want
• Start whenever’s convenient
• Work alone or in a team
• Use any assets/tools you want
• Tag your games with #MiniLD63 (and also #LDJAM)
• Disregard any/all of the rules if you want

In case you can’t think of anything, here’s some of ideas for things you could fuse:

• Platformer
• Snake
• Dating Sim
• Text-based adventure
• Gritty male protagonist
• Educational ‘game’
• Superman 64
• Live action
• Box pushing
• Mike ‘PoV’ Kasprzak

That’s it! If you have any other ideas, feel free to leave them in a comment below.

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Happy Jamming!

Edit: Congrats Everyone! We ended up with 60 games, with some great ones! There’s no rating system, but have a look at some of the games and leave a comment about what you thought!

Tags: #MiniLD63, announcement, fusion, great theme, ldjam, woo