I’m in!  This is my first time participating in Ludum Dare.  I’m excited.

I will be using:

Coding: XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh, .Net Framework 4.0, Visual Studio 2010

Graphics: Photoshop CS5.5, Poser Pro 2012, Tiled

Audio: Audacity, sfxr, Garage Band ’11

I will be using TiledLib (https://bitbucket.org/nickgravelyn/tiledlib) to load TMX files as well as the Game State Management sample code (http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/game_state_management).  These will probably get modified during the course of coding.

LET’S DO THIS!

I’m in.

I’m going to be using Unity 3D or possibly GameMaker depending on the theme.  For graphics I will be using Photoshop/Maya and my Wacom tablet.  If time permits I’ll use sfxr/Audacity/Garage Band ’11 for audio.

Good luck to everyone participating!

I’m in. This is going to be a busy weekend, I hope I can get a good day or day-in-a-half to work on my game.

Tech: Unity or HTML5 (jQuery, CreateJS www.createjs.com)
Art: Photoshop/Illustrator/Maya/Poser
Sound: sfxr/musagi/Audacity/Garage Band

Let’s rock-n-roll!!!!

I’m in!

Engine/Code: GameMaker Studio

Graphics/Art: Photoshop / Illustrator / (Might try out Sprite Something)

Sound/Music: sfxr / musagi / Audacity / (Maybe Garage Band)

Ok, so this is my third time entering, and I’ve never successfully finished one.  I have to work all day tomorrow to top it off.  Maybe this will force me to try and keep it simple.  Hey, third times the charm right!

If I do graphics: Photoshop / Illustrator / GameMaker Studio

If I do sound: sfxr / musagi / GarageBand

If I do anything it will be: GameMaker Studio

Lets hope for the best this time!  Good luck all!

LUDUM DARE!!!!!

I’m in again!  I have confidence and desire pumping through my veins.  I feel it; this time it’s going to be awesome.

I will be developing on Windows 8.1 x64.  My weapons of choice will depend on the theme and how I decide to approach it.  Rest assured they will consist of a mixture of the following:

 Engine:

• Unity 3D 4.3.4 with C# (using Visual Studio 2013) – or –
• GameMaker Studio Pro 1.2 with GML

 Art:

• Photoshop CS 5.5 (of course) and/or Pickle 2.2.2
• Illustrator CS 5.5
• Flash CS 5.5 and/or Anime Studio Pro 9
• Maya 2014 (Student) if I need 3D.
• Good ol’ pencil and paper (wait what’s that)!

Sound:

Will I even have time to implement sound?  If so, I will definitely use:

• Audacity
• Bfxr
• Musagi

Time permitting I will use Garage Band and/or try out a demo of FL Studio.  If I get this far, I promise I’m going to drop a beat Dr. Dre would be proud of!

Dropbox will be used as a working directory for all assets.  No source control this go around (yikes)!

The game will be web based and hosted on my personal site or via Dropbox.

I’ll be making a time lapse using Chronolapse and popping in and out of IRC via mIRC.

Good luck everyone, let’s have a great weekend.

Let’s do this; I’m ready, are you?

Everyone is posting workstation pics… Here’s my entry into the mix…

It’s almost time for Ludum Dare #29!!!!

I’ve always wanted to find out what lies beneath the surface.  What lies beneath my surface?  Who am I?  Why am I here?  What is the truth?  What is the meaning of it all?  What will I find when I pull back the flesh and see the truth.  Will I like it?  Will I be ashamed?

These are deep questions.  Questions that won’t be answered in 48 hours, I know.

Let’s take a journey though.  Let’s go down.  Down as far as we can go in 48 hours.  Will you join me?

Overview

A very minimalistic dungeon adventure, which explores life as we progress deeper into a dark and spooky underground cavern, seeking to find out what lies at the end.

Mechanics

This will be a typical first-person game making use of the familiar WASD and space bar control scheme to move the player.  The mouse will be used to control the direction the player is facing as well as moving.  Once a weapon is acquired, the left mouse button will be used to “fire” it.  Interactivity with objects will happen automatically so the player doesn’t miss the opportunity to interact with something.  They will be funneled into the interactive spots and forced to interact.

Story

The game will be essentially story (albeit short) based.  Using a first person camera will engage the player and make them feel as though this game is about them, maybe it is?  The progression will be linear.  The player will gradually descend into an underground dungeon, essentially pulling back their flesh, finding out who they are.  Triggers will be placed throughout the halls of the dungeon halls that guide the player.  The story will be about digging in to one self.  Finding ones true self, and told from the viewpoint of a video game character.

Aesthetic

The aesthetic will be very minimalistic due to the time constraints.  It will be very dark, and the dungeon will go down deep (as deep as time permits).  It will be peaceful, allowing for quiet reflection at times, and frightening at others.  The movement of the player’s character will be slowed, and will be made “deliberate,” with the goal being to hear the sounds of a deep and empty dungeon and see the nothingness that lies within.  The halls will be narrow, hopefully eliciting a feeling of claustrophobia.  It will also (hopefully) allow the player to reflect on who they are and ask themselves if this relates to them.  The element of surprise should play heavily into the game from start to finish.  The ending will be unexpected/surprising, the player will want to stay engaged to find out how the story ends.  Due to time constraints, the dungeon will be very repetitive.  Breaking it up with bits of text here and there will aid in breaking up the monotony.

Technology

Unity 3D 4.3.4 Professional Demo will be used as the engine for the game.  Using prefabs and modular scripts will decrease development time by leveraging reusable parts.  Maya 2014 will be used to generate low poly modular dungeon pieces.  The pieces will employ mesh colliders generated in Unity and will be comprised of as few triangles as possible for performance and size.  Texture size will also be kept to a minimum, which should give a nice retro look.  Bfxr and Audacity will be used to create the ambient and interactive sounds of the environment, as well as some voice acting.  Right now, there is no plan for music.

Next up: The technical design!

Got a room prefab built from my modular pieces.  Collision detection works, need to script the door opening.  The lighting is just temporary for now.  Textures need some work, but I will iterate back over those later.

Whew, that was fun.  Probably the most fun I ever had during Ludum Dare.  I kind of went out of my comfort zone with the type of “game” I made.  But I enjoyed making it.  Hopefully you will enjoy playing it.

Check it out:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=18254

Introduction

Another Ludum Dare!  Let’s take a moment and look beneath the surface of what made my game, Truth, possible.

I was apprehensive at first about doing a 3D game.  There’s always a lot to account for when making a 3D game and you don’t have a lot of time.  However I was really into the theme.  I started thinking about all of the usual cliches: underground, underwater, devils, etc… but then I started thinking about humanity, and ourselves.  Looking in to myself I was able to draw some metaphors that I really liked and thought translated well to this dungeon-esque adventure.

The goal I had in mind was quite lofty, but I WANTED to do it and see it through.

What Went Right

I’m comfortable working with Maya, Unity and Photoshop.  I think my familiarity with those tools was what ultimately helped me finish this game.  I just love working with that trifecta of tooling.

I also created a design document that I tried to stay true to and used it to help guide me along the way.

I used a modular approach to the level design which was very beneficial.  Unity was a big help in this regard with it’s use of prefabs (although that did cause me some trouble down the road).

The number of pieces I had to model was very small.  It could probably be argued that I could have modeled less pieces!  These pieces were modeled VERY low poly, with very few triangles.  The door was probably the most complicated one.  Since the poly count was low I went ahead and used mesh colliders on them when I imported them into Unity.  For the wooden posts and lamps, I used box colliders.

I then combined these parts into bigger wholes and made prefabs for halls and sections.  Then I began piecing them together.  This workflow made it really quick for me to put together the level that I wanted.

I also used a single texture/material which was very low res allowing for quick and dirty pixel work.

What Went Wrong

When I posted my design document, I mentioned I was working on a technical design.  Well, that didn’t happen.  I really needed to invest the time there, to work through how I was going to try and accomplish certain things.  I think this would have benefited me more than anything.  Instead I had to figure things out and trouble shoot as I went along.  I at least should have had a list of assets that I needed to create.

The prefab thing was awesome, I love Unity for this.  However, if you have nested prefabs you run in to trouble if a component inside one of the lower, nested ones changes.  This caused me some difficulty when I realized I needed to go back and tweak my UVs.  It should be so simple right, re-import the model and it will get changed everywhere.  Well, that didn’t happen due to the depth of my nested prefabs.  My experience with this might make for a good blog post though!

Even though the texture was small, I saved it until the end.  I chose to focus on the Unity and 3D aspect of it and getting that working first, then go back in and paint the texture map.  This of course left me scrambling at the end trying to get the textures right, and me not being truly happy with them.

In Conclusion

I had a lot of fun.  I made something I am proud of, and I can’t wait to do it again!

I’m in the process of working on a post jam version of the game.  That prefab issue is seriously kicking my butt though.  However, I still love Unity, and believe you can make great games rapidly using it.

I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to play my game.  All of your feedback is welcome and is being considered.

If you haven’t had a chance to play Truth yet, play it and rate it, I would love to hear what you think!

Finally managed to get a post jam version of my game out there.  I think this better captures the look and feel that I was going for.  You can play it here:

http://jasonlay.itch.io/truth

I also appreciate everyone who has taken the time to play my jam entry.  Your comments are valuable and will help make me a better game designer.

If you still haven’t played and rated the jam version, there is still time, play now before it’s too late and you never find out the truth!

Truth

Ludum Dare 30!  OMFG!

You better believe I’m in!

Not sure what the theme is going to be or what type of game I’m going to be making, but whatever it is, I’ll make it with some combination of the following:

Engine: Unity 3D (w/Visual Studio 2013) or GameMaker Studio Professional
Language: C# or GML
Art: Maya / Photoshop / Pickle
Sound: Bfxr / Audacity / Microphone
Music: FL Studio Fruity Edition
Source Control: GitHub

This is where I will be posted up for the next 48 hours, DAMN I love that wallpaper…

I didn’t really obsess over the theme this time. I didn’t try to “guess” what the theme might be based on voting patterns or come up with lots of ideas for each possible theme. I’m kind of going with the flow. I am a blank slate right now and that feels good. No butterflies, no anxiousness.

Alright, let’s have a fun and safe Ludum Dare! Let’s do this!

Game Design Document

The story revolves around an as yet to be named male protagonist.  He is from a world of drug and alcohol abuse, in other words, the dude’s a stoner.  The as yet to be named girl he loves is the complete opposite.  Very motivated and does not approve of her suitors life style.  The protagonist has to try and catch her before she is out of his life for good, something her truly does not want.  Along the way, to win her heart, he will be challenged.  Does he revert to his old ways to catch her, or does he do things right?  I want to make the story implied more than specifically spelled out.

The mechanics of my as yet to be titled Ludum Dare 30 entry are your typical 2D platformer fare.  You have to run and jump your way through as many levels as I have time to create in order to reach the girl you love.  You will be presented with various puzzles along the way that you have to circumvent to successfully reach her.  There will be easy puzzles and complicated puzzles.  A way to “cheat” will be provided so that you can easily make it past some of the more challenging obstacles.  However, do cheaters ever win?

The game will feel like a college stoner movie.  The colors will be bright and saturated.  The sound effects should be humorous as well, with a healthy dosage of “Aw dang I died dude!”  Collectibles will be very stylized and humorous sounds will be made by the character when they are collected.

I’m going to use GameMaker to build the game as I see this as a 2D game and I don’t have a lot of experience working with the 2D features of Unity and there is not a lot of time to fumble around.  The mechanics should be simple enough that GameMaker is adequate.

I have a title screen!

I just need a title, damn.

Uh oh, it’s that time again: Ludum Dare!

I’m in!

Last time I didn’t finish.  I bit off more than I could chew and started to not like the direction I went in late in development.  This time will be different.

I’m using Photoshop, Maya, Unity 3D, Visual Studio 2013, FL Studio, Audacity, bfxr, and my iPhone to record sounds.

I just have to get Unity to show that damn snowman symbol…

Have fun.  Let’s do this!!!!

During the winter, in the not so distant future a disgruntled snowman sat alone in his laboratory.  Still fuming at the human’s lack of respect for the mighty iconic snowman during Ludum Dare 31.  The snowman plots it’s revenge.

Developing an army horde of mechanical, artificially intelligent, and maniacal snowmen to attack the puny humans and get revenge, they wreak havoc across the globe.

The entire human race is driven below ground and is forced to fight the snowmen with above ground canons, and destroy the snowy beasts before they can destroy the canons.  There are only a few of these canons left.

Mysterious Christmas presents fall from the sky providing help and support for the humans.

Where do these gifts come from?  Can the world be saved by the angered snowmen?

I’m going to keep it super simple.  Tower defense style game, all on one screen, playable on your very own screen via a web browser!  Wow how cool is that!

For the game play, there will be a single canon in the center of the screen.  The barrel of the canon rotates to follow the mouse.  When the player clicks the left mouse button a shot will be fired.

Evil snowmen will be spawned off screen and make their way slowly towards the canon.  Upon reaching the base of the canon, the canon will begin taking damage until it is destroyed and the game is over.  However, the player can destroy the snowmen before they reach the canon by firing at them.

The game will have a sort of Christmas vibe to it.  Snowy field, with some snow covered rocks and pine trees about.  If there is time to add power ups, they will be in the form of Christmas presents that the player has to shoot.  The graphics throughout the game will have a relative low poly count, and cartoonish feel to them.

The game will be developed in Unity 3D to reach a variety of platforms.  However the main platform will be the web.  3D meshes will be employed with just a diffuse texture map.

Alright, I have my source control repository set up and I have started blocking out the play area in Maya.  I want to play around with it some more in the morning; then take it into Unity and get the camera setup correctly, and get some basic game play down.  I think it needs more trees, and I should throw some snowmen in for scale.

I’m cocking the camera to the side to get some better silhouettes, as opposed to straight top down.

I want to have something playable in block form tomorrow to get some feedback.  As always, any and all feedback is appreciated!

A lot more to do, but happy so far…

Good night for now.

I have a long way to go.  I’m pretty happy with what I have, however, I’m a little behind schedule.  Going to try to make up the time somehow.

Right now, I have one screen, with some evil snowmen spawning and coming for a turret to try and destroy it.  The turret turns and aims where you point the mouse, however firing isn’t in quite yet.

The graphics need some work, but I want fully functional game play in place first.

You can “play” or check it out here at least: http://tinyurl.com/lhv3xwu

Screenshot: