Starting yesterday evening without much inspiration I don’t expect much to come out of my first Ludum Dare contribution. I guess I’m going for making it look nice. Possibly need to make it look more like a microscope. And the game mechanics, of course, those need to be added!
I started out this MiniLD #56 with the goal of making a retro pixelated renderer (shader) which I have wanted to do for a long time. The most difficult part though turned out to be coming up with a game that would suit the art style. After some time experimenting with a 3D platformer I decided to go for a 3D Tetris: because 3D and Tetris are two of the coolest things!
It took some time, but I really wanted to get something nice and polished in this retro style (although it’s maybe not used to its full potential in this game). I must say that the work payed off, let’s hope some of you’ll enjoy the game as well!
Play Tretris here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/minild-56/?action=preview&uid=47137
After struggling a whole day to come up with ideas for LD #35, I finally settled for one that I feel has some potential to be at least a bit interesting. Above is the first render (using PIXI) of a paper cutout that is to be one of the building blocks in the game.
Build A Dinosaur! (from littlefamilyfun.com)
I got the idea from the picture above. Creating creatures from simple shapes seems like a neat idea and “just” by adding physics to the joints they will come alive just like that. Now, I wont probably have time to allow for creating this awesome and walking dinosaurs, but there will be some kind of joints with movements.
You can checkout my progress here http://johntu.github.io/creaturecutouts/
After giving up on my Creature Cutouts game I started on this completely different idea for a game. I had found a synth sound a while back that I thought would create a cool soundscape in a game, reacting to player movements or changes in the environment. As I haven’t used sound as a core mechanic in a game before it felt best to make the graphics simple and neutral, eventually resulting in a black screen and a white line.
The goal of the game is to find the light in a completely dark room, with only a strange sound guiding you to the exit. Really, it is one of those games that is probably better understood by just playing. Preferably in a dark room with headphones.
Play it here!
The game I ended up with for this LD is perhaps something that neither I nor any of you expected. Questionably related to the theme it turned out to be a game all about listening, as well as a test on your patient. Many have pointed out that it is difficult to understand what is happening, but maybe that just adds to the atmosphere. I mean who wouldn’t be disoriented in a completely dark room?
So if you haven’t already, try it out here!
Tags: darkness, headphones, jam, LD35, light, sound, soundscape
Joining this ludum dare as a team of five we thought that we would get five times as much content done. We learned that we need to practice making more games together. Now go save the pigeons!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=47137
Meet the needs of your restaurant guests to maximize their happiness and your profit!
Our second LD together and we wanted to actually make a playable game this time! Though we felt much stronger for our current idea than the one in the previous LD we again fell short in scructural skills and overall experience with making a game.
However, our demo hopefully shows the basic concept of our idea and brings forward your inner restaurant owner! Tell us what you think!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=preview&uid=47137
Tags: food, meow, restaurant
Also we’re in.
Boats!!
Another jam, another strange outcome. Why is game programming so hard when I can work as a programmer full time? :s
📦📦📦 Play 'Stack' 📦📦📦
Lessons until next time: - Ideas can always be simpler - Focus on core mechanics before game feel - Sketch out the entire idea and identify all components before starting to code - Don't try new frameworks - Don't plan any other events during the jam
Sture, as we call us, are at it again trying to make a game with our limited skills. We have participated a few times before using PIXI for Javascript and Unity but we seem to have found a sweet spot using Godot. Yay!
This is where we're at right now! A few levels, sound/music and a bit more polishing and we're there.
But can you guess the loop mechanic?
https://youtu.be/d4YqM4_QZIY
The idea so far:
Stand up against package stealers and defend your neighborhood from theft.
I thought that throwing things at the package stealers would be the immediate response. So I worked mainly on the movement/camera controls and a throwing mechanic. Working in Godot 4!
I'm exited to see what day 2 will offer! Probably a lot of Blender tutorials :skull:
Original idea:
Stand up against package stealers and defend your neighborhood from theft.
I'm just posting an update that I didn't have time to finish this game. I got stuck on making stuff in Blender.
But I also had trouble making enough features for the game. I got some agents moving around the test environment, and some player interactions, but that was about it.
Still, I learnt a few things in Godot so that was good!
Good luck to everyone!
Living in UTC +2 I went to bed after having read the jam theme. When I woke up I got this idea of making a Snake game where you move between apples in a tree, and if you miss you fall to your death. :snake: :apple: :deciduous_tree:
My main approach for this LD though is to have a clear goal in the game. I thought that just eating apples and getting longer felt uninspiring, so the idea evolved into a dungeon crawler. You would start in an egg, move about as a teensy larva, get bigger and more agile, form a pupa and then finally becoming a butterly or something similarly beautiful! :sparkles: I've always been drawn to dungeon crawlers so hopefully I can create something that at least feels like one.
So far using Godot 4 and Gimp. Aiming to make something pretty in Procreate. :paintbrush:
I haven't worked much with terrain and polygons in Godot, so this is good exercise.
Putting ideas on paper usually helps.
We all need to start somewhere. In this case inside of an egg! :egg:
The Larva Dungeon Crawler is slowly twitching forward.
The Compo is over, and I don't have the game I initially planned.
My first day I had a really fun time learning new things in Godot and feeling like I made some good progress. However, I could see a scope creep on the horizon. Sure enough waking up on the second day and playing the demo I knew I had to change the game plan. So I killed it. :skull:
The demo included some basic platforming and an evolution mechanic. If you're interested you can play it on itch.io!
https://johnbrynte.itch.io/ld-56-larva-crawler-abandoned
The game idea I went with was something that was on my initial drawing board. The only reason I didn't go with it from the start was that I thought it too simple. In a 48 hour time frame there is however nothing that is too simple, I have now learned. :snake: :apple: :heart:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/apple-snake
