for the last Ludum Dare of 2015.

Platform: Web
Language: Dart
Libs: dartemis and other stuff on pub if needed.
Base Code: some utilities to reduce the amount of boilerplate code I need to write
Graphics: Krita
Sound: Audacity and maybe bfxr

Maybe I’ll create something full-screen for a change.

for the first Ludum Dare of 2016.

I’ve been lazy the last few months. I hope I didn’t get rusty.

Platform: Web
Language: Dart
Libs: dartemis and other stuff on pub if needed.
Base Code: some utilities to reduce the amount of boilerplate code I need to write
Graphics: Krita
Sound: Audacity

Good luck everyone and have fun!

And I’ll try to create my first multiplayer game (probably something coop), as I’m currently playing around with some networking stuff.

Tools & Tech

Platform: Web/HTML5
Language: Dart
IDE: WebStorm
Libs: dartemis and other stuff on pub if needed.
Base Code: some utilities to reduce the amount of boilerplate code I need to write
Graphics: Krita
Sound: Audacity
Multiplayer stuff: Websockets and/or WebRTC (EDIT: a little server I use for connecting the clients)

Or rather I was a few hours ago, but after some sleep I’m now ready to accept some challengers in my very first multiplayer game:

Join Chariot Arena Battle

Come and join the fun. The more the merrier (I wanna see at what point my game can’t handle any more players).

Tags: multiplayer

First, my current game: Chariot Arena Battle

With every game I submit to a Ludum Dare competition I try to learn something new. This time I wanted to create a multiplayer game. In retrospective, I’ve learned the following things so far:

• LD25 – Lasershark – Never made a game in 48 hours before. It’s not easy to finish a game in 48 hours. I did not succeed.
• LD26 – 20 Seconds – Finish my first game in 48 hours. Success!! Simple graphics and simple mechanics. Simple collisions between rectangles and circles.
• LD27 – Alien Attack – Collision detection with polygons
• LD28 – Granny Loosethooth – Path finding. Not implemented correctly, but still working surprisingly good.
• LD29 – Castle Engineer – Stupid “AI”. Not an AI at all.
• LD30 – Opposing Worlds – A bit more intelligent computer enemies. Not what you’d call an AI, but can be challenging. Also: first turn based strategy game for me.
• LD31/LD32 – skipped. Participated in some other Game Jams, created my first game using WebGL
• LD33 – (Idle?) Monster – took my newly learned WebGL-Skillz, threw them away and created a clicker/idle game only using some HTML div-elements.
• LD34 – Damacreat – created the most relaxing game using the worst controls ever. Added procedural generated background in a post compo version.
• LD35 – failed – created some epilepsy inducing game. Did not want to publish. Didn’t even have good/working/any game mechanics when the jam ended.
• LD36 – Chariot Arena Battle – My current game. The pinnacle of evolution. A multiplayer game. My graphical skills never improved noticeably.

I started this game jam with the goal to create my first multiplayer game. In preparation I created a simple server that I could use to pass messages between the clients (and posted the source in my “I’m in post”). It was also the first Ludum Dare I did not start alone but joined some other jammers in their quest for fame and glory. I still did my game on my own and they created theirs (runvs with Raiders of the Ancient Technology).

The jam starts Saturday at 3 AM at my location. I have some weird inner clock, that always wakes me at this time whenever a Ludum Dare starts. So I knew the theme, and combining it with my target of some multiplayer game I immediately thought about creating some game with catapults. I went to sleep again and when I woke up, I didn’t like the idea anymore. Catapults are too slow.. that would be to boring. Then I thought about creating a game that’s a mashup between Mario Cart and Trackmania using chariots. So that was what I was trying to do. At the end of the first day I didn’t like that idea anymore, and turned it into what you can play now.

The bad things

• I got lazy on my second day. I actually wanted to add some other enemies, so there would be something to do even if no other player connected.
• no sound
• no juice
• I tried to test my game online on the first day. It did not work, because the places where I usually publish my games all use HTTPS. If you use HTTPS, you also have to use a secure connection to other hosts. My websocket-server did not have any SSL certificates at all. Thank to Let’s Encrypt and a great dartdoc I was able to set it up Sunday morning.
• I knew I’d do this beforehand but still: I created a multiplayer game in a way you are not supposed to ever create a multiplayer game. All game logic is on the client, the server has no authority at all. Data is transmitted as strings (JSON) instead of binary data.

The good things

• I actually finished a playable multiplayer game in less than 48 hours. (I worked on the game for approximately 20 hours).
• I’ve got a server that supports HTTPS.
• I’ve got a basic idea about how to synchronize player/game state between multiple clients. It shouldn’t be too hard to move the logic to the server. – This will be my next goal.
• A comment on my game gave me an idea for a post compo version. It might not be chariots anymore :).
• Last but not least: great self-made falafel wraps on my first day at runvs.

And now I’ll be online for approx. 2 hours in my game, so no player has to play alone.

Join Chariot Arena Battle

Come and join the fun. The more the merrier (I wanna see at what point my game can’t handle any more players).

Tags: ld36 post mortem, multiplayer

I skipped the last LD but I’m back in!

Everything will still be made in Dart, just like my very first LD game in December 2012.

I have not participated in the last 2 LDs, so it's time to finally get back in!

Tools & Tech

• Platform: Web/HTML5
• Language: Dart
• IDE: WebStorm
• Libs: dartemis and other stuff on pub if needed.
• Base Code: some utilities to reduce the amount of boilerplate code I need to write

Have fun and good luck everyone!

It's been some time since I last participated in a Ludum Dare, so I guess, it's time to jam again!

I'll join the compo and create a game using Dart as a language.

Damn, I'm out of Ludum Dare. It almost seems like I have lost my gamejam-foo. But I guess it's just that I don't have an idea that really interests me. Noting novel about it, nothing to learn, nothing exciting in the prospect of developing the game.

Most of my gamejam games were about learning something new. I knew what I wanted to learn before a theme was announced. And no matter the theme, I found a way to do it. My first games have been about gamedev in general, just getting comfortable with using an ECS, using sprites, using sounds, collision detection

Those were some of my first games: * Lasershark - http://ludumdare.com/compo/minild-47/?action=preview&uid=17933 * UFO (bullet) hell: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26-warmup/?action=preview&uid=17933 * 20 seconds: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=17933 * Alien Attack: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=17933

Follow the light http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28-warmup/?action=preview&uid=17933 was a game were my goal was to learn about Bézier curves (which, at some point made me realize that kitten are just a bunch of those things and I created Generate A Kitten: https://kayzgames.itch.io/generate-a-kitten

Granny Loosetooth http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=17933 was the first game I used to use a path finding algorithm (not correctly, but it worked for the game).

Castle Engineer http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=17933 was my first platformer

Opposing Worlds http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=17933 was my first turn based game with a decent "AI" to play against. Also used path finding again, but in the correct way it's supposed to be used this time.

Triangles in Fear http://kayzgames.github.io/zfxaction6/ was the first time I used the microphone as a "controller". You could increase the Rage-O-Meter by doing a rageful aaaaaaaaaa. After the jam I dabbed into WebGL for the first time and thus you can switch between 2D and 3D now.

In Replay http://ludumdare.com/compo/minild-57/?action=preview&uid=17933 I wanted to know if I can create fancy effects using WebGL, also my first 48h jam game with animations.

(Idle?) Monster http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=17933 was my first Idle game and the first game I created without using a canvas. Not sure if I had some learning goal in this one, other than making an idle game?

For Snowman Defense http://kayzgames.github.io/devmania_2015/ I wanted to create my first tower defense game and did so in just 15 hours.

Damacreat http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=17933 was another game were I don't really know if I had a goal beforehand. After all it's just a generic Circle-eats-Circle-and-gets-bigger game. But for what it's worth, it resulted in an iogame I am still developing: https://damacreat.io

With Chariot Battle Arena http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=17933 my goal was to create a multiplayer game using a simple WebSocket server (the server is no longer running, so the game is no longer playable). But I may turn it into another iogame at some point.

In Slimes in Panic https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/slimes-in-panic I used a hexagonal grid for the first time. Didn't work out quite as well as it could. But made for a nice settler-like experience even though it wasn't finished at all.

4F - Faith, Forests, Fire and Floods https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/4f-faith-forests-fire-and-floods was a game where I first used the logic of a cellular automata and used hexagon cells again because I didn't really implement them the easy way before.

And now I don't know what else there is I could do.

For this jam, my ideas have been: * a tower defense game, where you buy your tower upgrades with the same resource you are protecting * a bullet hell shmup with a vampire who recruits drones using his life/blood * an idle/incremental game where you sell "bad luck" (from a sneeze up to famines or worse) to customers in exchange for some of their lifetime

All 3 of my ideas (tower defense, bullet hell, idle game) are genres I already did in a gamejam. Nothing novel, nothing exciting :(.

So, if I want to join a gamejam again, I seriously need to find something I have not yet done but am interested to learn about as that is what has driven me since 2013.