I can't believe I actually finished this today. I made most of a game on Saturday, but it was horrible. So, I pivoted this morning to make this game, and I somehow got it done. I thought about submitting to the Jam, but I have a lot of work tomorrow, so that didn't seem like an option.

Link

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/runaway-corruption

Description

In runaway corruption you play as the last survivor of a group of mages. The land is corrupted and the corruption has destroyed everything. You are trapped in a field with corruption all around. From the corruption ghouls emerge and attack you. Even if you can fend off the ghouls, the corruption is toxic and will harm you if you get too close.

I have to go to the neighboring city all day today, so I won't have time to rate games. Rate mine today and I'll get to yours tonight or tomorrow.

Link

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/runaway-corruption

Plug

I hope everyone is having fun with this LD. One of the best parts of LD is taking imperfect games made over the course of a weekend and improving them into more complete projects.

I had two games that I had attempted to make for LDs in the past, but ran out of time. About six months ago I tried to make one of them and I didn't like the result very much. I then tried the other and also didn't like the result. Finally, I decided to combine elements from both of them and I got my most complete product ever--one that I like a lot.

Check it out here: https://tallshrimp.itch.io/synced-warriors

LD40

Also, if you haven't already, check out my game from LD40--another game that went through multiple iterations.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/runaway-corruption

Meet Dr. Ishii, a scientist and spelunker in search of buried treasure.

Using his trusty magnets, Dr. Ishii pulls and pushes metal towards him to quickly uncover valuable metals and defeat his enemies. The doctor has to be careful, though. His magnets destabilize the caves he enters often leading to their collapse.

My Game

When I saw that the theme was about sacrifice I thought I needed to do a game about consequentialist ethical theories. In "It Must Be Fed" I tried to capture a situation where the character is forced to do something that is deontologically wrong, but where the consequentialist must say that the character is obligated to kill people, and I mean actually directly stab people to death kill them (not just pull a lever to swap some trolley tracks). The game is about weighing the lives of strangers against the lives of other strangers as well as weighing the lives of ones own family against the lives of strangers.

Philosophy Game Jam

If you also like philosophy in video games, you should join the game jam I am hosting in January. I hope to get a number of games I can use for teaching at the undergraduate level.

https://itch.io/jam/philosophy-game-jam

Your Game

If the game you made for LD contains philosophical ideas, please comment it below so I can check it out.

Background and Request

Now that the blog posts have slowed down a little, I thought I'd put the following request to y'all.

I'm both planning a game jam in January for philosophical video games and working on an archive of philosophical games meant to help and encourage philosophers to use video games in their classes.

Since the theme this time around likely inspired some philosophical games, I want to find those games. Unfortunately I don't have the time to play through all of the wonderful games made this time around. If you think your game has philosophical content in it (given the theme, there is a high chance your game has some difficult ethical dilemmas) comment the link so I can check it out.

Links

Here's the link to the jam's page (the archive will be up by the end of January): https://itch.io/jam/philosophy-game-jam. Here's the twitter account for the game jam: https://twitter.com/philgamejam.

If you want to check out my game it is here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/it-must-be-fed

Hey all you givers of games,

After you finish making your awesome Ludum Dare games, why not make a game for the Philosophy Game Jam #2. This time around the jam will have a slightly more specific theme than just "philosophy." For the second Philosophy Game Jam, we will be making games related to ethics and technology. Some possible routes to take with this theme include, but are not limited to, games about ethical game design, games about cloning, games about the ethical issues surrounding AI.

One special feature of this jam is that it is being run in conjunction with an academic conference on ethics and technology held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The games you make will be featured as part of the Ethics and Technology Bazaar.

Here's a link to the jam's page on itchio: https://itch.io/jam/philgamejam-2

Main Post

I thought it was about time that I wrote a little post about my game.

To be honest, I have hated this theme since it first started appearing in the theme voting many LDs ago. However, I don't shy away from LDs just because I hate the theme. My inspiration this time around was Minesweeper. In Minesweeper you start off with no information about the puzzle's layout and your first click will determine where you start from in solving the puzzle. So, I wanted to make a similar kind of puzzle game.

In tile.flip() your goal is to flip all of the tiles that do not contain bombs. However, each tile will also flip over a certain arrangement of adjacent tiles, indicated by a diagram on top of the tile. Nearby bombs are indicated by a red coloring on an adjacent tile.

The biggest challenge in making the game was writing the code for randomly generating puzzles. My first attempt involved generating random layouts of tiles and testing to see if they were solvable or not. However, there were so many unsolvable puzzles that it took way too long to find a solvable one. So, instead of generating a random completed layout, I generated a random layout of tiles, excluding bombs. I then found a subset of tiles that could all be flipped. If the subset was a proper subset, then the remaining tiles were turned into bombs. In this way, I got puzzle generation down to less than a second.

The second biggest challenge was life. Between two jobs, preparing for the academic job market, a 1 month old baby, and spending time with my wife, I only had about 6 hours to make this game. All things considered, I'm happy with what I made, flaws and all.

Link to Game

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/tile-flip

Addendum

If you like game jams, consider joining the Philosophy Game Jam taking place in about a week. https://itch.io/jam/philgamejam-2

Hey Jammers,

I see that you like game jams. Why not check out he philosophy game jam happening now on itch.io? We will be having prizes and all of the games will be showcased at an academic philosophy conference happening at the end of the jam.

Here's a link to check it out: https://itch.io/jam/philgamejam-2

Best,

TallShrimp

P.S. Check out my LD game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/tile-flip

I know you all like to make games quickly. So, here's an opportunity to do so. The Philosophy Game Jam has been going on for a week and a half now, but for those of you who are used to making games in 2-3 days there is still plenty of time to make a game for the jam and have a chance at a prize.

If you're interested, head on down to https://itch.io/jam/philgamejam-2 to sign up. The theme this time is "ethics and technology." There are plenty of awesome games that can be made with this topic, including games about A.I. or games about designer babies.

Also, check out my LD game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/tile-flip