Language: Java
Libraries: LWJGL, twl PNG decoder
IDE: Eclipse
Music/Sound:SFXR and Others(not decided yet)
Art: Fireworks

My setup (minus the drinks and snacks):

Working-

-3D map
-Billboarding of Enemies (mostly)
-player Movement
-Enemy Animation

Not Working / Unfinished –

-Enemy AI
-End Game, Win / Lose Objective
-Menu
-Sound
-etc

So my first Ludum Dare is over, I successfully created a game that you can finish, within 48 hours. Initially I was disappointed with my game, its nowhere near as finished as In would like, lots of the features I would have liked to have added were cut due to lack of time, It’s not as polished as it could of been and the collision detection is a little iffy.But it functions as a game, the map is challenging and the 3D works quite well, especially for my first real attempt at using 3D.

However, after the initial disappointment, I realised in reality anyone and everyone who entered a game, myself included had done something amazing, we have all created games in 48 hours. No mean feat.

Where did I go wrong?

First and foremost I spent a huge proportion of my time messing around trying to get a feature to work which was mostly for aesthetic purposes. In hindsight I should of used placeholder graphics and gotten the actual mechanics working before wasting around 5 hours on aesthetics which didn’t even make it in the game because of the time I had spent on them.

Secondly, after about 6ish on the Sunday I began to feel really awful, I hadn’t eaten enough and I hadn’t eaten good stuff. This was a stupid error, but I felt infinitely better after eating.

What went well? I FINISHED!!!! I have an enormous feeling of pride that I could create a working game however simple in 48 hours in fact it showed me how much time 48 hours really is!

The 3D graphics worked as intended and  I added some elements of polish, like the depth fog.

It was a long weekend, but I enjoyed every moment of it and would like to thank everyone involved in making Ludum Dare possible and especially everyone who was on the Irc channel, who were all supportive and .

Anyway I’m off to try and get through the rest of my day at college without falling asleep.

I’m in, for the second time!

Tools are a little different from last time, but not too much.

Language: Java

Library: Slick2D – changed from libgdx, because I’m more familiar with it

Graphics: Fireworks 8

Music: Audacity

Streaming: FFSplit broadcasting on twitch!

Drink of Choice: Mountain Dew

Feel free to follow me on twitter : @KMutantSquirrel, I will try and post throughout the challenge!

Hey guys, I’m live streaming over on twitch!

http://www.twitch.tv/kmutantsquirrel

Working on lighting and shadows at the moment, the player will have a radius of sight around them, the rest of the map, will be completely dark. Well, that’s my plan, I might add torches or other forms of level lighting later. But for now, working on the dynamic shadows/light from the player!

Have line of sight pretty much working, couple of bugs I need to fix with it-

Just about to go to sleep.

Got loads accomplished today,

Lighting, Enemies and Enemy Ai, gun shot sound, creepy background “music” loop, player movement, map/level loading.

Enemy spawn. Health bar. Noise effect.

All that since 3am even with a 3-4 hour shift at work!

Hours to spare, lots of time to get some sleep before college tomorrow.
I’m not particularly proud of the game itself, but I’m proud of the fact I made it in the 48 hours and I’m happy with the lighting effect and a number of other things about it. But I think the idea needed to be stronger. I didn’t spend enough time on the idea. Lesson learnt for next the next Ludum Dare.

Hope you guys enjoy the game anyway, have a good rest of the night and good luck to everyone still working on their game, jam or compo.
I’ll post a full post mortem on my game afterwards!

My release is here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=17911

Well, I made my second entry to Ludum Dare. Now is the time to deconstruct it and say what went well, what didn’t and generate some points to learn from the whole experience.

What went well?
I finished. Got to be an important one. I kept the game simple, I didn’t let the feature creep set in.
I learnt from previous mistakes. Last LD, I tried to use LWJGL, which I wasn’t and still am not comfortable in, this was a BAD idea, trying to learn a library, especially one as complex as openGL and do a game jam at the same time, don’t mix too well. This time I used Slick2D, which I have become very familiar with.

I was happy with the rough, blocky lighting effect I created for the game, I was really happy that I could cast shadows using ray casting. I was happy with the level from bitmap, loading technique.

What would I change?
Well, for starters, I would more than likely, change the zombies, to allow diagonal movement in their path finding. I would probably have added more sound effects for the zombies, because the repetition of the same sound effect, became a little annoying. I would also have added a sound for the potato and health pickups. I may have increased the light radius, decreased the drop of ammo and increased the potato drop, because I think, the drop rates were a bit off at times. If I’d of had more time I may of added some way of finding where they key to the next safe room was without having to search all the really dark rooms, because I think some people might have found that a bit tedious!

Points to think about:

-Keep it simple
-Don’t browse youtube so much!
-Get the Ludum Dare weekend off work if possible.

Thanks to everyone who has already played my game and rated and commented. Anyone who wants to give it a go, it can be found here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=17911

I’m in for my second compo!

Environment: Eclipse
Language: Java
Libraries: lwjgl and slick2D
Probably only going to be a small entry as I have work on the weekend, but should still be fun!

-Tom

Been a while since I lost entered Ludum Dare, but looking forward to doing it once more!

Tools: Eclipse, Fireworks 8

Libraries: Slick2D, Lwjgl

See you in five days!

Hello,

In the interest of fairness, here is the base code I will be using in my compo project:

https://github.com/Tom-Todd/LudumBaseCode

So it’s 11:40pm here in the good old UK, save an hour’s power nap, I’ve been going for about 20 hours solid.
My game is my attempt at a danmaku style game ( bullet curtain).
It currently looks a little like this:

Progress so far:

Completed:
-Entity System ✓
-Projectile System ✓-Pathing System ✓
-First ‘Stage’ ✓

Unfinished/Unstarted:
-Graphics: Partially finished, still some programmer art
-UI: Not started
-Sneaking in a snowman
-Other ‘Stages’

So Good Night Ludum Dare! I’ll see you tomorrow

Obligatory I’m in Post.

Tools are Java, Slick2d and copious amounts of coffee.

-Tom