Time for another post-mortem! If you haven’t yet, you can play Earth Invader here!

For this Ludum Dare I didn’t actually learn anything new… I was very focused with my own project that I didn’t learn anything particularly new. I actually started developing a new engine which would support 3D, but it’s way too far from being complete, so I decided that I would use Unity, since in my new project I’m going to use it anyway, so might as well begin practicing!

What went right:

• Unity

This was my first time using Unity to release a game, and it went pretty well! I’ve tested before with some tutorials so I already knew that it was fairly easy to make something. The work flow was really smooth and wasn’t so difficult. Although I did want to make this game with my engine, it was good learning and worked well.

• Krita

At first I was going for pixel art with GIMP, but then I thought, well, I always wanted to use Krita and try  another graphic style. And so I did, and I’m pretty satisfied with the result! Krita is a great tool, even though I don’t have a tablet to draw I was able to use it well! It was difficult in the beginning to adopt a whole different style, but I guess it was worth it

• Audio

As always, I used Bfxr for sound effect and Bosca Ceoil for music. It worked like the last Ludum Dare, nothing new, but the result was nice. I did have some difficulties with my composition, since I still only know the basics, but the result was something I was happy with

• New experiences

In this Ludum Dare I tried some of new things. Uploaded the game at itch.io, did screen recording (I wanted to make a timelapse, but didn’t work well)… It was really fun and really good learning for my future projects!

What went wrong:

• A lot of setbacks

This Ludum Dare was pretty harsh for me… I was really tired from work, then I spent the first 12 hours just trying to think a concept that I was happy with, then the energy went down in my house, and so on…. Yeah, not the best situation…

• Sudden change of style

Although I’m happy with the style I adopted later, I already had some assets done so I had to remake them (I didn’t really, just made some touches to adapt them), so it got a bit inconsistent.

• No playtests

I really wanted to have more playtests, but I didn’t have any… I really need to start searching for people that are willing to do that…

Conclusion

This was a really difficult Ludum dare for me. Not so much on technical part, that went pretty well, but setbacks from life. But still I managed to overcome them all and finish a game that I’m actually satisfied with! I really didn’t expect that… Even now I’m still pretty tired from the last part of the year, but I’m going to rest a lot this holiday! And let’s hope for a great year that’s coming! For the next Ludum Dare I hope I can finish my engine, get some more composition practice and make better animations! Congratulations everybody! Keep up the great work and let’s even work harder next time! Happy holidays!

PS: Sorry it’s a bit hastily, I’m a bit short in time here ^^;

Ok, I know that I’m very very late, but here is the list of my favorites this LD, in case you’re looking for something to play!:

• Growth Control by Akhera
• Double Helix by BroCade
• Homewards by M a r o o v a n
• Growing Sakura by ripatti
• FlOBA by RHY3756547
• My Best (Magical) Friend! by spotco
• Riders On The Steppes by theholychicken

Of course, I’d be glad if you also checked out my game!

Okay, 1 year in! Though I don’t think I can work much this time, life’s been kinda crazy…

Anyways, for this time I’m back with C++, depending on the theme I might use my engine, but not sure, I’m pretty much going to just freestyle this time, even for graphics and sound.

Happy jamming everyone!

Sooo It’s been a crazy week! Although I managed it there are still so many things to be done… At least I did one, which is upload the walkthrough for my game!

In case you haven’t seen my game, I would be glad if you take a look! You can play it here!

And tune in next time, when I’ll post the post-mortem for this  LD and, who knows, maybe a post-compo version?~

A bit late, but finally writing my post-mortem! If you want to check it out, here’s the link!

It’s kinda bad to suck in your own game

The Beginning

So, this is my 4th Ludum Dare, so it’s been a year since I started taking the challenge! Actually it was also when I started to really game development! Time sure flies, and so much improvement! I’m really happy about how far I’ve come, but also excited about how much more there is to learn!

Anyway, since it was like 1 year anniversary I wanted to do something special, but work and life has been really crazy, I can barely work on my side project, so I wasn’t able to prepare anything really, except that I tried out Inkscape a bit. Also I had a really busy weekend coming, so I knew I wouldn’t have much time to dedicate to LD either. That was a bit sad, but whatever, I was still going to do it!

The Concept

So when the theme was announced I kinda panicked. I had no idea what to do, and I was worried about the time it would take to make all assets (my slowest skill). So I just figured that I would have to make something really simple so that assets wouldn’t take much time, and so (as most people) I decided to use just geometric shapes. And so my first reference was Geometry Wars (it’s even my recommended BGM). In the end it was mostly the aesthetics.

And then I thought about doing a stealth game, in which the main mechanics would be if you were the same shape of an enemy, it would ignore you. But then I thought it would be too difficult, but I would keep the main mechanic. And so it was time to work! (Actually 20 hours after the start)

The Good

– Graphics

So graphics were a big deal, I wanted to keep it simple so I wouldn’t waste too much time on it, but I really wanted the neon style and that the animation was smooth, since the theme was shapeshifting. And alas, my newly acquired Inkscape skills came to be handy! First it was to make geometric shapes in a fast way, then the neon I would apply a filter. I was only worried about the animation, but then it came to me the interpolation function!

Shapeshifting frames. Inkscape did most of the job for me!

And so I did the best square, triangle, star and circle I could make (so hard!) tweaked the filters a bit, and BAM! Interpolation made all the frames for me! It came out really nice, I think! Now the rest  I could do programmatically, like rotation and light tricks (every shape has its own point light that moves according to its velocity)

– Mechanic

So one of my events was a birthday party, and there I was able to talk a bit about my idea for the game, and it helped me a lot! So I came up with the idea of having to reach a goal by collecting keys and avoiding other shapes that were different from you. The ones same as you would be repelled, and so I used a basic electrical force formula to apply force in all shapes in the arena, and there you go, simple as that! And it turned out quite fun! It was really simple, but there were a lot of possibilities to how go through the level, even without spawning the shapes randomly!

Mechanic test. Actually a quite hard scenario.

The Bad

– BGM

So I put a lot of effort to make the assets, but I couldn’t just get the right tune for the BGM. Like Geometry wars, I wanted to have a electronic feel to it, but I don’t actually listen to electronic music, and I’m not really a composer, so after some hours trying to make the music I just gave up (and it was the right decision, I submitted the game like 1 minute before the deadline). Guess I have to practice more my composition skills!

– Rush

Oh the lack of time! All LD have this pressure feeling, but this time it was a big thing. I couldn’t stop coding, even if it was to just rethink a better way to do something. All my assets and code organization is really nasty xp If anyone is interested in having a look at my source code I apologize in advance ^^; Management stuff like Trello and Toggl were left out too, which is kinda sad, I couldn’t keep track of my performance… But oh well, it was for the greater good.

The Future

And thus, it has ended! Or has it? I think this game, although very simple and made in a rush, had the best feedback of all my entries! It’s a shame that I couldn’t work out a post-compo version, I’ve been busy with work and playing all the games (100% coolness!). But still I want to make it! Maybe I can get it before the judging ends? Or maybe I will continue it’s development even after? I’m thinking about changing some things too, even tweak the mechanics, who knows what will happen in the future?

Anyways, thank you for reading this far! I really had fun this LD and I hope you had too! If you are interested in the game you can play it here (again)! I also have a twitter and an itch.io account! There isn’t much yet, but I’ll tidy up things pretty soon! Any news about the game I shall post about it too! I hope to see you around 😉

Sooo yeah, I wasn’t able to make the post-compo version… for now!  Anyways, even though I won’t get it ready before judging ends, you can play the original version here! If you like the game you can follow me and then get the news about the new version I’m planning for it! (Probably will be really different!)

Happy voting!

Sooo yeah, I wasn’t able to make the post-compo version… for now!  Anyways, even though I won’t get it ready before judging ends, you can play the original version here! If you like the game you can follow me and then get the news about the new version I’m planning for it! (Probably will be really different!)

Happy voting!

God, I’m so tired, I’ll take this weekend to res… Wait, what? LD is today? Well… Sleep is for the weak anyway, I guess….

Once again I’ve been too busy to try to learn new things for this LD, so I guess I’ll just freestyle this time!

All right! Here is my report for Day one!…. Not much really xp

So I decided doing a text game for a change (and some other reasons), but never really made one before, so today I spent most of my day learning how to use Ink and Twine, and I’m still a bit indecisive about which one to pick, though now I think I’m picking Ink. At least I already got the first screen and how the style will work… more or less… Anyway, here’s a screenshot! (of a text game, very exciting)

And that’s it for today ^^; I wanted to keep it simple this time, since I came from a really tiresome week, but I’m still so far from the end, I hope I can actually finish this in time…

Oh, in case you are curious, the story is a sci-fi adventure about YOU crashing into a forgotten planet, and your quest to escape it!

Anyway, keep up the good work guys! See you after a quick nap z_z

Oh god, less than 8 hours left! I chose to do a text adventure thinking it would be simple and fast, and that I would have some time to rest later… I only finished 1 Act!!! I’ll just jump to the last one and hope I have time to finish it… T_T

Oh btw, does anyone know how to make the itchio embedded html player fit the whole page? I’ve been trying to do that but with no success…

I can’t believe I actually finished! Why does it always have to be in the last minute? T_T

It is still far from complete… More story, an actual combat system… But still, I think it is playable!

When “jumping”, your calculation must be really precise, other wise you can end in a very inconvenient place! In “Brigit Fall”, YOU, yes YOU, were in chase of some criminal called Branigan, but a miscalculation made you crash into an unknown planet. Can YOU do what it takes escape this mysterious place?

Want to check it out? Click here!… or somewhere else that leads you to the game!

Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to die on my bed…. Z_Z

Ludum Dare 36

So until this morning I was kinda depressed and my computer wouldn't boot, I was giving up on this one, but now my computer decided to resurrect and I'm feeling a bit better, so let's give it a try! (even though I'm late 12 hours)

I'll be using Unity and Blender (first time doing 3d!), probably bfxr for SX and Boscaceoil for music, if there will be any.

1 day is gone and I scrapped my previous idea and can't think of a new one, and I'm terribly tired... So I guess I'm out this time T_T Have a great jam everyone! See you in the next one!

After, I think, 6 LDs absent (life's been crazy) I'm finally attempting a come back! This time I will try UE4 with Blender and Gimp! I have an idea that maaaybe won't need music, but in case I do, I'm going with LMMS and Audacity~

Well, good luck everyone!

Progress is slow, but it was expected since this is my first time doing an original project with Blender and UE4. Basically I've been only working on setting up the stage (which I didn't think it would take this long...), like object interaction and some static meshes, so now I finally get to implement some gameplay!

Well, had a few hours sleep and was able to implement more tasks to be completed and also damage system! Today I won't be able to work a lot because of life things though, so I will just go for the Jam and continue tomorrow~

So, as expected, I wasn't able to work a lot yesterday, but I did have some progress! Anyway, going for jam now, though I'm still applying all the rules from compo!

Meanwhile, clock and lamp working!!

"Just let me get my phon.... hu..."

So, my game is mainly finished (missing sound effects/music and some quality of life stuff), but while play testing I reckon that it was too difficult! Well, at least for me, someone who is terrible with manual things, sooo just need to see if I can ease thing a little bit. Meanwhile, meal time! Today's special, cheese sausage tofu ramyon!

Test Subject 42 is out now!

And I am too tired to keep testing it or make more assets for the publication, so I will just leave it like this and if later I still have the energy to do something, then I maybe take some screenshots and make some gifs, and failproof more the game, but right now I need my sleep ^^;

Anyways, congrats to everyone and for those who are still working, keep it up! /o/

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/test-subject-42