No complications this time 😀

although, obviously I am in, as I have competed in every LD since LD 28, still trying to get top 100

Speaking of which, this LD isn’t being rated, which doesn’t really make much difference, as all I really want to do is finish a game.

I will be using C++, with GLFW, OpenGL, GLAD, and LodePNG. I will not be using any base code, (yea! Not even a maths lib).

Also, photoshop, sfxr and famitracker (if I get round to music, since, I never have)

Since it is not being rated, this is the perfect one to challenge myself D: So I am starting from the Ultimate scratch. (not quite true, I almost went with vulkan :o)

Anyway, I CANNOT wait. I am so excited, the Ludum Dare is my favorite thing in the whole world.

Ned

Wanted to append my I’m In post.

I will be using Java, as opposed to c++, because otherwise I will actually go insane.

Can’t wait.

-Ned

21 minutes late.

Super Excited.

Lets Go!!

I added strafe jumping: https://gyazo.com/0cd88c33ee6f60e04559e552188466fc

Not really sure why. Think the game will probably have some sort of base in parkour.

Should probably hurry, but I am wasting quite a bit of time messing with the strafe jump,

(its really fun, because you gain so much speed).

Anyway, good luck everyone 😀

Ned

I wanted to wait for the new site to be up before this post.

However… I am too impatient.

I am very excited for this one. Hopefully, I will be making a simple 3D game, with some sort of model loader. As always
I will be making the engine during the 48 hours.

What I will be using:

Code:

• Typescript
• HTML5
• WebGL
• The WebGL Reference card, and possibly other tutorials
• Visual Studio Code
• WampServer – (to host a local server during development)

Graphics:

• Photoshop
• Autodesk Maya

Sound:

• SFXR
• FamiTracker
• Possibly the sound editor in Pico-8 (which you should get…. Right now!)

I am very excited for this one. Partly because I have never made a full web game before.

However, I am fairly confident as I have gotten my head around typescript for the most part, and have been using OpenGL for a long
time and WebGL is not that different.

I actually thought the Ludum Dare was in 3 weeks, but apparently it is just under 2. So thats great!! 😀

Thanks for being an awesome community, and a super big thanks to our god Mike.

-Ned Boulter

EDIT:

After spending the whole of this Saturday battling with typescript and modules, and confusion.

I have decided to do the Ludum Dare in C++, this is slightly easier, as I am more familiar with c++.

However it will definitely still be a challenge!

I will be using OpenGL, Glad, LoadPNG, OpenAL soft

I had to wait for the blog posts to be available before I posted my I'm In post, AND ITS WORKING :D :D. Mike - You are awesome!

I will probably be using Java (AWT, Swing, or Maybe OpenGL, very indecisive). Photoshop, sfxr. That's pretty much it.

I will either make a 2D game or raycast.

Thanks all, super excited, gonna get an early nights sleep now.

Ned Boulter

The Aliens

I've been thinking about what to say in this post mortem for a while now, I have never done one before, but it seems appropriate

My game is called TheAliens, it was made in Java.

What went well:

• I think my favorite thing in the game is the fire effect, for the projectile rockets, the thruster on your rocket, and the explosions, I really enjoyed programming the fire, and effects.
• I was proud of the upgrade system, as I have never done that before. It was actually a mistake, as there was supposed to be a design and a testing phase, in the design phase you would design your ship. In the testing phase, it would be like a physics simulation, and you would see how high you could get, but I spent the whole first day making the design dialogue (I was working slowly, as I was not sure I wanted to stick with my game idea). So since I didn't really have a game, I quickly added aliens, and guns, and then made the design phase into an upgrade system :).
• I was happy with the audio and the music, since the music in that game is the first song I have ever made digitally, I thought it was acceptable.

What went badly:

• So since, as I mentioned, I was demotivated on the first day, and quickly hacked what I had into a slightly different game than I had intended, this caused a few issues:
  • The screen space is too small, this is because the game was supposed to be a physics simulation, so the size of the space ship on the screen didn't matter too much. This problem was accentuated, as when aliens come on the screen, you have very little time to react, I was a little too tight on time to make the space ship even smaller, as I was adding the aliens with only about 5 hours to go, so I didn't have much time to refine.
  • The game is too hard at the start, but quickly get's too easy. So upgrade systems are like this, which is why there are not many in the ludum dare, because at the start your ship is bad, so it's hard, at the end your ship is good, so it's easy, so it flips the difficulty curve head over heels. The obvious solution is to raise the difficulty incrementally, to contradict the upgrades, and further, to make sure it keeps getting harder for the user. However, you cannot increment the difficulty, when the user upgrades, because the user can just win on his first go, before the difficulty is incremented, because he hasn't upgraded anything. This is why I introduced the (slightly broken) level system, all it is is a number, that increments every 4000(arbitrary units), and makes the aliens slightly harder, this design structure is pretty good, and it is what I ran with, but it takes a lot of tweaking, and that is why the final game is too easy at the end, and too hard at the beginning.

Overall - I am actually pretty happy with this game. Next time I will probably do it with C++ again, since this time around, I felt like a spent the whole Ludum Dare writing getters and setters :unamused: when I do it in C++, I hope to make a 3D game, I also hope to make some sort of ~~library~~ utility to speed up the development time, so that I can make a more detailed game.

Anyway here is a screenshot (Design Phase):

Here is another screenshot (Play Phase):

Please drop a rating, and comment in on the Ludum Dare page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-aliens

Thanks for being the best community,

Ned

I'm in with only 13 days to go, I am looking forward to the theme voting rounds :grinning:.

I have been doing a lot of coding, so I am hoping for a particularly good one. I am also mentally prepared to try and work much harder than I have before.

I have not really decided what to use yet, but here is a preliminary list: - Visual Studio 2017: As a C++ IDE - Direct3D 11 or OpenGL 3.3: As a way of utilizing graphics hardware (if I decide to go 3D) - Direct2D if I decide to go 2D - Photoshop: as a very expensive way of drawing bad art. - FamiTracker: as a 8-bit sequencer, I might not get round to music though. - SFXR: for simple but effective sounds - Autodesk Maya, Student Version: For producing .obj models, that will be processed by software that I have written. - Coffee: As a way of staying awake, and because it tastes good. - Coffee Machine: As a way of making the coffee mentioned above. - Computer: As a way of doing all of the above - Sandwich Toaster...

Good luck to all during the event :yum:

Ned.

Play It Here

It's a Three Dimensional Platformer! I made it during the Compo, without any engine :smile:. I Used GLFW/OpenGL/OpenAL/RapidXML/GLM and am very very happy with the project

here is a screenshot:

So, this week's Ludum Dare (which kinda snuck up on me this time),

is the weekend before mock exam week -_-.

BUT I've competed in every Ludum Dare since I started, so I have to do something. I haven't really decided what tools i'm gonna use yet, but I want to make my first web game.

Sooooooo I will be using: - Visual Studio Code (as a text editor) - Photoshop (as a pixel-art tool.. Lol) - SFXR (or something similar) - WEBGL (as a way of utilizing graphics hardware FROM A BROWSER [which is awesome]) - JavaScript/ECMA whatever (as a way of adding logic to a browser application) - I might use Typescript or Dart or something to compile to JavaScript... Or maybe not... We'll see. - Ummmm....... - Ooohh maybe Famitracker if I decide to add music.

Anyway, this game is gonna be pretty small one, I'm probably gonna write some base code, so that I'm not writing loads of WebGL over the 48 hours.

It's gonna be a small one, because I can't stay up till 2:00 am, which just makes it all the more fun!

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYBODY ELSE, I HOPE YOU WIN.

Thanks,

Ned

Despite upcoming A-Levels I'm still in, because I've competed in 13 Ludum Dare's consecutively.... So I kinda feel obliged now.

I'm super excited, I'm gonna be using C++ and OpenGL this time around (I can't be bothered to write an engine ;( ).

Finally i'm gonna post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vxYUr9e-GY

that sound track video was made by Joe Williamson, and inspires me EVERY SINGLE ludum dare, so for those newbies ( :P ), go check it out :) :).

Ned

Do you voters actually know the definition of 'incompatible' you've really out done yourselves this time.......

Anyway, I'm gonna try and make the best of it (rubbish theme is part of the fun of LD :P)

Ahhhhhhh 9 days to go, how did this happen?

Errrrrr, so this is where I would normally list what tools/environments/ide's im using buuuuuuttttt, i'm not sure yet....

SO it will be either: - Java/OpenGL - Java/Java2D (so pure java) - could be software rendered 3D, or just 2D - C++/OpenGL - C++/Direct2D - C++/Vulkan (this would be sooo cool) - JavaScript/WebGL

I'm not actually up to Vulkan yet, but one day I will do it!! I am much more interested in game engine technology then actually making games, which is why all my games are basically tech demos, so it makes sense that I would try and actually make a LD game in Vulkan.

If I'm using Java2D or Direct2D I will get pixel access in some way (Java2D: BufferedImage Raster, Direct2D: WICBitmap lockBits, then render it to the screen by converting to ID2D1Bitmap) then I will render to the pixels, this is quite cool, because you have all the control of a graphics API but without loads of GPU state objects. Even if I'm making a 2D game I will probably do it this way.

If I'm targeting the web, I will use WebGL even if I'm making a 2D game, since the Canvas 2D rendering context thing is software D: (sooo... I'm only ok with software rendering if I'm doing it :) )

In terms of 3D software rendering, I can do pretty much everything in the usual graphics pipeline, the only problem is clipping, I would need to do that on the fly.

If I'm doing a web game, I need to remind myself of the web audio APIs. I also need to remind myself of OpenAL (and probably rebuild it because idk what settings I used last time)

In terms of the type of game I think I'm going to make, I'm might try and making something atmospheric (which will be a mess because there isn't much time), I'm also tempted to do something Isometric, because I like how it looks. I might also do some funky hacky sprite based top down 3D that I've been formulating in my head.

If you read right to the end of this post, please leave a comment advising which options I should pick :)

Thanks,

Ned

I'm SOOOOOOO happy with how this is going. I am doing it in Java, and OpenGL, I started from scratch. I managed to make a deferred shader for the first time this morning. So my game will certainly have heavy use of lights.

I also, somehow managed to make time to link up Bullet Physics (JBullet) :smile:.

So my game has awesome physics.

This is important, because in my game, the character has a gun, which fires red cubes and green cubes, whenever he fires a cube, the cube expands to fit the space it is in, red cubes kill enemies, but also kill the player. Green cubes allow the player to get away from the red cubes, and get to higher levels (as he can jump on top of the green cubes)

Anyway.... Implementing all that, and levels is tomorrows task, I'm going to bed. Here are some screenshots of the physics/deferred shading demo. There are only cubes, however, my model loading system allows for any 3D model :smile:

https://gyazo.com/e1cfbf290e1208ea513d8254bf71af25 - I couldn't get a gif working, but you can see it here!!

I hope everyone is having a great Ludum Dare :thumbsup:

Ned

I'm very hungover from yesterday. But let's make a game!!!

So excited :smiley: :smiley:

My first Ludum Dare was LD28 when I was 14, and here we are at LD44, how time flies.

I have no idea what kind of game I'm gonna make, or what I'm gonna make it with. I might go with MSVC C++ and Direct3D, or Java and Swing for the nostalgia, I really have no idea.

My game may have little to do with the theme... Depending on the theme.

I'm super excited though, so hyped to finish something, I haven't had a good LD in a while (the last few I haven't finished, or have been hungover).

Since, I'm making the game without Unity/Unreal/whatever I should probably write some base code or something, although, I never seem to get round to it....

I hope everyone else is just as excited!

Ned

My games aren't that good, and some I didn't finish. However... I'm quite proud of this:

I made some unoriginal (possibly distasteful?) themes:

Anyway, I'm in for this LD, I've been doing it since I was at least 12, I'm now 20. I've literally grown up with this thing.

Weirdly, the older I get, the shitter I seem to be at working for 48 hours straight, so I'm hoping I can prove to myself that I'm actually better than the 12 year old me...

I'm actually super excited, I've got 31 days to make a rendering engine!!

Anyway, onto my tools!!

GRAPHICS: - Photoshop CS6 / Paint.NET (it'll be pixel art, so it doesn't really matter) - Autodesk Maya / Blender - Autodesk Maya trapped me with their Student Version -_- , and using Blender would require me to learn a WHOOOLEEE new thing, however, would prefer to use actual free software, instead of software that I won't have in two years, because I won't be a student :cry:

AUDIO: - SFXR or BFXR or ABCD or whatever it's called (thx to whoever made this tool I actually love you :heart_eyes:) - FamiTracker if I get round to music (or maybe Audacity and Equator because I have a fancy keyboard thing).

PROGRAMMING (The bit I'm actually passionate about): - Pure C++ (probably std17 or something). - DirectX12 (YES DIRECTX12 I AM LITERALLY GOING TO DIE, WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IS DRAWING PRETTY PICTURES. I'LL BE SYNCHRONISING THE GPU AND THE CPU). - Various other COM APIs (WinCodecs for Images, XAudio2 for Audio, X3DAudio for 3D XAudio2, Maybe Direct2D unlikely tho) - May use BulletPhysics if it's a physics game, otherwise I'll just use DirectXMath Collision for non-AABB's, or just AABB's.

Can I just make clear, that I don't want to be held to this. If I get up in the morning and realise my insanity, I may well make a game using Godot or somethin'

Also, it is actually impossible to make a game with Direct3D 12 in 48 hours, which is why I am working on essentially a rendering framework at the moment. This is a rendering framework that will be part of the source of my game that will be released to the public (because that's the rules). I do not recommend using my framework, but if someone learns from it, then all is worth it :smile:.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

I made my first LudumDare desktop background, I'm currently on my laptop, so this is done with Paint.NET which is great, but has it's drawbacks, so don't judge too harshly.

Finally, despite my joking about Covid-19, it's just gallows humour, I really hope everyone stays safe and happy, especially in the Ludum Dare community.

Love you all,

Ned

Hi, I'm Ned, I've 'attempted' every ludum dare since ludum dare 28. I make my own engines from scratch, and mainly use the ludum dare to experiment, I've never really seen it as a competition, and have never scored particularly well :laughing:

This Ludum Dare in 5 days is is the weekend before my first week of University exams in my 3rd year, also my dissertation submission is due on the 28th to make everything more stressful.

Like I said, I've attempted every ld since ld28, most attempts have been fairly full-on, apart from the last one in which I had covid, started a game, then just slept through the whole thing. I did make Infection (https://nedboulter.itch.io/infection) as part of a Uni jam shortly after though.

The plan:

So, I want to do something. My dissertation involves making a path-tracer using Vulkan (+ RTX extensions), so I might be able to extrapolate some of the Vulkan engine for the LD game.

Overall, I don't want to spend more than 10 hours on the game (5 hours Saturday, 5 hours Sunday), so it'll be a very cut down Ludum Dare, and I'll be very surprised if I have something submittable.

I'm basically aiming to do enough, so that I can say I tried for this one :) It's a shame that this one is so close to exams, especially after the last one being such a mess, and they're less common now too (only twice a year), which is very sad.

Happy Daring,

Ned

Writing some vulkan base code lol....