This is my first Ludum Dare though not my first game jam.

My main tools will be:

• Unity
• Gimp
• Audacity

Good luck everyone!

Started a little later than hoped. So far have tested simple two button control mechanic for a puzzle game where the player controls the direction of gravity by rotating the screen rather than controlling the player directly(the player is the ball).

Very early prototype build of my entry, you can give it a test here, feedback welcomed

Finished the minimum number of levels for submission, decided 15 was a good number to aim for in the end. Which only took a few hours to design(paper and pencil ftw!) and build. If I have time tomorrow I might try and put a few more together but for now 15 will do. Now to find some sound.

Oh, and here’s a particle effect:

Finally finished submitting my entry ‘All Ways Down’. You can check it out here

It was a bit of a rush to submit in the end, I thought I gave myself plenty of time, I finished making the game about 2 and a bit hours before the submission period started. However, I ran into a couple of issues with the unity web player sizing. Thankfully I think I got it all sorted

Anyhow, the game.

I decided to try and tackle both the themes with my entry, with the game making use of just two button input, with elements of growing as well.

All Ways Down is a puzzle game where you must collect growth pellets in order to increase the size of the ball, which is needed to push a switch to progress to the next level. As the game progresses levels have more pellets(5 is the max), which in turn makes the ball harder to control. The ball is controlled by the player rotating the level either clockwise or anticlockwise, and then letting the always downward force of gravity do the rest, though some skill may be required :-p

The game has a total of 20 levels, I would have liked to have made more but unfortunate I ran out of time in the end.  In any case I had a lot of fun making it, and I learnt a few new things along the way.

All Ways Down can be played either on its entry page(best played full screen) or over on itch.io(link on entry page). It’s also available to download, though I haven’t had a chance to really test those builds yet.

Now for the voting… actually, I think now is time for sleep, it’s been a long weekend  😀

Best of luck everyone.

So it’s almost been a week since I finished All Ways Down, and seeing as everyone else is doing one :-), I figured I’d do a bit of a post mortem of the game/experience, looking at what went right and what went wrong. Like many who entered, this was my first Ludum Dare, and whilst at times it was stressful( especially the last two hours), in the end it was an amazing 3 days and I had a lot of fun taking part. Overall, I’m very happy with how the game turned out, though there are plenty of things that I think could be improved (more on that at the end). The jam also meant I got to learn a bit about Unity webGL exporter, which up to now I had not really been following.

What went right:

• The mechanic: The basic concept started quite simple, ‘a rolling ball that has to be a certain mass to finish a level, it does this by consuming objects and growing. Player can spin the world?’. From this I sketched out what I thought a level would look like with a simple storyboard for play and put some ideas for level hazards underneath. Thankfully I was able to implement this mechanic and it worked.

• Thankfully most of the core development went quite smoothly(unless you count Unity crashing twice), with no major issues or bugs. 

• Sound: This is an area I generally find the hardest, but I’m quite happy with the end result, and have got some positive feedback on it.

•   Unity webGL, a day before the jam I decided to update unity. In hindsight this could have ended up going very wrong but, in the end it meant I learnt more about unity’s WebGL exporter, deciding from the start that I would use WebGL as my target platform.

What went wrong:

• Whilst not wrong per se, based on feedback the ball could be a bit heavier at the start of levels, so that it moves around the level a bit quicker.

• Deciding to make 5 more levels 4 hours before the end of the jam, resulting in no playtesting of these levels.

• The size of the web player. I would have liked the actual game screen to be the max size allowed on this site, but unfortunately as this was the first time I had used the WebGL exporter I didn’t realise that the export size set in Unity doesn’t include the custom Unity bottom bar, thus cutting off bits of the game screen when its embed size is set at the same size as export. Meanwhile exporting without the Unity bar means you need to provided the functionality that makes it go fullscreen. I really wish I had known all this before the jam, and not learnt it in the last two hours when I was trying to submit 😀

Whats next:

I think I’ll be developing this game further post comp. I’d like to make more levels, add in a couple of hazards and puzzle that didn’t make it due to time, along with polishing the graphics and adding more effects, maybe even a camera shake . I’d also quite like to port it to mobile as I think its control mechanism is very well suited for the platform.

Overall I’m very happy with end result, and looking forward to working on it a bit more and making it even better 😀

You can check out All Ways Down jam page here.

A little later than planned but All Ways Down Post Jam beta version is now available.

Changes include:

• Various bug fixes,
• Increase pellet size,
• Faster player,
• Input from left and right arrow keys,
• 5 new levels,
• New obstacle type – Zapper
• And most importantly, Camera Shake!

The post jam version can be either downloaded or played in browser over on its itch.io page.

Or if you haven’t already, you can check out the jam version of All Ways Down on its entry page over here

Tags: 2D, All Ways Down, Post Ludum, unity, update

Looking forward to taking part, this will be my second Ludum dare, currently hopping to get most of the work done over the weekend as I don’t think I’ll be able to do much Monday

In any case, I will try and get something out, and hopefully it will be even better than my last entry 😀

I’ll be using:

-Unity 5.3 (C#)

-Gimp

-Audacity

Good luck everyone!

And I’m done. I’ll probably write a longer post tomorrow, but now I think it is time for sleep

You can check out my entry ‘Court of Talis’ here

Tags: 2D, done, LD35, Ludum Dare, screenshot, unity

Hi everyone, just uploaded a short gameplay video of my entry ‘Court of Talis’.

You can check out ‘Court of Talis’ over here:  http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=63291 

Tags: gameplay, LD35, Ludum Dare, video, youtube

Or at least I think I am, will have to see how the Weekend pans out. This will be my third Ludum Dare, having taken part in 34 and 35.

This year I’ll be using:

• Unity(C#)
• Gimp
• Audacity
• Paper
• Pens
• And plenty of Coffee 😀

(Shameless plug portion of post 😉 )

Seeing as there are a couple more hours until the madness creativity begins 😀 why not relax and check out the anniversary update for my Ludum Dare 34 entry All Ways Down.

You can check it out either on its Itch.io  page, or over on its recently created GameJolt Page.

Finally, good luck everyone, and have fun!

Just over the 6 hour mark and I think I’m making some progress at last. Took a while to settle on an idea, still not 100 percent on it but will give it a go and see where it leads.

So far I have one room, the most important part and a player that can upgrade blocks with his red block hammer(actual hammer to come later):

Now I just need to make a zombie horde.

This Ludum dare I’ll be using:

-Unity (C#)
-Pyxel edit
-Spriter
-Gimp
-Audacity
-And lots of coffee!

Good luck everyone!

Tags: LD38

Taking a quick break for food, I’ve made some progress with player movement and basic level layout(with placeholder graphics), next I just need to implement some game mechanics.

Tags: gif, progress update, screenshot, unity

Just past the 6 hour mark. I feel that I’ve made some good progress, with the game starting to take some shape of an actual game(maybe?). 

Tags: 2D, gif, multiplayer madness, progress, screenshot, unity

Day two round up. I finally have most of the gameplay mechanics implemented, along with two game modes and some very simple ai bots. There are a couple extra features I’d like to add but I’m not sure if I’ll have time. Though before that I need to work on the main menu and some sound effects.

Tags: 2D, multiplayer, multiplayer madness, progress, screenshot, unity, update

Day two round up. I finally have most of the gameplay mechanics implemented, along with two game modes and some very simple ai bots. There are a couple extra features I'd like to add but I'm not sure if I'll have time. Though before that I need to work on the main menu and some sound effects.

Finished this year with about an hour to spare, which ended up being five minutes after getting the files ready and typing up the game page 😀

You can check out my game Small World Fighters over on ldjam.com or over on its itch.io page.

Had tons of fun making this years entry, but now I think it is time for sleep.

Tags: 2D, entry, game, jam, multiplayer, screenshot, submission, unity

Finished this year with about an hour to spare, which ended up being five minutes after getting the files ready and typing up the game page :-D

You can check out my game Small World Fighters here on ldjam.com or over on its itch.io page.

Had tons of fun making this year's entry, but now I think it is time for sleep.

Now that voting is live why not check out my game Small World Fighters

*Rate my game *