My little proto-toy thing, scenes in a globe, is out!

Play now!

It's been a little while since my last LD. After hitting my 5 year streak, I needed a break. A combination of university, my career, and just bad timing have kept me away from LD the past couple of years. Game jams are still a strong force in my life! During my hiatus I've founded a mobile games studio whose creative fuel is monthly internal game jams. The amount of jamming I already do is part of the reason it's been hard to get myself to do LD again.

I'm feeling that itch though. I'm not sure if I'm 100% committed to joining this weekend, but there's a good chance I'll be doing something! I'll probably be joining the jam. It's fun to make things totally from scratch but I'd rather work at a more relaxed pace this weekend.

Here's what I usually work with:

Engine/Programming

Tools

• Unity 2019.3 / C#
• Visual Studio 2017 with Productivity Power Tools and VsVim
• Maybe VSCode and a JS framework if I'm feeling like doing something a little different from my day job

Resources

• UnityList

Art

Tools

• Blender 2.8 (3d)
• Paint.NET (2d)
• Inkscape (2d)

Resources

• kenney.nl
• Mixamo
• The Noun Project

Audio

Tools

• BFXR
• Audacity

Resources

• freesound
• incompetech

It's been over a year since my last Ludum Dare, and over 4 years since I rounded out 5 years without missing a single LD! Wait a second, I've been doing LD for nearly a decade now! :open_mouth:

In any case, here's what I'm rocking:

Tools:

• Unity
• Rider (C#)
• Blender
• Photoshop
• Audacity
• Trello

Rules:

1. Game finished by Sunday night! I'm joining the compo but I make games full time and need to be there for my team on Monday.
2. Keep it casual, cozy, and lighthearted. I'm going to be working from the couch instead of my desk when I can, taking nice long rests, and getting a good night's sleep each night.
3. Gameplay complete by Saturday night. I want to keep my scope small enough that ideally I can get the core gameplay done in just a few hours, then expand and explore. Sunday will hopefully be totally for polish.
4. Let the engine do the heavy lifting! Unity physics can provide a really nice base sandbox for fun play. I don't want to get bogged down by anything too technical this time.

Team

I'll be doing most of the heavy lifting on this one but I will be working with a composer for audio help.

Let's connect!

I'll be watching and posting here and on the #ldjam hashtag on Twitter this weekend. All the progress pics/gifs are super inspirational. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone cooks up!! I'm on Twitter @20c109 if anyone wants to follow along with me.

Take care of yourselves!

If I've learned one thing in these 9 years it's that you gotta take care of yourself when you jam! I used to pull all nighters and slam energy drinks but all of my best jam games have come from jams when I got enough sleep each night and took breaks when I was stuck. The creative process demands time to stew! Take a break when you have a problem. Drink water. Pet your cat.

I've got more tips for JAM SUCCESS in my LD39 keynote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfDYFXjKlvw

This year is my 10th year doing Ludum Dare, and my 20th time participating! I've got a pretty interesting mechanic I want to explore for this one if the theme is right (based on that final voting round things are looking good). Overall, I'm super stoked for this one. I'll be doing the jam as usual although I'm probably striking it totally out on my own this time.

Tools

• Unity / Rider
• Blender
• Photoshop
• Audacity
• Trello
• Probably something I'm forgetting

Resources

• Probably going to be using some licensed audio for this one (and opting out of the audio category, of course!)
• freesound.org for more sfx/foley
• MAYBE BeepBox if I get inspired enough to take my own crack at music

Rules

1. Have fun! I used to take LD way more seriously than I do these days. I make games as a full time job, so if I'm going to be making them on my off hours, I might as well be having some fun and trying new things!

2. Less tech, more design. I've had far too many jams where I've spent too much time developing and not enough time making an actually fun game. This time around, I'm going to try to build a framework for content and then really focus on that content for the rest of the jam.

3. Jam healthfully! I've been a big advocate of healthy jamming for a while (see my LD39 keynote). This time around I'm going to use a pomodoro timer (50/10 has been working really well for me lately), make use of my standing desk, eat well and drink lots of water, and take frequent walks (despite the bitter wind and cold rain this weekend). I'm also planning to get my regular amount of sleep each night and try to keep a consistent sleep schedule.

Let's connect!

I’ll be watching and posting here and on the #ldjam hashtag on Twitter this weekend. All the progress pics/gifs are super inspirational. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone cooks up!! I’m on Twitter @20c109 if anyone wants to follow along with me.