“The Beginning” Walkthrough (Spoilers!)
Hey!
Since my entry “The Beginning” appeared to be a bit hardcore, I think it’s a good idea to make a video walkthrough for those who don’t have enough patience to beat the game 
So, here we go! Spoiler alert!
Nuclear Napalm
LD30
Simplified verision of “The Beginning”
Since a lot of people said that “The Beginning” is too difficult, I added the simplified version. Even my wife managed to complete it
Check this out:
SIMPLIFIED WIN VERSION
SIMPLIFIED WEB VERSION
Also there is still Walkthrough video for those who curious about ending.
The Beginning – Postmortem
ORIGINAL BLOG-POST (with fancy quotes)
Greeting my dear friends! Nice to see you again. One week has passed after Ludum Dare 30 deadline. I had enough sleep, played a lot of (300 actually) LD’s entries and also I’ve got a lot of feedbacks about my game “the Beginning”. I think it’s a good time to write a postmortem and share some thoughts about competition. Here we go!
ATTENTION!
Following post contains spoilers!
PLAY THE GAME BEFORE READING!
Pre-conditions
First of all I would like to tell you about some circumstances that preceded the competition. A couple weeks before LD weekend my boss told me that I will have a short business trip exactly the same weekend. I was pissed off. But then I checked flight tickets and realised that I will come back Saturday evening. So I would have a couple hours on Saturday and whole Sunday to participate in competition.
Another thing that should be mentioned is that I’m living in Shanghai and the competition started at 9am Saturday morning and deadline was at 9am Monday morning in my time-zone. This circumstance gave me some advantage in my situation.
Theme
So, Saturday 9am, theme has been announced and the competition officially has been started.
Honestly, I don’t like the theme. I believe that there were some more original and more interesting themes, but… whatever. When I read the theme first time it was like “Oh, there will be a lot of games about literally connecting planets, controlling twins and swapping dimensions… boring“. And after several hundreds of entries been played and watched I can say that I was right. Anyway, I had no choice. I started thinking about my game and how I can stand out from crowd.
Idea and concept
I spend about an hour thinking about an idea. I rejected 4 ideas that came to my head and then I ended up with “the Beginning”. This is the game about baby who lives in 2 worlds at the same time – our world and a world inside his mother’s womb. These two worlds are obviously connected – mother can feel when baby moves and baby can hear and feel what happens in “outer” world.
I decided it should be a journey from the moment of conceiving to the moment of birth. My initial idea was to make 9 levels, each represents 1 month of life inside the womb. I also wanted to show how baby growth – appearance changes each level, the character obtains new abilities (eating, grabbing things, rotating, etc.). I made some short research regarding a process of growing inside the womb. After all this activities I was able to plot basic storyline and key-milestones.
Art style & mood
There are 2 main reasons why I picked minimalism as a visual style for my game:
- I didn’t have enough time to produce quality pixel-art.
- I wanted to keep things abstract to maintain mystery about what happens in the game.
I really wanted to show process of growing but keep it as abstract as possible so player won’t be able to figure out who is the main character and where he is until the very end of the game. Since game supposed to contain only 9 levels I’ve made 9 “stages of growth” of main character:
To set up some tension I came with the idea that there won’t be any music. Player can hear only heartbeat (of main character’s mother) and each level it becomes louder and faster. Players who have managed to complete the game say that it’s really cool and contribute to the mood very well.
Speaking about mystery it worth to mention that it became the best and the worst feature of the game at the same time. This is the game about story. About mysterious story. A lot of players mentioned that they really liked the mood of the game. Another feature that helps to set up mysterious mood is the dialog between a mother and a father of the main character. At the very beginning players don’t know who are these MAN and WOMAN, and why they’re watching him. Some player wrote in comments that he was convinced that he was playing some creature in lab.
So, players get hooked from the very beginning and its really cool. But to figure out what this game is about, to experience this “Wow!” moment and understand why it’s about connected worlds players must complete the game… And this is the worst thing because the game appeared to be so difficult and hard to complete for most of the players. I managed to fix it only in post-compo version of the game.
Post-compo
In a first day after deadline some players complained about difficulty of the game. Levels are very long and there are no checkpoints. A first solution was to make a walkthrough video. It was better than nothing, but still not enough. I started to think about simplified version of the game. I decided that making checkpoints logic from scratch would be time consuming so it was better to fix the existing levels without changing gameplay.
I started working on this version Tuesday afternoon. I uploaded simplified version Tuesday evening and it was really worth it. I’ve got a lot of positive feedbacks, because most of the players were able to complete new simplified version. Since that moment I could spend all my time playing other entries and working on promotion of my entry (twitter, twitch, postmortem, etc.).
What went right
- Idea. I spend a couple hours on brainstorming and detalization, so I started developing process with strong and clear concept in my head.
- Development. I didn’t encounter any significant problems during development process except some minor issues with physics and camera jitter.
- Controls appeared to be very smooth and responsive.
- Minimalist art-style and mood.
- Walkthrough video.
- Simplified version.
- Twitter and Twitch activity.
What went wrong
- Difficulty.
- Prioritization. I spend whole Sunday working on levels. I ended up with 8 level out of 9. Most of these levels appeared to be very long and difficult, so I had to spend even more time to make simplified version. It would be better if I made less levels and spent some time to implement checkpoints in the game.
- QA. Since I spent all Sunday working on levels I didn’t have time for proper playtest. Initially I was thinking that my wife and some my friend would play it and give me some feedbacks. Unfortunately, deadline time was 9am Monday (Shanghai local time). I built my game about 7am so it was impossible to ask someone to play it. I just tested it by myself, prepared some description and screenshots and uploaded all the stuff to LD website.
What’s next?
I don’t want to rush with this project. I need time to rest, to clear my mind. Also I want to collect more feedback from players. Then I gonna look at this project again with more self-criticism. There is a chance that I will continue working on this project, but I’m still not sure about it.
Conclusion
It was a great experience for me. It was tough, but definitely worth it. I can’t wait to participate next LD or other game jam.
Thank you for reading. If you like “The Beginning” let’s stay in touch: follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Stay cool, stay indie! I’ll come back soon!
Tags: postmortem
My Top15 of Ludum Dare #30
What’s up guys! Today I have something really cool for you. As I mentioned before, I played and watched several hundreds of LD30 entries. There are tons of cool games, but I want to share with you my personal Top15 of Ludum Dare 30. It contains entries from both 48 hours Compo and Jam. If you didn’t play some this games yet, then you definitely should. They’re all worth it. Btw, I don’t insist and don’t try to convince you. I just want to share my personal opinion and I hope you will find something interesting here. All entries unsorted and appear in (almost) random order.
So, enough talking, let’s check and play some cool games! Theme – Connected worlds.
Schrodinghost
by Carduus
Mansion on the hill
by BuffaloPhil
On the edge of Earth: 5000
by Hypnohustla
Chipset-0
by deepnight
Notes from a Mad Mage
by Razoric
Heart Star
by AdventureIslands
Close Your Eyes
by nonetheless
Astroz
by sputnik
Superdimensional
by PixelMind
100 Days
by CJ K
The World Within
by Oxeren
Any Moment
by Jakub Koziol
Ex-Fraktion
by Robotic
APOLLO
by graebor
Alien Gift Exchange
by zazery
Thank you for reading! I hope you found something interesting and enjoyable. Feel free to share you favorite entries in comments below. It’s almost impossible for one man to play all ~2500 entries and I’m pretty sure that I missed some hidden gems there. So, if you have some, please let me know.
Thanks again, stay tuned!
LD31
Last Ark
I didn’t believe that I can do it until this moment! Here is my compo-entry LAST ARK
Roguelike survival about artificial life in deep space after the end of the Earth.
This is a point & click game.
You manage oxygen consumption, energy, health and resources. Your goal is to find a planet suitable for living. When you have landed at the planet – the game is over. So choose wisely. Check planets info to figure out if it’s good or not. The far you travel, the higher chance to find an appropriate planet you have.
I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Last Ark Walkthrough (with all embryos saved)
Some people asked in comments if it’s really possible to “win” the game and keep all embryos alive? Yes, it is possible. I recorded walkthrough GIF to prove it.
Click to view full-size
It still requires some luck (digging resources, find a star), but still, it is possible
Tags: LastArk, roguelike, survival, walkthrough
Top 10 of Ludum Dare #31 – The most beautiful, weird and innovative games
Hello there! The last week of Ludum Dare #31 voting almost over. We will know the winners soon, but for know I want to share with you some cool stuff. Like previous time it’s going to be my personal best of LD31. There are a lot of nice, polished games and you definitely should check them. But this time I picked games that really can stand out of the crowd. Some of them have beautiful atmosphere (like “Orion”), other have unexpected plot twists (like “Fill the bar” & “Pony island”), some have truly innovative game-mechanics (“OMNI”)… Ok, ok, enough spoilers! Here is my personal Top 10 of Ludum Dare #31! Theme – Entire game on one screen.
Cell #327
by Aru Nyan
DESCRIPTION:
You have been a prisoner for as long as you can remember … Can you escape now?
A point ‘n click adventure game inspired by many old school classics.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Ahh… I miss point & click era. Sweet memories.
OMNI
by Noah Ratcliff
DESCRIPTION:
Play as an action platformer character who suddenly finds himself omniscient after ingesting a strange power-up. With your monitor as your vessel, explore the world outside yours.
Protip: WASD/Arrow Keys to move, spacebar to jump. Click to shoot. Shoot the monitor.
Stick around for the end… There’s a wonderful surprise that we worked very hard on for you.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Most innovative game-mechanic IMO.
20 Days At Sea
by bitserum
DESCRIPTION:
It’s just Margaret (you), John and the open sea, enjoying life, living the dream… but watch out for storms as those could change everything.
20 Days at Sea is a survival game, you have to gather resources to help you on your journey; or fall victim to hunger, thirst or sickness.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Very smooth and calm atmosphere at the beginning. Serious survival challenge at the middle. Unexpected ending and the end (if you’ll survive).
Fill the bar
by Yaroslav Kravtsov
DESCRIPTION:
Game about one screen, one button and simple rules. Just do what you asked and try to reach maximum level. Obey and have fun.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
It looks really boring at the beginning… but be patient and you will realise why this game in this list 😉
Tyrannicide
by koujaku
DESCRIPTION:
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian.” – Harvey Dent
Even a well meaning dictator can become a tyrant, and in this case, Nemo, the once noble time traveler succumbed to the power of the very items he swore to protect the world from. Nivea, queen of the Wraiths, never had any love for the man, but had always hoped his honest roots would keep him in check. Now though, Nemo’s behavior has become erratic and hostile, an unpredictable wild-card more likely to harm than to help.
You play as Umbra the Shadow Wraith, part of Queen Nivea’s elite guard, and you have been sent to end Nemo’s reign. Use your ability to teleport through space to gain an advantage over your foes, storm the castle, and deal with the rogue tyrant Nemo.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Innovative, but still simple and challenging combat mechanics.
Pony Island
by Danman9914
DESCRIPTION:
Frolick along the rolling green hills of Pony Island! Continuously jump over gates in this immersive and challenging experience! If you happen to hit a gate, just insert your soul and you can keep playing!:D
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
You need some time to figure out how to start playing, but then you will be surprised. Ponies not so cute as they seem…
Orion
by feiss
DESCRIPTION:
Use mouse and keys down/up (when required)
Follow all the steps and get to the space! I tried to do a full trip to mars, but.. timeout!
Chrome and Headphones recommended.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
One of the most polished games on this jam with very immersive atmosphere of spaceship. Unfortunately, pretty linear and short… but still really cool.
Wide Opened Eyes
by nzgiije
DESCRIPTION:
Movement: WASD
Lantern direction: Arrows
They afraid of the light.
So your only weapon is a lantern.
Monsters don’t move while you looking at them.
Find way out.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Great spooky horror platformer with simple mechanics.
Break the Limits!
by Volute
DESCRIPTION:
You are trapped in a room and the only thing you can do is think. But what will you think about?
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Psychedelic trip to the depth of your mind.
Tower Trasher
by graebor
DESCRIPTION:
Defend the blue tower, trash the red ones! Controls are simple and instructions are on the game page.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Clever mix of Tower Defense, RTS and survival gameplay.
P.S.
If after all these awesome games you still up to play some roguelike survival point & click, check my entry
Last Ark
by NuclearNapalm
DESCRIPTION:
Roguelike survival about artificial life in deep space after the end of the Earth.
This is a point & click game.
You manage oxygen consumption, energy, health and resources. Your goal is to find a planet suitable for living. When you have landed at the planet – the game is over. So choose wisely. Check planets info to figure out if it’s good or not. The far you travel, the higher chance to find an appropriate planet.
Short explanation for planet info:
R – chance to find resources
O – chance to find oxygen
S – chance to survive on this planet
The game has 5 different endings.
Competition page
Web version
OPINION:
Nope. Now it’s your turn to share your opinion 😉
Tags: cool games, Top10