Here’s my entry:
It’s like Katamari Damacy and Crazy Taxi put together. Although I call it an Action game, it’s more puzzle-y than it looks. To spice up things a little bit, I did add a few power-ups and physics changes.
Also, obligatory potato screenshot:
Tags: compo, cube, Katamari Damacy, potato, Potato Challenge, sentient, unity, unity3d
A reminder that I’m live-streaming at on 11:00 pm, Eastern Time!
Edit: Aaaaaaaaand we’re live!
Note that I’ve setup a public Google Docs spreadsheet to list the games I’ll be playing. If you want yours played and rated, you can comment the URL to it below and I’ll add it in, or post it directly on the spreadsheet!
Tags: Let's Play, livestream
[Cross-posted from Omiya Games]
First, I wanted to congratulate everyone who have participated in this Ludum Dare contest! Great job!
Although I may have stepped out before the contest ended, I figured I’d talk about how I got the graphics on The Sentient Cube. It was surprisingly quick and simple, although it required a lot of tweaking to get it right. In this step-by-step instructions, I explain how I’ve used Unity’s installed scripts to create a stunning toon shading.
Note: this only works with Unity Pro license.
In the menu bar, under Assets -> Import Package, you’ll need to import the Image Effects and the Toon Shading.
Create a cube, camera, and directional light for the scene you’re working on.
Create a material under the Project pane, with the shader set to “Toon/Lighted,” and the Toon Ramp set to a 1-dimensional image. In this case, I created a custom ramp.
Drag-and-drop the new material from the Project pane to the cube in the Scene pane.
Add the “Edge Detect Effect” and the “Contrast Stretch Effect” components in that order to the camera. The screenshot above was the parameters I’ve used.
Change the “Shadow Type” under the directional light to “Hard Shadows.” The screenshot above were the parameters I’ve used.
Just add a few more elements with their own materials, and Voilà!
You can download and import the Unity package I’ve created with the same scene above.
Tags: graphics, toon shading, unity
Here’s the recording of “How to Survive Ludum Dare” on Youtube.
Tags: youtube
Last time, I made a massive list of games that stood out for me so far. Well, with such long live streams and with a lot more games under my belt (92!), I had to make another list. So without further ado, here are games that stood out for me, in no particular order:
(Note: The games I’ve played so far are listed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RbvfWHMb-vWmYBagjjnfVAMKugG1vgQ41QFQ_Wa4YjE/edit?usp=sharing)
A super-hard, broken platformer that still made me intensely satisfied after beating it! Man, how long has it been? Welcome to my list of super-hard-games-that-I’m-still-fond-of.
Have a Twitch stream? It’s time to play MAN vs TWITCH, a hilarious twin-stick shooter where your chat-mates spawn enemies and hazards for you. It’s unfair, but a good fun nonetheless.
Even though it’s slow and tedious, I just love the how creative this game uses its simple game mechanic: attract dots using a single point-light. The important part is to use the walls to prevent the point-light from spreading at the wrong places.
Now this is how you combine two unlikely genres! In Screen Ego Aegis, you use both twin-stick shooter controls and tower defense elements to defend yourself.
Another rhythmic music game!? One with hypnotic abstract graphics? Sold! Beat+Trak takes a Simon-says approach to rhythm games, so it’s an interesting contrast to RIZUMUDEKATTO, which is more active.
No, I’m pretty serious: I had a lot more fun with a coin toss simulator than you’d think. Instead of determining whether you’re going to get heads or not, this game involves destroying anything fragile in the room. It’s a classic in my book.
Want to be a complete jerk and have full control over the TV’s channels? Banana TV is for you! In this game, you attempt to predict who your audience is going to be using environmental clues, then lay havoc on them by….forcefully making them watch something awful. The caricatures in this game are absolutely hilarious!
War is being waged on a single petri dish as your cells multiply and kill off opposing cells. This bizarre simulator involves dropping chemicals to assist your own cells in an attempt to take over an entire colony. Fascinating and mesmerizing, though a little hard to comprehend.
For all the missteps this game makes when it comes to combat, its unique paper-cut-out graphics and twisted story makes Case #31 so memorable. There’s something magical when the scene switches over, placing all the props into a new stage for the story to play out.
It’s no secret that I love puzzle games, and PhotoBound has them in spades. Not only does it carefully teach you how the game mechanics work without instructions, its puzzles are incredibly creative and difficult to boot. I recommend it, 100%.
A classic tile-based puzzle game with the creepiest snowman ever. In this game, you build snowmans using the limited amount of snow-tiles scattered throughout each level, and it will stump you. Hard. And I love it!
This game gets a mention due to its adorable (and in my opinion, stellar) audio design. Sure, it’s just Katamari Damacy with terrible camera placement, but just listen to the game! It melts my heart (and inflate it 3-times as large; emotions are weird).
I never expected a MMO for Ludum Dare, let alone a MMO snowboarding game. Yet, here we are. This game deserves a mention for its technical excellence, creating a fun, very polished arcade game where you play against other people to score as many flips as possible. It’s chaotic fun!
It’s hard to make a balanced multiplayer game when you’re on a deadline, but Platform 31 achieves just that. This simple sideways shooter pits two robots against each other. Lots of elements help turn things to your favor, including barriers, power-ups, and controls that can swerve your bullets around said barriers.
Man, this game succeeds in giving me a jump scare. This horribly unfair arcade game does have a few (or one, really) trick up its sleeves that made it more than just a game on an old screen. Play it, find out for yourself what tricks it has for you!
Bugs are inevitable in nearly all software, especially games. This game is a rare example that takes full advantage of its bugs to create a surprisingly unique experience. Take note: accidents aren’t always failures!
A puzzle game where you fold your way through. Not only is it creative, but it’s one of the few puzzle games that has more than just a few solutions per level. Plus, it stumped me multiple times, and I like that.
Have you ever wanted to play Tetris Attack, Snake, and Pong all at the same time. Neither did I, but apparently this game cared enough to make you go through that torture. A messy game, this game will constantly keep you on the edge of your seat.
Easily the most fun I had this entire Ludum Dare, 1 Screen Hero is challenging, puzzling, full of action, polish, charm, and…oh, it’s just soooooo good! I highly recommend checking out this randomly generated rogue-like Zelda-thon.
This point & click adventure game has voice-acting. And yes, it’s really awesome voice-acting. The puzzles are pretty interesting as well, as with unlocking multiple endings. And, oh gosh, what a bleak story!
Yes, this is yet another joke game, and yet it’s one of the few that really struck me emotionally. It’s such a wonderful experience to play a game that comes out of the left field, and this, well, this was really unexpected. Be prepared for some surprises, because this game is packed with them.
Polish. This twin-stick shooter has it, and in spades. Despite its lack of innovation, it’s addicting, feels great to play, and strongly encourages you to best your score. There’s a lot to learn from this game, and I had a lot of fun playing it!
What an intense puzzle game! Walk to the door involves controlling the window our hero is walking on to direct his movement, and it’s absolutely astonishing how invested you get into the unique puzzle layout the creator laid out for you. A wonderful experience all around, this is a game you don’t want to miss!
Hey all. I wanted to give all of you my thanks, as Star Driller Ultra has reached 100 votes in one week. I find this amazing, especially since it took two weeks for The Sentient Cube (LD26) to reach 100 votes, and Laundry Day (LD31) never got that far. It moves me intensely to see a game I’ve made become popular so fast (even though I may hate it). This Ludum Dare was really busy for me, with setting up and organizing Tech Valley Game Space real-world meeting location, as well as making both a Compo and a Jam game. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from myself, but the results says otherwise. Wow!
So what now? First off, 42 points of coolness isn’t cool enough, so here’s a reminder that Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS) will be live streaming tonight at 7:00 PM EST! We’ll also be streaming during the weekdays and Saturdays from 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM EST (except every Wednesdays). We’ll also do our best to post the games we’ve played onto Youtube as well (this is proving to be more difficult, unfortunately, and may end up happening post-judging, to be honest).
Our Twitch.tv channel is at:
http://www.twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace
Want to submit your game? Fill out the form below!
http://goo.gl/forms/gDU933T27R
All the responses are listed below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RbvfWHMb-vWmYBagjjnfVAMKugG1vgQ41QFQ_Wa4YjE/edit?usp=sharing
Second, to celebrate the 100 votes, here are some games I highly recommend in no particular order:
As I’ve said on Twitter, this is a God-tier Ludum Dare game. It’s hard to introduce the game properly without spoiling anything, so I’ll use a quick description a friend of mine used: this game uses comedic timing as a game mechanic. And it is glorious!
A very, very unique take on rhythm games, The Rock the Paper and the Scissors uses a formula a bit similar to Parappa the Rapper where patterns needs to be read and repeated. Unlike ye old Simon-says game, though, you can start your trend of attacks at any time while the music is playing. This opens up to a lot of possibilities that I think this game utilizes well.
This is a game where not moving causes the missiles to explode. Sound stupid? I thought so too, but the moment I played it, the whole thing clicked. Since missiles homes into you, you have to maneuver around them with last-minute dodges while staying still at any other opportunity. It’s this beauty in simplicity that absolutely blows my mind about this game.
When I first heard of the premise of this game — a co-op game about using a player’s health to combat enemies — I groaned. The “use health as a resource for attack” premise never worked in the many game jam games I’ve played, so I expected the worst from this. Fortunately, that was not the case: the game cleverly uses regenerating health (and a rapid one at that) to balance out the quickly-depleting health. Additionally, attacks include both close-range and long-range, allowing for both players to do some hefty beating. The remarkable amount of balancing put into this game, coupled with a game mechanic I previously thought was broken, makes it one of my top picks.
Thought those Words with Friends, Farmville, and other asynchronous multiplayer games were the bane of gamings’ existence? I hope Rude Bear Raid changes your mind. Much like Team Fortress 2, Rude Bear Raid puts two teams against each other, with a twist: neither team can directly interact with each other, but they can place enemies (which sacrifices one’s life) to prevent the other player from reaching their flag. This means that you will always face user-placed enemies hellbent in keeping you from getting their flag. It’s such an innovative concept. I’d love to see more ideas likes these.
Crystalline is a fairly conventional puzzle game about a lone researcher who happens to have a gun that can make blocks pop in and out of existence. Still, it’s a solid puzzle game, one that had me scratching my head for quite a while. With easy platform controls and a surprisingly substantial narrative behind it, I can passionately recommend this game to any puzzle fans out there.
Here’s a solid Metroidvania game! Wee Pon involves chucking around a destructive weapon that you can use to swap places. The swapping mechanic is the highlight here, as it allows for traversing locations you otherwise wouldn’t have expected, and managing to make death a lot less annoying. The whole game plays organically, and leans towards open exploration.
Need a casual multiplayer fighting game to play? Then look no further! Super SALT Helmet is here to take care of your needs! Just use the A-button to charge up your attack while using the left-stick to aim. There are a lot of baiting and mind-reading possibilities in this game, making it a blast to play with your friends, locally.
So here’s a game where I think the graphics are too clean. The audio is mundane and boring. The controls are needlessly complicated. The rules are very restricting. And the darn objective is too hard to beat! So why? Why do I find this game so entertaining!?
Now this leaves a single question: how is Unconventional Stick Swinging Simulator doing in comparison to Star Driller Ultra? Well…
Basically what I would have expected from a simulator game.
Want to know what other games were made at the Tech Valley Game Space? Here there are:
Welp, here's something: Screenshot
Huh, a little strange to work on a procedurally generated and map and think to yourself, "this is the first time I made maps procedurally..." It's a first for someone!
Here's the current progress so far:
In a good way :smile:! Here's our crumbling world concept so far. Needs some instructions and balancing, but most of the core concepts are there. Here's to hoping we make it to the Jam deadline!
Here it is. Our submission. What a whirlwind of events. I didn't expect us all to come through, but I'm thoroughly proud of what our team accomplished. Our first attempt at tackling procedural world generation!
Intergalactic Gold Rush is an Arcade-Action game about collecting as many gold bars as you can while avoiding monsters and falling tiles. Your magical abilities allows you to generate a new set of land mass periodically. How long can you survive before plummeting into the depths of space?
As usual, here's the timelapse for the development of Intergalactic Gold Rush.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf4JxUD5p0Y
Also check out our playlist of other timelapses from previous game jams.
Happen to be around Troy, NY? We're showing off Post-jam version of Intergalactic Gold Rush at the Troy By Design showcase at Tech Valley Center of Gravity (TVCOG) and Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS). Come check us out!
Check us out in our live stream at twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace! Since it's late, we probably won't have the time to rate it, but still, join in!
Hey, all. We're still live-streaming at Tech Valley Game Space here, so feel free to hop on and submit your games to our Ludum Dare 38 Grab Bag stream!
https://www.twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace
Tech Valley Game Space live-stream at twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace starts now!!! To have your game in consideration for playing and judging, you can sign up on the form below:
goo.gl/forms/zQAhArQG3Lfp2imS2
As the form already states, we do enforce a Code of Conduct in our live-streams. As such, we do reserve the right to cancel streaming and rating a game for any reason.
As usual, Tech Valley Game Space will be having their real-world Ludum Dare meeting at Troy, NY! You can RSVP on:
Of course, being the organizer of this real-world meeting, I'm also in this Ludum Dare as well. Will be using Unity, Blender, and Photoshop as usual, but will hopefully be branching out more with LMMS for music composition. And a regular reminder that our Template Unity Project for making game jam games quick is open-source: bitbucket.org/OmiyaGames/template-unity-project
Going back to our TVGS roots, I think I'm going to make a satire about free-to-play games again, this time with Farmville's dreaded energy system. Also plan on throwing in some Twitch-plays-like game mechanic where everyone controls a single character for a good measure. It's going to require some networking, however, which I'm not too fond of...
Welp, here's what I have: a golfing game.
Welp, I said I was going to make a satirical social game, and it's a ton of effort just trying to put the server up. It looks like I will not meet the Compo deadline, but there's always the Jam. No shame in that.
So I'm trying to create a server and client in Unity of my game. The server handles physics simulation, while the client is just a glorified UI. I'm using Google Cloud's free trial to create an Ubuntu server and uploaded my server, but something must be wrong: the server doesn't look like it's opening port 7777!
omiyagames@---:~/v0.3$ ./everybody_plays_golf.x86_64 -batchmode -nographics -logfile log.text &
omiyagames@---:~/v0.3$ sudo netstat -anp
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1681/sshd
tcp 0 0 10.142.0.2:46354 169.254.169.254:80 ESTABLISHED 1615/python3
tcp 0 0 10.142.0.2:46350 169.254.169.254:80 ESTABLISHED 1613/python3
tcp 0 0 10.142.0.2:22 24.105.162.149:53340 ESTABLISHED 6174/sshd: omiyagam
tcp 0 464 10.142.0.2:22 74.125.72.164:44100 ESTABLISHED 5999/sshd: omiyagam
tcp 0 0 10.142.0.2:46344 169.254.169.254:80 CLOSE_WAIT 1613/python3
tcp 0 0 10.142.0.2:46352 169.254.169.254:80 ESTABLISHED 1614/python3
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 1681/sshd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 1053/dhclient
udp 0 0 10.142.0.2:123 0.0.0.0:* 1518/ntpd
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:123 0.0.0.0:* 1518/ntpd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:123 0.0.0.0:* 1518/ntpd
udp6 0 0 fe80::4001:aff:fe8e:123 :::* 1518/ntpd
udp6 0 0 ::1:123 :::* 1518/ntpd
udp6 0 0 :::123 :::* 1518/ntpd
The code is open-source, with the most relevant script being ServerManager.cs. So, anyway, I either need this fixed, or have a backup plan. Any ideas?
Edit: also, the log:
Set current directory to /home/omiyagames/v0.3
Found path: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf.x86_64
Mono path[0] = '/home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed'
Mono config path = '/home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Mono/etc'
Player data archive not found at `/home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/data.unity3d`, using local filesystem
Initialize engine version: 2017.1.0f3 (472613c02cf7)
Forcing GfxDevice: Null
NullGfxDevice:
Version: NULL 1.0 [1.0]
Renderer: Null Device
Vendor: Unity Technologies
AudioManager: Using Unknown: NoSound Driver
Begin MonoManager ReloadAssembly
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/Assembly-CSharp.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/Assembly-CSharp.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.UI.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.UI.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Networking.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Networking.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Timeline.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Timeline.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Analytics.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/UnityEngine.Analytics.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/TextMeshPro-1.0.55.56.0b11.dll (this message is harmless)
Loading /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/TextMeshPro-1.0.55.56.0b11.dll into Unity Child Domain
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/System.dll (this message is harmless)
Platform assembly: /home/omiyagames/v0.3/everybody_plays_golf_Data/Managed/System.Core.dll (this message is harmless)
- Completed reload, in 0.017 seconds
UnloadTime: 0.846000 ms
Setting up 1 worker threads for Enlighten.
Thread -> id: 7f025effd700 -> priority: 1
