pretty happy with the final list of themes. there was some reaaaal garbage still in the list up until final voting. +1'd almost every theme on the list. anyway going to use unity, with blender for 3d modelling and photoshop for textures/particles/UI/whatever. When I'm creating my game, I'm going to be sure that the game I make requires me to learn some techniques I've never used before. otherwise, what's the point of the jam?

already got some general ideas brainstormed for most of the themes. Just got back from wally world with some quick to prepare meals. cleaning the apartment while I still have a chance. hope everyone has fun!

as a wise man once said: the theme always sucks. i mean this is a democracy but come on guys... just gonna say "first person shooter" and "infinite runner" are incompatible genre. also FPS and 3D platformer are incompatible as well.

FPS infinite runner coming along nicely

https://clips.twitch.tv/EnjoyableStrangeDragonBCWarrior

this clip really says it all

https://clips.twitch.tv/SmilingFairOrcaSeemsGood

game's coming along nicely. the soccer score sound seems a bit much. might just remove it. maybe its just lofi hiphop in the background throwing me off

https://clips.twitch.tv/PolishedConcernedTruffleBloodTrail

what do you think of this one

the correct answer should be obvious I mean COME ON

If you wanna check out RRED for yourself, heres a link to the game page

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/room-runner-extreme-deluxe

this was only my 3rd LD (((I SWEAR THEY ARE ALWAYS DURING FINALS WEEK))) but It was probably my favorite work I’ve done. my game, Room Runner Extreme Deluxe! was a full 23/48 hours of work (got a couple hours off and then a full night sleep 2 for 2 nights). It wasn’t as much of a total loss as my first ludum dare, more comparable to the methods I used for tile snake. I break my process down below.

Before the theme is released, start spitballing ideas for the 16 final themes. at this point, I often get 5 or 6 ideas that fit well with multiple themes from the list. my list for is as follows: Sword dogfighting, mushroom farming, robot programming, and touching every tile on a level as fast as possible. really nothing I could have used at all for incompatible genres. I had this idea for an infinite runner kicking around in my mind though. when the theme was released, my immediate reaction was utter hostility. literally the 2nd worst theme over the 16 was picked. the objectively 2nd worst theme, mind. not the theme I THOUGHT was the 2nd worst. So I really spent absolutely no time thinking about what type of game to make. after about 4 minutes of stunned silence, I started to think about what I could possibly make, and it took about 2 minutes for me to think up and latch on to the idea of a first person shooter infinite runner. this was a good theme for 2 main reasons: First, the actual base components of the game could be made in less than a quarter of my time. Second, additional content could be EASILY added modularly up until the very hour I run out of time. so that’s what I did. I made the game, and then I put all the content in it. I was adding features until T-30 minutes.

Finally I’d like to look at my final product as objectively as possible and talk about it. Really, I was straddling two different extremes, and that’s what made it fall flat. My game had these stupid impossible-quiz style jokes, using gameplay elements to create humor. one second, you’re doing a jumping puzzle as you would expect from an infinite runner, the next you have to kick a soccer ball into a net to open the next room. but then there was the other half of the identity, which is this difficult-to-learn, hard-to-master source engine movement system rip that plays to the POLAR OPPOSITE aesthetics: Flow, focus, precise action. on top of that, I didn’t have the same playtesting resources I had for my last ludum dares, so I didn’t even get input from another human before submission hour. My friends with thousands of hours in garrysmod immediately understood what I was trying to go for with the movement system, complaining that the “typing segments” totally ruined the flow. everyone on the LD comment section, fellow programmers from a smattering of gaming backgrounds, had complaints about the movement system. Which is, you know, a fair point. quake-style air strafing is definitely not newbie friendly, and when I’m spending maybe 5 minutes maximum on a game, I don’t want to wrestle with anything complex. So while I appreciate the instant gratification of the stupid mechanics-level humor, you only play frog fractions once (for the uninitiated... google it. don’t watch a video. just play it), And I would really like to create a game with some real staying power. So I’m going to rework RRED into the type of title you spend your last 30 minutes before bed listening to chillhop music while playing, going through complicated motions almost automatically. Different worlds with different room types and features. user-designed full maps to play time attack on. maps synced to music, the whole 9 yards. It might be cool, We’ll see.