This is my first time participating in ludum dare. I have some experience making games in Game Maker, Construct classic, and Java. Looking forward to it!

Engine: Construct Classic

Graphics: Paint

Sounds: sfxr and maybe some others

Music: no idea at the moment

So, about an hour in I thought of a game idea that I’m satisfied with and that I think I can finish within the time limit. But, having never finished a game before, we’ll see how that goes.

Here’s a screenshot of the basic engine. btw, I’m using Construct Classic.

You’re that little orange guy. You can move right and left and jump with Z. Blue orbs allow you to jump higher, and red orbs allow you to break stronger cracked blocks with X.

The graphics are pretty placeholder-ish, but since I’m no good at graphics, I’m not sure how much of a change they will go through by the end.

My next step is to think of ideas for a few more types of orbs. I’ll talk about the goal of the game, etc. in the next post.

Edit: 12am, time to sleep. Hopefully I’ll dream up some cool ideas! 😀

Here’s the link to the game – Diverge

I’m very happy!

1. I finished my game

2. I’m pretty proud of it!

I just gave it to a friend to try, and he found a somewhat obscure bug. There are 2 help messages that appear in the game, and follow you around until you perform the action that makes them disappear. This seems like it would be fine. But, if a help message is open, and you get killed, when you respawn, the message is still displayed until you get rid of it. I fixed it, but there were only 5 minutes left to submit, and I still had to re-make the .exe and re-zip the .zip files, and I didn’t have enough time. I think this is my only regret though, and it’s not even that big of a bug.

I have a big smile on my face! Time to play LoL with friends, and later start playing the entries! 😀

Because it seems everyone else has uploaded one of these at some point.

Here’s my extremely average setup, along with my scribbled notes that could pass as “design papers.” And for dinner I have spaghetti and Dr. Pepper, one of my favorite sodas. I’m still smiling every so often because I’m happy to be done 😉

I feel I should share some thoughts, if only so I can read them some time in the future.

What went right:

• I came up with a game idea I really liked only about an hour into the competition. I was able to spend 95% of the time implementing/reworking that idea instead of trying to think of one from scratch.
• The level design and basic code and graphics were all finished halfway through. I was able to spend the rest of the time adding some polish, and doing the code that didn’t directly impact the gameplay, such as the ending scene. I wasn’t too rushed at the end.
• I made backups which alleviated a significant amount of frustration when I encountered a game-crashing bug. Gosh it’s annoying how Construct sometimes doesn’t tell you what caused the error!
• Being pretty experienced in Construct allowed me to glide through all the coding without having any serious problems. I pretty much knew exactly how to do everything from the get-go. There was no confusion with how to use the editor, etc.
• Real life didn’t get in the way! I was able to work the whole 2 days.
• No computer / internet problems.

What went wrong:

• Overall, Construct classic is a great program, but there are many small bugs, both in the editor and in the applications it exports. These caused small bits of frustration in development, but more importantly it prevented at least 1 person from being able to play the game due to a crash. When working in Java, I know that no matter what, the application is guaranteed to work everywhere if it works on my machine.
• I realized at the very end that some ambient music would have made the game feel a ton better to play. I just put off finding or making it because I knew it would be a tough job, and it just didn’t get done.
• There are a few bugs that I never discovered from playtesting, and I only found them when my friend told me. None are game-breaking, but they’re just kind of small annoyances.
• I procrastinated on the parts I didn’t want to do, such as making a title screen, screen transitions, ending cinematic, and saving progress. I ended up having to do them all in the last 7 hours, which was when I was the most rushed. I didn’t have much time to play through the whole game multiple times and find obscure bugs.
• I thought and thought, but wasn’t able to come up with a fitting title. I think this is one of the hardest things to do in making a game. No joke. I’ve had this problem on every single one of my projects.

Overall I’m very pleased because this is the first game I have finished ever that I am actually proud of and want people to play it and might even show it to my friends. Playing all the entries is so far very fun and pretty humbling.

Well, this was my first time participating in LD, and it was awesome. I’ll be sure to participate in future events, maybe even using Java with some kind of library like LWJGL, instead of Construct Classic.

I got rank 67 overall in the 48 hour competition, and I’m very happy with that for my first entry. I’m pretty proud I was expecting to rank only in the top half, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

One thing I’ll be sure to think about for future entries is making the game feasible and appetizing for people to complete in full. Many of the games I played I liked, but I just grew impatient and quit because I decided I didn’t want to invest that much time. I think many people understandably did that when playing my game, because it was fairly long, and very tedious/repetetive. That’s definitely something to think about; I think you want your players/judges to see all of the content/levels/graphics/etc you put into the game.

Also, I think I’ll make it a goal sometime in the future to learn how to use some kind of music-making software like FL-Studio, and learn up on composing music as well. I found that even a simple soundtrack really benefited a lot of games I played.

I enjoy playing and making 2D platforming games for a few reasons. One of which is that I can get pretty impatient, and in those games you are pretty much always jumping, dodging, shooting, etc. so I’m always kind of engaged. maybe in the future I’ll try to make a different genre. There were many simple neat games I saw that weren’t platformers.

I got around to playing about 55 games I think. I could have played a lot more, like twice or 3 times as many, but I was just feeling lazy this end of summer. Ah well. I gotta get out of that mindset – I’m moving to my college dorm this Saturday! 😀

Thanks to everyone who played my game!

Last time in LD #24 I made a game in Construct Classic (Diverge)- but now I’m going to be making a Flash game so you don’t need to download an executable to play!

Language: AS3

Framework: Flixel

Graphics: Paint.NET

Sound: sfxr

Music: I might try to learn FL studio

Good luck everyone!

I’ve decided the game will be a platformer, as always! What I’ve gotten done today:

• Tileset loaded using Flixel’s method
• Player movement and jumping
• Levels loaded using Ogmo Editor

I’ve got a pretty solid idea of the core game mechanic, which is as you jump around the world, every square you touch turns red, plants you touch die, and certain other things do stuff when you touch them. It’s a pretty vague idea, so my next step is to get some sleep and hopefully dream up some game elements to build off the mechanic, as well as a suitable art style. Here’s a link to the current version (Flash). Use the arrows and Z to move. Good night all!

Well, it’s been less than 24 hours since the start of the competition, but I just can’t find the motivation to continue. This is mainly because I can’t find an idea that I really like. Maybe I’m asking for too much, looking for the perfect idea. Either way, I can’t find the inspiration to continue. Here’s a link to the current version of the game (Flash). The game mechanic is somewhat neat, but I can’t find anything to DO with it. It’s possible that I’ll want to work on the game later today or tomorrow, but I doubt it. Good luck to everyone else!

My goal this time around is to try to be more relaxed during the competition, and not stress out about the little things 😀

Tools / libraries: FlashDevelop, FlashPunk, Ogmo Editor

It’s 5am and I need to sleep I’m happy with how far I got today, er, today and yesterday! Here is a link to the game so far, and some screenshots. It’s a 2D puzzle platformer.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/113106175/Flash/clockwork_wip1.swf

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 24th, 2013 at 5:18 am and is filed under LD #27. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I finally got around to putting in music and sounds. I used LMMS to make a short loop using samples from freesound.org, and got some short blips from sfxr. Good luck to everyone in the compo working at the last minute!

It’s my third time participating in Ludum Dare, and I got second overall! I’m ECSTATIC! Thanks so much everyone who played and rated my game, your kind comments mean a lot. ^^

Clockwork Cat has 40,000 views on Newgrounds, and a bunch more views and comments on a bunch of sites that rehosted it. I never would have thought the game would become so popular. Watching videos of people playing the game and hearing their reactions was heart-melting. And it was great playing other people’s amazing games too. Thank you guys so much for your support, I’ll definitely be back next time!

What went right:

Using tools I’m familiar with – I was already very familiar with AS3 and FlashPunk, which really helped me work quickly. I’ve also programmed tile-based collisions before many times before, so a pretty big chunk of the code I wrote was very familiar to me. I had also worked with Ogmo Editor before. And also Paint.NET and FlashDevelop on that note. I did have to learn the basics of Linux MultiMedia Studio very quickly at the end to make the music, but fortunately that went really smoothly.

Picking a style I’m confident with – I’ve made many small games in the past, and almost all of them have been pixel-art-style 2D platformers. I stuck with what I know and love. I do have ideas for future games that aren’t 2D platformers, so that will help me branch out and hopefully be refreshing.

Great working environment – I feel this is worth noting. I’m staying at my parent’s house over the summer, and everything was quiet and relaxed, so I had nothing to worry about except working on the game.

What could have been better:

Level length, mabye – I made the level really short because I couldn’t think up any interesting puzzles without having to introduce more gameplay elements, and didn’t want to put in any filler to drag the game out. Originally I had planned for a bunch more elements, like picking up and moving gears to connect certain machines, but I ran out of time and decided to keep it simple. But I think the game could stand to be a bit longer.

Jumping leeway, mute button – The blocks have 16×16 px hitboxes, but the graphics are a bit wider than that. This resulted in players jumping when they still looked like they were standing on the edge of a block, but had just fallen off. I played the game so much that I must have gotten used to it. Adding in a bit of leeway would have been nice. Also, I didn’t think to include a mute button. Things to do next time!

Thanks for all the love! <3

P.S. I tried to draw the cat rocking out on the wrench like a guitar, but I couldn’t get it just right.

I’m in! I just realized that I’ve barely done any programming since LD27, so it’ll be fun getting in the swing of things again. Good luck everyone!

Engine / Framework: Haxe 3 with HaxePunk (hopefully! If I run into issues I might revert to Flash / FlashPunk.)

IDE: FlashDevelop

Level Editor: Ogmo Editor (probably!)

Graphics: Paint.NET

Sound: sfxr, Audacity, LMMS

I came up with an idea I was happy with 2 hours in, and HaxePunk is working great (mostly). I’ve had to spend some time with family today, and I was feeling kinda tired, so I didn’t get much done. But I have some general ideas for what the game is about. It’s a 2D puzzle platformer, no surprise there! My take on the theme is “you only get one companion.” I’m so sleepy I can barely type this out. Good night!

Tags: screenshot

Last night, while lying in bed at 2:30 trying to fall asleep, I ended up designing most of my game in my head. I’m not sure if the design is sound, but it seems like all the pieces fit together. I’ve got a LOT of work ahead of me if I want to finish everything! Here’s a screenshot. You control the guy with WASD and the fairy with the mouse. I’m using a HaxePunk port of a lighting engine Noel Berry made for FlashPunk, which is really nice! Here’s a link to that: http://forum.haxepunk.com/index.php?topic=343.0

Tags: progress, screenshot

Less than 6 hours left? Where did the time go? There’s so much to do! Aaaa! Look how many windows I have open!

Tags: screenshot

I think this is the most tired my brain has ever been. I’m exhausted. Yesterday was busy, and today was super busy and stressful, but it’s finally over. Last LD I worked really hard at the beginning and had little work to do at the end, while this time I didn’t get much done at the start and got busier and busier as time went on. But, somehow, I made it! And so did all of you. I’m looking forward to playing everyone’s games once I get some rest!

Here’s a link to Spirit Cave:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=14266

Tags: final, screenshot

I feel like I learned a lot from my experience this past LD. Or at least it’s gotten me to think about things.

One lesson I learned, or at least experienced yet again, is never to undervalue time management and planning for the unexpected. For the first 12 hours I dawdled not doing much at all, then for the next 24 hours spent too much time obsessing over details and putting off important stuff (sounds, music, level design). The last 12 hours were super intense and sloppy, and as a result the game didn’t turn out as good as it could have been, and it was unpleasant working that hard.

After I submitted the game (here and on Newgrounds), I got really discouraged by a few comments providing fair and useful criticism. I obviously knew my game would be nowhere near perfect, but I was being really negative about it. I thought that I shouldn’t have even submitted it, because it was a waste of time for people playing it. I felt ashamed and guilty. Deep down though, a part of me knew that these feelings were irrational, and that I was blowing things out of proportion, but I felt sad anyways.

I spent a week or two pouting and thinking about the situation. Idly browsing tumblr I came across this blog post by Edmund McMillen about growing as an artist. Reading this post kind of brought me back to reality. It’s normal to make mistakes and learn from them, and that’s one of the main reasons that game jams like Ludum Dare exist. I learned a bunch about myself emotionally, which I’m not eloquent enough to write about, but they’re in this general domain. Lots of self-reflection, etc. Hopefully I’ll become a more mature person after this whole ordeal.

I don’t know if any of you guys reading this have had similar experiences, not just in Ludum Dare but anywhere in life, but I guess I’m just documenting my experience. I hope this post might be relevant to someone. Sorry for rambling and awkward wordings (it’s late, and I don’t write very well anyways), and thanks for reading. I might participate in the Mini-LD if I have time, but either way, I’ll definitely be back! Thanks to the staff and the community for creating such a great event.

TL;DR: Ludum Dare taught me that life is a learning experience. The blog post I linked above puts it nicely.

Tags: postmortem