So I’m in for my first LD48. My goal is to complete a game at all rather than even trying to win, so I’ll see how I go!

The tools I’ll be using:

Construct 2 for the main game.

GraphicsGale for all the art.

Sfxr for sound effects.

And PXTone for music, if I manage to do any.

I’ve made a start. Admittedly, Evolution was not the theme I was expecting, but I think I’ll get something done regardless! I’m just doing a platformer with a few extras, since I lack both the time and skills to make anything with a full-on evolution mechanic. Nothing much to show yet, but hopefully that will change after I’ve had lunch and done a bit more.

End of day 1, and I’m doing pretty well. The game’s engine is pretty much done, including the dumbest enemies ever created, and tomorrow I’ll work on the level design. I’ve made a start on some tiles and sprites:

And while I’m happy with the tiles, the sprites are rubbish. It’s a pity I don’t have time to redo them properly.

Anyway, I’ll keep going in the morning.

I’m out. I woke up this morning, looked at what I had, and realized that there was no way I was going to finish what I had. Next LD I’ll try and avoid this kind of situation.

Well I had absolutely no idea whether I would be participating in this beforehand, so I didn’t make the usual “I’m in” post. As it turns out I had quite a bit of free time.

So my entry is Dastardly Fiend. You have kidnapped a poor damsel, and heroes are rushing in the save her. You need to activate traps as they arrive to keep them at bay.

Graphics with GraphicsGale, main game with Construct 2, and sound effects with SFXR. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

Assuming homework isn’t in the way, I’ll be joining in too.

Tools I’ll be using:

Construct 2 for the main thing.

GraphicsGale for art.

SFXR for any sound effects I might use.

It’s getting late here in Australia, so I’d best head off to bed. I’m very pleased with the progress I’ve made today, as I’ve basically got all the gameplay stuff done! I’ve uploaded the current version here.

I’ve also integrated it with Clay.io’s leaderboard system, so hopefully that works well. If anyone has any feedback for me, I’d love to hear it!

Also, keep in mind that the graphics will be improved tomorrow, hopefully. I’ve got the whole day to polish this thing up.

Tags: potato

16 hours of work, and my entry is as complete as it will ever be. I present Keep It Simple, a top-down shooter in which upgrades can be applied freely, but at the cost of your score multiplier. I’ve added leaderboard support, which was surprisingly easy, and there are also potatoes to be found.

Tags: potato

This is my fourth LD!

I’ll be using Construct 2 and GraphicsGale.

And I guess that’s really all there is to say for now.

Gameplay is almost completely ready, just needs some fine tuning, and then I can get to work on the graphics. Sound, too, if I get time.

Phew! Running far too close to the deadline for my tastes. I’m feeling very sleep-deprived, so I won’t bother with much here. My game:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=14203

No Time For Dungeons.

Rather basic game, not overly original, but I’m still very pleased with the result, and I feel like I’ve improved my skills since the last couple of LDs. I might do a post-mortem tomorrow, that could be fun.

This is, I think, my 5th LD, and hopefully 4th to complete a game.

I’ll be using Construct 2, GraphicsGale, and probably SFXR.

Looking forward to finding out what the theme is!

Off to bed, and pleased with my results so far. The mechanics are done, so I can dedicate the next day and a half to graphics, sound, level design, and general polishing.

The main game doesn’t really have anything worth taking a screenshot of, but here are a few tiles I’ve made for it:

Progress! If I have time I’ll overhaul the background, and I still need to make player sprites, unless this is a game about a blue rectangle.

Phew. My entry is finished, almost literally at the last minute!

Here’s a link and a screenshot:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=14203

I’ve had a couple days to relax now and do a few other things, and it’s interesting to look at the game a bit more objectively than when I was making it.

The thing I most enjoy about the Ludum Dare is that I’ve been coming away from it having learned something more often than not. Either a simple trick that I thought of in the process, or some more general things I can apply to a game later, perhaps the next LD.
This time round, the main goal I had was to try and do something a little different than the last couple of times. I had some very good ideas beforehand for the Corruption and Creation themes, but in the end You Only Get One came up and I had to spend a couple of hours brainstorming for a proper concept.
As the game stands now, I think that there probably could have been better concepts to use, but I’m still pretty happy with the results.

Good Stuff:

– Using Construct 2. It’s always emphasised for beginners that using a tool you know is the best option, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s quick and simple for me to get the mechanics down, and the default behaviours can be modified easily to suit my needs.

– Getting the mechanics down first. All the technical stuff was out of the way before I worked on any graphics that weren’t placeholder. It gave me a lot of breathing room for level design, and there were even a couple of things I programmed in that didn’t make it into any actual levels.

– Using tile-based graphics. Before getting interested in actual game development, I liked making tilesets for Jazz Jackrabbit 2. As a result I have a lot more practice in that area of development than others, letting me get something satisfactory down quickly. I do need to get away from using dull grey graphics, though. That’s a rather unintentional pattern emerging.
Room for improvement:

– Using Tiled. Contrary to Construct 2, I have never used Tiled before in my life. C2 recently added tilemap support, and also importing tmx files from Tiled. However, I just had no idea how to use the program beyond what common sense tells me, and C2 does the essentials just as well and without having to swap programs.

– Making a tile-based game. As mentioned above, tilemap support for Construct 2 is a new feature. The drawback to this is that it’s still within the first few updates where there are bugs and issues. I found a bug not long after I started using the tilemaps that crashed Construct completely. Luckily, I’d been saving fairly regularly, so not much progress was lost, but repeated crashes don’t help development. The issue has already been fixed, so props to the C2 developers as usual for their frequent updates, but it comes back around to sticking with what you know.

– Sound. Sound has always been the last thing I add to a game. I’ve had little practice regarding music, and for sound effects all I have is SFXR. Still, this time round the sound effects were added in literally 15 minutes before the deadline and it shows pretty clearly. Perhaps next time I should take the lack of sound into consideration for my design plans.

– An irritating main mechanic. This is obvious pretty soon. The idea was to take the controls from the player, only let them have one button at once, and then repeatedly give them useless abilities. The intended impression was to be almost taunting, but eventually giving the players all their hard-earned abilities at the end. As it is currently implemented it just gets in the way.
Overall, I’d say this was a pretty good Ludum Dare. I’m looking forward to playing other people’s entries, assuming I can get some more stable internet. I’ve seen some fantastic-looking stuff while I was making my entry, and It’ll be good to see other people’s takes on the theme.
The main things I’d take away from this for the next Ludum Dare, or my next prject in general:

– Keep things simple. Stick with what I know, or more specifically what I’m good at. Learning new things is great, but often should be kept out of a project that needs to be finished on a deadline.
– Keep a consistent art direction. The sprites in this game were considerably less polished, and felt a bit out of place compared to the tiles.
– Don’t frustrate the player. With heaps of games to be played in the LD, if I want my game to stick in people’s memories then they have to enjoy it, plain and simple.
– Take sound into proper consideration. Sound is an important part of an action game, and at the very least you don’t want your sounds to be annoying the player.

TL;DR:
Ludum Dare was awesome, and I learned a bunch of stuff.

Obligatory “I’m in” post.

Last time was fun, though due to internet issues I was unable to play peoples’ games, which was a pity. This time round I should have no such issues! Can’t wait to see what we get for a theme.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to give up on this one. The game I’ve got is pretty unplayable, and though I might have been able to polish it up in time for release, I’ve encountered some pretty irritating bugs and design flaws that are going to make it impossible for me to get it in a state that I’m happy with.

It was fun while it lasted, though, and I wish those still working the best of luck! I look forward to seeing what people release when all is said and done.

I’m going to have stuff happening this weekend, so I might only end up with 24 hours out of 48, but I’ll see if I can get something done regardless!

I’ll be using Construct 2 and GraphicsGale, along with sfxr if I have time for sound effects. Good luck to everybody participating!

I’ve made a bit of progress, and won’t be off to bed for a bit yet, but I’ve decided to draw up some tiles before I stop for the night so that I have something to show, unlike last LD:

Nothing too fancy, but tiles are fun! If all goes well I’ll have more to show tomorrow.