Hey folks!

Well we really didn’t have a lot of options (sorry vegetarians), and the survey said nearly everybody wanted to go see The Movie first. Our usual destination (Westfield Food Emporium) closes at 9:30, and with the movie going until 9:00 PM, seemed too close.

I’ve gone ahead and made a reservation for 20 at Tad’s Steakhouse for 9 PM (more are welcome), right after the movie. It’s a Caffeteria-like steakhouse where you can get a full steak meal for under $15 (crazy talk for SF). Yes, it’s not the best steak in the city, but it’s certainly the best bargain. You order, and get buzzed once your food is ready.

The reservation is under “Mike”, but we’ll be the obvious group of 20+. Tad’s is located on Powell Street, just look for the sign.

Tad’s Steakhouse
120 Powell Street
9:00 PM (right after the movie)

Just a few blocks from Moscone.

Directions: http://www.tadssteaks-sf.com/directions.html

See you there! Bring your shirts!

PS: Sorry, we didn’t have the time to arrange a Jamming venue for ~60 people on Friday. I think Noise Bridge can only comfortable fit ~20. Maybe next time.

Our 23rd main event is coming up in just a few weeks. It also marks the 10th anniversary of our very first event! You can check out the theme list of all the events run in the past 10 years over here, as well as some of the results (Our archival of the early days could have been better though).

Last time, Ludum Dare 22, we had an incredible 891 games submitted. This time we’re looking to break the record again, and what better way to celebrate the 10th Anniversary than to make over 1000 games!

So with that, we’d like you to help us spread the word! Tell your friends, tell your classmates, tell your co-workers, tell everyone! We want this next event to be big huge!

Veterans of Ludum Dare’s past, I want to send a special invitation out to you too. Especially if you haven’t competed in years, we’d love to see you back for this one. Ten year anniversaries only come so often ‘eh. 😉

Thanks everyone! We hope to see you taking part in Ludum Dare 23!

* * *

PS: A bit of a heads up, we will be doing another Warmup Weekend April 13th-15th. Details forthcoming, but in essence we want to encourage you to spend some time getting your tools ready for the main event on April 20th-23rd.

For fun (and science), I printed up a pack of Ludum Dare themed stickers (bringing 40 with me). Come find me at PAX East, and ask for one. I’ll be around all 3 days, occasionally helping exhibit Vessel (NOT MY GAME) at the PAX Indie Megabooth. See you there!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 11:21 am and is filed under LD #23. 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.

Here’s a list real world events going on alongside Ludum Dare 23. If you’re planning to attend, SIGN UP/GET IN CONTACT ASAP!

Remember, Ludum Dare is an online event, so you are not required to attend a gathering, but if there’s one near by why not check it out?

• Sweden, Göteborg – at the Free Lunch Design offices.
• France, Paris – at the Isart Digital campus.
• Minnesota, Duluth – at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.
• Ohio, Columbus – at the Ohio State University campus.
• Norway, Oslo – at the Bitraf hackerspace.
• Brazil, São Paulo – at the Pixel Cows garage.
• California, San Francisco – venue TBD.
• United Kingdom, Manchester – at the Madlab hackerspace.
• Canada, Ontario, Kitchener – at the KwartzLab hackerspace.
• Minnesota, Minneapolis – at the University of Minnesota campus.
• Denmark, Copenhagen – at the Labitat hackerspace.
• United Kingdom, Coventry – at the ComputerMinds offices.
• Australia, Adelaide – at the University of Adelaide campus.
• Scotland, Aberdeen – at the Kings College (University of Aberdeen) campus.
• Nebraska, Omaha – at CAMP coworking.
• Ohio, Cleveland – at the Shaker | LaunchHouse incubator.
• Massachusetts, Boston – at The Echo Nest offices.
• Japan, Tokyo – at the Lexaloffle offices (Lexaloffice).
• Germany, Darmstadt – at the Spielmeister offices.
• Georgia, Atlanta – at the Secret Library home office.
• South Africa, Cape Town – at the University of Cape Town campus (Shuttleworth Lab).
• Australia, Melbourne
• Kentucky, Richmond – at the Eastern Kentucky University campus.
• Brazil, Curitiba – at the PUCPR no Bloco da Escola Politécnica campus.
• Portugal, Lisboa – at the ISCTE-IUL University campus.

Make a post with info about your gathering, leave me a comment, and I will add it to the list when I can.

Viewers, look below. Participants, post a comment with a link to your live video stream.

It’s art. You just wouldn’t understand.

Seriously though, I’m making a game with Derek, the artist half of Halfbot. That’s what it looks like so far. I know you’re impressed.

It gets better though.

Technical brownie points are as follows. The above is a combination of JavaScript, and C++ code compiled to JavaScript (via Emscripten). It’s not much to see at the moment, but I’m coding a game in C++ for the web, and I’m doing it without any need for Flash or Native Client.

That’s art.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2012 at 10:28 pm and is filed under LD #23. 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.

Still working on this bastard child of JavaScript and C++. I now have artwork loading. Next up is to get the tile map rendering.

You should go over here and check out the mockup. It’s sweet!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/21/can-you-guess-what-the-hook-is/

That’s some pretty artwork ‘eh?

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 8:51 am and is filed under LD #23. 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.

Just got back from my brother’s place. Map scrolling now works (paralleling and clamping), so it’s time to get the character Derek made in in.

Looking good.

Admittedly, I cheated to make this shot. I only have the art loaded, and displaying the one frame. Still not animating yet. That’s next.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 4:59 pm and is filed under LD #23. 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.

The game is completely roughed out now, from Title Screen to Victory Screen. Here’s a shot.

There are a few things that don’t work (door collision), or could work better (collision in general), but it’s very close.

It’s 6 AM, and I need to be up to take my car in at 11. Buh bye!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 2:58 am and is filed under LD #23. 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.

A game by me (Mike, AKA PoV, AKA Sykhronics) and Derek of Halfbot.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=19

Written in C++ and JavaScript (C++ compiled to JS with Emscripten).

I’ll eventually talk about that on my blog.

Here’s a shot:

Also: http://youtu.be/oWk5sJUEaIU

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 9:42 pm and is filed under LD #23. 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.

Hey Folks.

I got several reports of my LD game running slow. I did my own benchmarking across several systems, and well, I can’t tell if we have different opinions of “slow” or if there’s an actual issue. So, it’s time for science!

If you could, fire up the game then press the 2 key to enable the FPS counter. Let me know what FPS you’re averaging, on what browser, and if you know it some specs of your PC (CPU, GPU mainly).

http://www.sykhronics.com/nook/ (or vote here </shamelessplug>)

Thanks!

EDIT: New 60 FPS version without “floating camera”. Apparently I’m the only one that likes floating cameras.

http://sykhronics.com/nook/60/

Also, in this version audio is broken in Chrome, but perfect without delay in Firefox.

EDIT2: New 30 FPS version which is secretly the 60 FPS version, but locked at 30.

http://sykhronics.com/nook/30/

Both versions (60 and 30) include a number of fundamental improvements after I did some profiling, and utilize a different way of Framerate Synchronizing. Chrome, for whatever reason, “totally flips out” as you start the game, but eventually stops complaining and works smoothly.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2012 at 9:17 am and is filed under LD #23. 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.

Even I don’t believe it myself.

So I did a writeup about the blasphemy I did last weekend: Creating an HTML5 (JavaScript) game in C++. You can read it here:

http://www.toonormal.com/a-technical-look-at-c-gamedev-in-the-browser/

Also, there’s a newer “Post Compo” version of the game out now. There’s no new content, but it should run better for everyone.

NOOK - New Post Compo 60 FPS version

So ya, maybe HTML5 isn’t as good as Flash yet, but it’s getting there.

EDIT: Oops, Ludum Dare link is here, just in case you want to rate it: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=19

Hey folks! Unity has been generous and offered us a 20% discount on Unity Pro to members of the community! A big thanks to them for that.

If you’re interested, I’ve opened up a form here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform

Serious applicants only. Unity Pro is typically a $1500 product, so (Advice:) if you’re not making money from games, you should probably stick with the free version.

I’ll be passing the list on to Unity on Monday/Tuesday. If you need a few more days to decide, feel free to contact me (mike AT sykhronics DOT com), and I might still be able to slip you in.

It’s a game about bears. Be the bear!

Click the BEAR to Play

HTML5, Emscripten (C++), 24 hours, 3-5 minutes of game.

Created under the Jam O’Clocks theme “Devour”. As it turns out, 1 hour jams only work if you’re prepared, and if your build times aren’t 22 seconds each. The concept seemed amusing, so I pushed it on to completion.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 9th, 2012 at 7:49 pm and is filed under LD - Misc. 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.

It’s Theme Slaughtering Week!!

Our favorite sauce s0s went out of his way and set this up for us. Click the link below and help us bring over 6000 submitted themes down to a more reasonable 100.

–> http://sos.gd/themes/ <--

Go go!

[ Suggested Themes (all 6200’ish), Theme Suggestion Post ]

We’re up to 21 Gatherings, with more in discussion (see comments):

• Germany, Darmstadt – Spielmeister HQ
• USA, Ohio, Cleveland – Cleveland Game Devs @ the LaunchHouse
• USA, Virginia, Richmond – RVA Game Jams @ the Citizen Restaurant
• Australia, Adelaide – Jamalaide @ the University of Adelaide
• UK, Manchester – Madlab Hackerspace
• UK, Cambridge – Cambridge Indies @ the CB2 Bistro
• USA, Illinois, Chicago – a Hackathon @ Toy Studio
• USA, Minnesota, Minneapolis – IGDA Twin Cities @ Canopy
• USA, Atlanta, Georgia – Make Games Like a Wooly Mammoth Weekend
• Norway, Oslo – Bitraf Hacker Space
• South Africa, Cape Town – University of Cape Town
• Russia, Omsk – Omsky Ludum Dare @ Al Digit
• Sweden, Borås – InnovationLab
• Scotland, Aberdeen – Kings College Campus @ The University of Aberdeen
• USA, California, Silicon Valley – Hacker Dojo
• France, Bordeaux – Motion Twin (Full)
• USA, California, San Francisco – Noisebridge
• Brazil, Rio de Janeiro – Colégio Graham Bell High School
• USA, Virginia, Arlington – IGDA DC @ Westwood College
• Brazil, Sao Paulo (Jundiai) – Biv Game Studios
• France, Rennes – WestIndieCollective and 3hitcombo @ Ateliers du Vent

I’ll admit, I’m running behind this event with little things like this. Post a comment letting me know where an event is, include a link to further details, and I’ll add it to the list.

Viewers, look below. Participants, post a comment with a link to your live video stream.

The Compo and Jam parts of Ludum Dare 24 have ended, but we’re not done yet!

Over the next 3 weeks, be sure to come back to play and rate games made by your peers. To be ranked, you need ratings! The best way to get more ratings is to play and rate games. Doing so improves your games visibility.

NOTE: Jam games, only the submitter gets to vote. Unfortunately, aside from sharing the account, we don’t have a way for the entire team to vote. Sorry.

Bugfixes

By now, you should not be touching your game code anymore (unless you’re making a post-compo version). That said, we do allow the following:

1. Crashes – If your game dies at an important moment, you are allowed to fix this.
2. Typo bugs – Little oops bugs, not features. Things you may have broke last minute.

Those are the only two types fixes you are allowed to make at this point. No New Features! If you want to add things, we call that a post-compo version. It’s your game, so you’re free to do whatever you want with it, but for the sake of judging we want you to preserve the version you submitted to the event.

Ports

Ports to different platforms are allowed after the deadline. You should get them in as soon as possible, and should be functionally the same as your submitted version. Porting to a mobile platform like Android may require adding on screen controls; This is allowed.

Remember: Web is the most popular platform. 2nd most popular is Windows. If you want to find Linux/other games, use the search box on the View All page.

Upcoming Events

Coming up next month (September), and every off month, members of the community run Mini-LD challenges. Check back in a couple weeks for that.

Coming up in October is a special event of ours the October Challenge. The October Challenge is where we encourage you take your first steps towards earning money from making games. For details, you can check last years event. Any companies interested in offering incentives can contact me (Mike Kasprzak) over here.

Finally, Ludum Dare 25 will be December 2012. Date to be announced as we get closer.

Thanks everyone, and lets go rate some games!

If you’d like to share a resource or opportunity, post a comment below or send a tweet to @mikekasprzak (or if you prefer e-mail go here).

Opportunities and Contests

• PC (Windows) – Ultrabook and Windows 8 App Innovation Contest – Pitch your Ultrabook Game/App idea and win one of 300 limited edition Ultrabooks filled with Sensors (touch, accel, GPS, etc)! Then make it and win one of 50 cash prizes ($1000) and potentially one of 8 larger cash prize ($10000, $20000)! Pitches due October 24th and ASAP (early)!
• Mobile (BlackBerry 10) – $10,000 Guarantee – RIM guarantees all quality certified apps (that earn over $1000) will earn at least $10,000 their first year. RIM pays the difference.
• Mobile (BlackBerry 10) – Free PlayBook and Marmalade BB license – Free 6 month Marmalade BB license and PlayBook to publish an app for BlackBerry. C++ or HTML5.
• PC, Mobile, Web – Independent Games Festival – Highly regarded Independent Games event with cash prizes, due October 17th! ($100 Fee)
• Web (Flash) – Epic Flash Game Contest – Build Player.io Multiplayer Flash Games with Micro-transactions and win one of 10 Cash and CS6 prizes. Due February 18th
• All – Sellbox – Sell from your Dropbox or Google Drive Account. Deal: 1% Fee! *NEW*

Launching Soon

• PC (Win8/WinRT) – Windows 8 – Integrated store. Launching October 26th! ($49 year)
• Mobile (WP8) – Windows Phone 8 – RTM was Sept 14th. Estimated launch November 2012

Marketplaces (Mobile)

• Mobile (Apple) – iOS App Store – iPhone, iPod touch, iPad ($99 year)
• Mobile (Android) – Android Marketplace – Android phones and tablets ($25 Fee)
• Mobile (Android) – Amazon App Store – Amazon Fire Tablet (First year free, $99 year?)
• Mobile (BlackBerry) – Appworld – PlayBook Tablet and BlackBerry 10 phones (SDK)
• Mobile (WP8) – Windows Phone 8 – TBD
• Mobile (PS Vita, Other) – PlayStation Mobile – Target the PS Vita, Phones, Tablets with C#

Marketplaces (PC)

• PC (Win8/WinRT) – Windows 8 – Microsoft’s Integrated Store ($49 year)
• PC (Mac) – Mac App Store – Apple’s built-in App Store ($99 year)
• PC (Linux) – Ubuntu Software Center – Selling Linux Games (Guide)

• PC (Windows & Mac) – Steam Greenlight – Community voted PC Distribution ($100 Fee)
• PC (Windows & Linux) – Desura – PC Game and Mod storefront with a Steam-like client
• PC (Windows) – Intel AppUp – Windows and Ultrabook Apps
• PC (Windows) – Indie City – Indie Games portal from Blitz Games
• PC (Win, Mac, Linux) – Indievania – No Cost Indie Game Portal (just Paypal fees)
• PC (Win, Mac, Linux, Android) – Gameolith – Download store with many options

Marketplaces (Web)

• Web – Chrome Web Store – Sell content to Chrome browser users ($5 Fee)
• Web – Firefox Marketplace – Mozilla’s Web Store (Preview)

Portals w/ Ad share

• Web (Flash, Unity) – Kongregate
• Web (Flash) – Newgrounds
• PC (Windows) – GameJolt
• Web (Java) – Static Void Games

Licensing/Sponsorship

• Web (Flash, Unity, HTML5) – Flash Game License – Put your games up for auction

Payments

• Paypal – Old Faithful
• Amazon Payments – Payments powered by Amazon
• Google Wallet – Payments powered by Google
• BMT Micro – Long time favorite of many PC/Shareware authors
• Google IAP – In App Payments by Google
• Sellbox – Sell from your Dropbox or Google Drive Account *NEW*

Hardware Surveys

• Unity Hardware Survey (Q3 2012)
• Steam Hardware Survey
• Android Hardware Survey

Resources

• Photon Storm’s HTML5 Game Sponsorship Market Guide
• MakeGamesWithUS – Tutorials and assistance for making iOS games
• Pixel Prospector’s Indie Resources

October is nearly here, so it’s time to kick off for October Challenge 2012!

The October Challenge is a special Ludum Dare event I started two years ago. More and more people are making games today thanks to Game Jams and events like Ludum Dare. And more and more people talk about selling games, but don’t do it. Well, it’s time to start doing it. Put simply:

Finish a game — Take it to market — Earn $1

That is your goal. That is the October Challenge.

Disregard all the usual Ludum Dare rules (no restrictions). Finish any game you previously made during a game jam, something else you’ve been working on, or heck, something entirely new. Your goal, if you choose to accept it, is to not only make something, but to finish it and do everything necessary to start earning money from it. That’s all. No specific rules or platforms. Make good on that goal or promise to start selling games.

Finish your game before November 1st, and submit it to your respected market. That is the challenge. And once you earn your $1, you’ve done it! Easy as that. You’re now a pro.

I’d like to invite everyone to share resources and discuss markets, business models, advertising, and anything related to making that $1. I’ve collected a list of marketplaces, vendor services, and even some opportunities you can take advantage of over here:

October 2012 Resources and Opportunities

If you need a place to start, you can check out this guide I wrote for our first event. Selling games isn’t just finishing it, but there is often paperwork and fees to take care of, and those take time. Do them early to make the most of your time.

Also, do share your progress on your upcoming game with us here on the site. I’ll be opening a submission form soon to collect a list of completed games as they happen.

Keynote Invitation

What’s a Ludum Dare event without a keynote? On deck for the 3rd October Challenge event is Breakdance McFunkypants. Check out what he had to say here:

I’ve posted a few FAQ answers in the comments, so look below. Good luck everyone!

Tags: keynote