So I went back to GM and made some progress. Wee!

The basic idea is now, that there are 2 types of magic(?) fields. One shrinks the character and the other one makes him grow again. I want to create a very diverse game, where you have to use these fields as clever as possible, even though that means my graphics score will probably be somewhere around 2.3 ^^;

You can watch my stream here or here

Also: Holy mother, I have another screenshot for you!

Here. (Look under “Game (WIP)”)

There is my first demo.

You can control via the arrow keys, and the rest is up to you.

Shrinking, growing, fucking around with the arrow traps and dieing while doing so. I don’t care ^^

WARNING: This build IS buggy and I am aware of this.

Grab it while it’s hot!

A nice little word of warning: It’s unfair. Really unfair. It’s my random DevVersion-Level.
Also: BUG-FREE! B U G F R E E! NO BUG-FIXING FOR ME! WOO!

And it’s over! Thanks to the 30 guys who actually tried their hands at such a challenging theme!

THEME: Contrasts!

Happening at your house from July 9th all the way to the 15th!

What do I mean with ‘Contrasts’?
I mean everything!

Be it graphics (i. e. green on red), physics (Think magnets) or the gameplay (Die to win). Else, just go crazy and make something that’s the total opposite of a usual game!

RULES:

• Do you have that one framework you made, but couldn’t use for LD, because you didn’t want to make it public domain? Here’s your chance. Grab it and use it! (Don’t write your whole game beforehand, though.)
• No need to add your source. You can still do that, though.
• Feel free to work in a team, if you want to!
• More time. I’ll give ya a week. Really relaxed, to get warm for LD.

CHALLENGES:

One week is too easy? Well, try some of these challenges.

• Implement a single piece of everything: music, SFX, a single finished sprite  – All that stuff. Just use your skills to the fullest.
• Use at least 8 colors per sprite. (Get that thing colored!)
• Go funky – Every color used must have it’s contrasting color implemented (Use blue, get orange in there – red, green – black, white.)

And that’s about it so far.

If you have further questions, ask away in the comments or tweet me here.

All Entries

So, I’m gonna use HTML5/JavaScript and all that, but I leave out the LimeJS part. I just feel uncomfortable using libraries. I don’t know why. That’s all.

– Folis

Folis here, writing from Italy

I just wanted to wish all the people who compete this time: Good Luck!
I’m enjoying my holidays in the meantime! We have 35C air temperature and the water also has very enjoyable 30C! (American people: Go to Google and convert that. I’m on a phone :P)

At this time I know that I might even be able to submit something small for the compo! Time to get Game Maker and use it for what it’s meant: Fast and easy game creation. Definitely count me as ‘I am in’!

That’s about it!

Greetings from
Malibu Beach, Jesolo, Italia.

– Folis

Finally!

I have only 10 hours to make something for the compo, but with a lot of coffee and some hard work it should be do-able.
I have an idea, yet I’m not so much a fan of the theme. It gives me the feeling, that we might get Fishing or Kittens next. That’d be uncool. Seriously.

btw, I’ll be streaming >HERE< in horrible 5:4 resolution with tons of nasty black bars

This is going to be either a huge success or an epic failure.

Happy jammin’,
Folis

I AM DONE!

I told you, that I would do it, and I did it. Nobody, not even a damn amazing holiday, can stop me from participating in one of the greatest events known to mankind. It was a crazy experience, as 10 hours are… like no time at all. Anyways, I don’t want to let you read a whole wall of text, so..

Click here to play my game

Don’t expect it to be good. To be honest, I admit that it’s pretty darn boring. It also has 2 bugs. And no music or sound.

I’ve never been this proud of a game before, though!

That’s it for now, I’ll write a post-mortem tomorrow.

– Folis

Ah yes. That contest. Ludum Dare 24. I remember it like it was yesterday…

Maybe, because it was. And I’m here to tell you how it felt to make a game in 10 hours!
________________________________________________________________________

This LD was a blast! I made a game in 10 hours! People are giving me nice ratings! People want a post-compo version! People are encouraging me! People are calling me the “10-hour-village-game-guy” in IRC!

I once before did a game in a short period of time. 6 hours to be exact, you can watch that here.
I’m not proud of that game and it’s development history, but I made it quickly. That’s what counts!

So, if I ain’t proud about my last quick game, what’s the difference with this one?
The difference is that I am PROUD of this one! I love it!

It also has it’s own website here

Now let’s go through a chronologic timeline, shall we?

TIMELINE

Saturday – 8 a.m. – I was in Italy. I looked at theme. I panicked.
Saturday – 12 p.m. – I had an idea. I couldn’t realize it though.
Saturday – 9 p.m. – I decided to hang around in IRC. Slightly depressed.

Sunday – 4 p.m. – I was at home. Finally. I was able to start a game.
Sunday – 5 p.m. – I had first interface sprites and the functionality in place
Sunday – 6 p.m. – Food. And first gameplay. You could now build a farm.
Sunday – 7 p.m. – Fiddling with the sprites to make the UI nice and functional.
Sunday – 8 p.m. – More sprites. Drawing sprites. Coloring Sprites. Drawing Fury!
Sunday – 9 p.m. – Code! Code! Code! Mild signs of last minute panix.
Sunday – 10 p.m. – Sprites! Sprites! I need too many damn sprites!
Sunday – 11 p.m. – Coffee Break. Thinking on what to do next.

Monday – 12 a.m. – Last minute panix. Cutting out features (i.e. walls)
Monday – 1 a.m. – DRAWING! CODING! OMG! PANIX!
Monday – 2 a.m. – README! MORE README! PANIX!
Monday – 2:30 a.m. – PACKAGING! UPLOADING! PANIX!
Monday – 2:40 a.m. – Submitted 20 minutes before the end of the compo.

Now on to the right/wrong list!

What went right:

• Graphics. I had next to no time, but I made really pretty art!
• Idea. I had a very good idea from the start, and it was simple to do.

What went mediocre:

• Theme.I can’t help it. I would’ve loved to keep Evolution in the voting.
• Game. I’m pretty happy with it, considering the 10 hour limit. Still could’ve been better.

What went wrong:

• Time. I was in Italy for most of the contest! No way to do anything!
• Audio. It was a close call! I just didn’t have the time!

_____________________________________________________________________

And this is about it.
Also some advice for the new guys:
DO NOT DO THIS! IT’S NOT AS COOL AS IT MAY LOOK!

I am also working on a post-compo version! It’ll have to wait until I finished the website for my classmates, though!

I’ll go to bed now. It’s 1 am. I’m tired. And stuff.

– Folis

Anything you want to know stands here.

I’m gonna make a game from scratch, and it’s gonna be simplistic.
Perhaps Android.

Also check out my Twitter! 😀

– Folis

See title.

It’s my 7th time now, and wow… It’s been some time since the 18th Dare, eh?

Anyways, onto the tools of my needs!

Language: JS + Canvas
Library: Probably none.

Art-sy stuff: Paint.NET
Bleeps and blops: BFXR
Music: Err.. Uhm. If I have time. And enough skills.

Crispy stuff: Pringles! And cheese puffs!
Drinking stuff: Caffeine (Coffee, Energy Drinks), Water

General plan: Panix for at least 1 hour at the start and the end of the compo.

And I don’t have any more info to share. I haven’t done much interesting stuff in the past 3 months, besides working on my IRC bot a bit, and creating a chatting application in Python. (The server is really unstable on Windows, though.)

See ya!
Folis

Well, looks like we have a lot of newcomers again this time!

And as I appreciate all of the new guys, I’ll just welcome all of you! So have a warm welcome and a hug from me!

And now I’ll try my hand at a McFunkypants-style guide, which contains some  teaching and hinting and also motivation!:

• To get the most out of the compo, join the #ludumdare IRC channel on the AfterNET IRC network. (You need a IRC client for that. Check here or here or here for these.) – There are tons of awesome, and really nice people there who are willing to help you. If you want to talk to me directly just poke Folis. I’m there very often.
• Generally get involved with the community as much as you can! People love to see photos of your desk, food, a timelapse (you can use ChronoLapse by Keeyai for this), or just a screenshot with some text every now and then. Also, don’t forget to write a post-mortem!
• Check out the LD survival guide by fellow LDer Sol_HSA – It’s a very nice guide that helped me a lot during my first compo! You don’t have to follow every rule, but there are a few I can recommend: Sleep, tool preparation (use the Warmup for that!), and taking breaks. Those helped me the most. You should probably avoid alcohol too.
• Check the tips section, it contains many useful posts written by other LD veterans! They know what they’re talking about!
• And some general tips for the game design:

  KISS (Keep it simple & stupid)!

  Your game shouldn’t be a overly complex 3D turn-based online strategy sim! Try to get a small idea. Describe it briefly (about the size of a tweet. Thanks to Neonlare for that idea!)

  Cut features when needed! Sometimes there’s this great mechanic you have, and it takes AGES to implement. This is where a mental battle begins. If a feature takes too long to implement, you should consider cutting it (except if it’s your core mechanic). Sometimes that’ll help with speeding up development!
  

  Get something playable quickly! You shouldn’t waste any time getting some nice, solid engine going. You don’t need an all-rounder. Just get your core mechanic into the game as fast as you can. If all else fails, you can still submit something like that.

  Avoid feature creep. Yes, there’s this great feature, and that great mechanic, but you have a very limited timeframe, so forget about all the unneeded mechanics. Focus on the main idea!

  Playtest, playtest, playtest! Hop on IRC (see above) and let people play your game (there’s always someone who has time for this)! They will find bugs you might not see! And they can point out any balancing flaws, graphical hiccups and other problems (The experience of DLL hell isn’t exactly great.)

  Polish! If you have time left, replace the placeholder art with some pretty pixels. Compose some music (check the tools section!), add some bleeps and blops! Give your game that “finished” feel.

• But there’s one rule above all others: Don’t forget to have fun! After all, Ludum Dare is a competition just for the fun of making games! You shouldn’t force yourself to apply all of these rules, if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.

And after you read through this wall of text, here are some final words of motivation: Even if the time is limited, I know that you CAN do it! We all can do it!

Perhaps you are like me and have never made a game before Ludum Dare? Don’t worry! My very first game ever was made during Ludum Dare #19!

And even if you don’t manage to finish: There is always a next time.

Alright, that’s all I have to say for today!
Maybe you’ll come to IRC for a chat?

See ya,
– Folis

(P.S: Is there like a position for welcoming and helping the first-timers with their questions? If there is, I’d love to do that! *looks at PoV*)

Tags: tips

Alright! After sleeping 7 hours longer than intended and fiddling around with JS a bit I have finally started doing my game! I’ll let the pictures speak!

First off is the brainstorm I did while drinking coffee. If you can read my writing: I sincerely congratulate you. You are 1 in 1 000. Seriously.

Crappy handwriting FTW! (NOT.)

And next up is a screenshot of the game in it’s current state. It doesn’t do much as of now, but it generates small villages, which is awesome itself. You can make your own villages here!

And that’s it. Nothing more done yet. I need to speed up a bit!

General motivation:

The pictures I’ve seen so far are great! Keep it up guys! I know you can finish all of your games!

There.

– Folis

Aren’t those tasty-looking Krapfen standing on my tablet in front of my old HDD?

Tags: foodphoto

Yes, it’s actually THIS awesome! (Click on image to “play”)

Tags: screenshot

EPIC REBOOT.

Yes, kinda. The story behind this is, that I either need a VERY limited timeframe (see my LD24 game.), or I need to restart mid-compo (See the rest of my games). If neither of these things are there, you can bet 200$ that I won’t finish. Anyways. Back to brainstorming. Yeehaw.

– Folis

Yes. Folis is out. I only have ~22 minutes left until I’m away for the rest of the time. Not gonna make a game in that time, even though I already made a game in “0” hours.

Looks like I should’ve read my own tips sheet 😉
No, tbh: I didn’t like the theme from the beginning. All the concepts I had were either overly-complicated or no fun at all. That didn’t work out.

I’ll write a longer post-mortem tomorrow. I’mma go take a shower now!

– Folis

There is my timelapse! It’s really short (just like my development time!)

Tags: timelapse

First off, yes I know that LD11’s theme was ‘Minimalist’, whatever.

Secondly:

I actually like the theme, because it fits my style of LD games. Which is probably not a good sign, though. Anyways, I’m still failing in the idea department.

Instead of interesting news, take a picture of my desk:

Ain’t it pretty?