I was worried last weekend when my laptop broke down on me that I was going to miss out on another one of these. Luckily I was able to find a computer that I could afford with money I was saving up for a new one anyways. I wasn't sure if it was going to be delivered in time but according to my delivery tracking it should be arriving tonight, so that means I should be hopefully only missing a couple hours at most.

My new computer arrived during the day so I was able to get it set up during my lunch break. I decided to make a game inspired by Ghost Trick since it's one of my favorites and it's about preventing death.

Using Unity since I'm somewhat familiar with it (although I've found out I've gotten really rusty). Got some basic controls setup and started construction of level I think I'll be using for the opening.

Would love to have done more tonight, but I'm too tired from work. I'll just have to be sure to put in more effort during the next two days. I'm likely aiming for the Jam unless I hit a breakthrough in productivity since this is my first one.

Was thinking about my game idea as I went to sleep and again in the shower this morning and realized it's no good. It'd be too much work to make a good game in a couple days where the puzzles hinge on making specific object interactions. Luckily I had another idea in the shower of a game that's kind of Tomodatchi-like. I think I can more easily make a fun game in the remaining time that deals with balancing parameters than what I had started last night. I think I'm going to switch from Unity to Ren'Py because that seems like a much better system for the style of game I have in mind.

Got some basic art setup for the alien creature and a background. Also got a basically game loop setup of taking care of the alien each day. Just need to work on adding more things that need to be taken care of to keep the alien alive and probably adding some random events that can happen.

It's been a long day of working and I feel like I have good chunk of the gameplay set up. Have it setup so the player has to balance spending the day learning new information about the alien with adjusting the environment the alien is in so it stays healthy. Hoping to add some more needs/parameters to the alien creature that aren't necessarily environment based like affection or level of activity, but for the most part it's looking good. Tomorrow's going to involve working on those systems, adjusting how the various values affect the aliens health, and hopefully making more and better art. I was only planning on entering the Jam (and I probably still will so I have more time to refine things) but I think if I really tried I could get this done for the Compo.

I did not have the most productive day yesterday but I believe I'm on track to finish on time. Just gotta flesh out a couple of final things and then hopefully I can get some help testing it while I work on art so I have an idea of how to adjust the values for better balance.

Ok I think I've done as much work as I can with the time left setting up the main sections of the game and making it work. I'm going to take a short break and then work on making more art for it.

If anyone is able to I could use some thoughts on it. It's a Visual Novel style game where you're taking care of an alien creature until you can make it to a shelter for it. You have to balance researching information about it with adjusting its environment to keep it healthy. I think I made it a bit to easy (and would've like more health concerns or events or something to manage) but it's hard to tell since I know how things work.

If you're available to test it and give me your thoughts here's the link for it: https://pyronaut.itch.io/keep-it-alive-ld46?secret=RGZN75RLWpNA52S3jkp1KfLtWU

Thanks! :)

I was able to get a family member to help test out my games so I could get another perspective on it. Made a few adjustments to some values, fixed some typos, and slapped together some slightly different art for certain scenarios.

Now that I have a brand new computer that hopefully isn't going to be giving me as much trouble as my old laptop, I'm gonna do some practice with Unity, Gamemaker, and other tools so I'll have more options of things to use in October :)

Thanks to anyone who plays and rates my game! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/alien-endangered

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Just got out of work, but I was able to check the theme when it was announced and come up an idea I'd like to try. Feeling nervous and hungry, so I'm gonna have some food and then get started trying to set up a base for my idea. Looking forward to the next few days and seeing how unstable everyone can get lol

I figured out what I liked to do and setup a simple scene in Unity to help me think about it and get a better picture to take notes on. One of my first ideas when I thought of "unstable" was alchemy (probably because I have been playing Potion Craft recently). Unlike Potion Craft where it's fairly calm and everything revolves around interacting with the potion chart, my idea is to have a game where you have to create potions by balancing different aspects of the mixture and prevent it from becoming unstable.

First I'm going to just start of simple with only a few ingredients and potions that can be made. The only aspects I'm going to try to implement at first are concentration of the ingredients and temperature of the mixture because those are the easiest to wrap my head around.

From there I'd like to add other things like interactions between ingredients and other aspects like acidity or something.

If I'm able to make a complex enough potion maker in time, I'd like to expand the game so you have to balance other things like your customer base. (Thinking something like Reigns where if you piss off certain groups of people too much you die)

Feeling tired since I had to work today before starting this so I'm gonna turn in early to get a full rest for the first full day tomorrow.

Got a decent start to the game tonight I think.

Clicking the blue circle toggles water filling up the pot, while clicking the jar on the shelf adds some (currently spriteless) herbs that will slowly diffuse into the mixture. The info panel in the bottom right currently has two meter that show you how full the pot is and the concentration of the mixture.

First thing tomorrow, I plan to add three more interactable objects: something to stir the mixture so the herbs diffuse more quickly, something to dump the pot and start over, and something to make a potion bottle out of the mixture. After that, I'll probably reorganize my code a bit to make it easier to add more things. And then I may start looking into actually making sprites for the objects.

Good night and good luck everyone!

Making some progress today. Added a box of bottles that can be filled with whatever's in the pot as well as a trash that can be used to dispose of bottles or empty whatever is left in the pot.

Gonna take a short walk to clear my head and then try to figure out what I should do next. Thinking of either:

1) Adding more ingredients/aspects to the potion making

2) Adding some sort of shop system or win/fail condition

3) Or maybe working on the graphics and adding some better UI

Best of luck to everyone

Hit a bit of a wall in my progress last night trying to figure out how exactly to go about about things and then woke up this morning with a headache that's been fading in and out. I don't think I'm going to make any more progress until it goes away and I don't believe I'll have enough time to finish my project once it does. I could've maybe gotten something done by the Jam deadline, but I let the date for this event sneak up on me and forgot to request the Monday off from work.

I am however happy with my idea and what I was able to get done compared to the only previous jam I did. I enjoyed making the potion bottles able to be filled with different colors and be thrown around the screen. I would like to finish my game, but I'll do it later at my own pace.

Gonna work on getting more experienced with my tools and working on improving my workflow so that I'll be more ready for the next Jam.

Good luck to everyone still working!

3rd time participating in one of these. Hoping to actually finish my game this time. Going to aim for a Jam entry, but I'll go for the Extra instead if I struggle like last year. I'm also off work for all of next week, which should help if I need it.

Really liked the idea I had for the Only One Resource theme, so I'm repurposing it for Delay the Inevitable by making a sort of tower defense. Working with Unity since that's what I'm most used to. Didn't get much done tonight other than the start of a hex grid, but I'm gonna get a good rest to go at it all day tomorrow.

I greatly overestimated the effort I needed to set up the hex map I wanted for my game, even with using a tutorial to help. Probably should have cut back on the map so I could focus more on things more integral to the gameplay loop, but I also want to have the map code nicely fleshed out so I can repurpose it for other projects where I want a hex map.

I was hoping to be able to submit for the Jam, but I'll have to see how much I can do tomorrow since I'm feeling like I should turn in for the night. If it doesn't seem like I can make something nice enough in time I'll submit for the Extra and try to work faster next time.