For the first time we are coming together to make a video game, We are really exited. best of luck and have fun all.

-RiverPirates

So this is the first time we are jamming with our crew from Riverpirate Games. In May this year we started to form a team, to build a game after an idea of one of our founding members. At this point, 6 months later, we have formed a motivated team and work on a weekly base to develope our skills, since we have little experience producing and publishing games. Taking part in the LDJam is basically to get more routine and experience in designing and building games. Also it's a great teambuilding excercise!

Our team consists of: - two programmers - two graphic artists - two audio producers - three people taking care of management, logistics and communication

The concept we came up with, is a 2D slider game with a funny, yet sinister artstyle. It's about a character walking around with a petroleum lamp in an abandoned environment (The idea partly came forth out of an old petroleum fueled heater, which we used to heat our Jam location). The lamp only provides enough light to illuminate the small part around the character, but can be increased to see more of the characters surroundings and upcoming obstacles and possible collectibles. The extra illumination has a downside though; more lighting will attract enemies in all kinds of different forms.

The first day is going smoothly so far. After tonights start (it was 3am local time), half of the team was exhausted by the time we figured out the concept we wanted to build. So some of us went to sleep, while some of us worked the whole night.

At this moment we have completed in-game music and most of the soundeffects. The graphic design is well on it's way, with the playable character drawn and animated. The work that still has to be done, is mostly programming and world/level design.

If you want to see our team in action, visit our Twitch channel at: https://www.twitch.tv/riverpirategames

I think our character looks really cool, we couldn't have done it without our teams amazing artist :D Work is going smoothly here in the Netherlands. Working around the clock. Join our fun on twitch :) https://www.twitch.tv/riverpirategames

I'm sorry for posting another one I just think it looks so cool. Here is our character in the dark. Working on the level design right now!

It looks like this is our final build.

After only 43 of the 72 hours and little sleep, the whole team is exhausted. Unfortunately we all have to work tomorrow, so it's time to go back home (22:00 local). We were not able to finish some of the planned assets, among which the walking enemy and backdrop, due to the graphic designer hurting his back.

We didn't have the time to meet all our ambitions, but overall we are satisfied with the result. In particular the learning and teambuilding effect of coming up with a concept and building a game around a given theme in such short time. Because we all have an unlimited fantasy, our ambitions were bigger then we could accomplish but overall it was a fun and educational weekend for all of us! We can conclude that our workflow is good and we have a perfect atmosphere in our team.

The game we made is based on the theme "The more you have, the worse it gets". After a brainstorm and voting session of 1.5 hour we decided to do something with illumination and darkness, as in the more illumination you have, the worse it gets. Ourselves we are especially satisfied about how the art-style and audio came togehter.

Along the way the concept developed into a sidescroller, where you play as a man walking with a petroleum lamp through a abandoned area. Within the area you'll ran into flying enemies (bats) and walking enemies (in this case a green block). It's really dark and to see where the road goes and avoid pitfalls, you will have to illuminate your surrounding by turning up the petroleum lamp (with buttons 1, 2, 3 and 4). However by illuminating your lamp too much, you will attract enemies... See what we did there? The more light you have, the worse it gets!

Collect diamonds and be aware not to run out of petrol! You can pick up petrol in jerrycans along your way.

All programming and asset creation was done during this weekend. This includes audio, artwork etcetera.

Check out our game here: https://riverpirategames.com/ld40/

First of all, we want to thank everyone who played and rated our game!

We had an amazing weekend in which we learned a lot and did some good team bonding. This was our first Ludumdare, even though we weren't able to apply all of our ideas, We are satisfied with the finale Build.

Our scores: Sorry for the size.

If you would like to play our game, you still can! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/torcher