Just found out about Ludum Dare today, and it looks like I’m just in time.  I’ll be using Unity as my core engine.  I may also end up using some of Unity’s stock scripts as well as the Smooth Moves plugin.

Looking forward to entering the competition and seeing the other entries!

LD28 12ish hours in

I made some good progress today.  The mechanics of the game are mostly in and working, which frees me up to work on the juice.

So what exactly is the game all about?  If you can’t guess, don’t worry – all will be clear in a mere 30 or so hours!

I had a blast creating Golf Quest for my first time participating in Ludum Dare!  I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from my game page here, my Greenlight page (that’s a whole other post), and friends.  Because of that I’ve got a list of things I want to try to expand the game and improve the overall experience.  I’ve put most of them below in no particular order.

• Give the player more indication / control over ball placement (UI indicators, backspin, topspin, etc).
• Add in a shot rewind feature so you can back up if you make a terrible shot.
• Add in some basic platforming mechanics to see how the game plays when you have to walk to your ball.
• Remove the one hit kill mechanic.  I only included it for theme purposes, and it honestly took more away from the game than it added.  I really liked the theme but I decided I wanted to make this game regardless.  I just wasn’t very creative with my theme integration, despite other ideas.
• Make it more “golfy” by adding in stroke counts / course pars.
• More levels, monsters, characters, and environments of course!  I only had time for one during the Jam.  Similarly, add more game modes.
• Add in actual RPG elements such as upgradeable gear or level ups.
• Introduce environmental hazards – wind, water, lava, etc.
• Tighten up the mechanics / ball physics.
• Redo the graphics with more care & try to create a more compelling visual style.  Do the same with the sound.

Most of the feedback I’ve gotten from people who have played the game indicated frustration with placing shots with any amount of accuracy, so that’s my first concern.  If you’d like to play the game, please head on over to the Golf Quest page here on LD and check it out!  The game was built in Unity and should be playable by most people.  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Adding to the mess of “I’m in” posts.  I think I’ve gotten a fair bit better with my tools since last time, so this time around there should be less “figuring it out” time wasted.  I’m excited to see what the next theme is!

Software Tools:

Unity (I will list any plugins I end up using after I’m done)
Adobe Creative Suite, Audacity, FL Studio, sfxr

Whew!  My entry for LD29 is up as of a couple hours ago.  It’s a sandboxy physics game where you play as a poltergeist defending your castle from invading knights.

Go play it!

If you leave a comment of any kind it’s very likely that I’ll end up playing your game sometime in the next week, so keep that in mind!  I’m sure that goes for a lot of the other developers as well.

I may do a postmortem later in the week.  For now it’s time to chill out with some whiskey and play some games!

Play Tiny Haunt

Tags: Beneath the Surface, final, jam, ld29, screenshot, tiny haunt, unity

I created a brief gameplay video of one of the levels in my LD29 entry Tiny Haunt.  Take a peek below.  Or better yet, play it now!

Tags: gameplay, jam, ld29, tiny haunt, video

It seems like a lot of people like the music in my LD29 entry, so I thought I’d upload it to Soundcloud and share it.

You can also play the game here!

Tags: jam, ld29, music, tiny haunt

Well, I’ve finally rated 100 games from this round of Ludum Dare.  There have been some really great entries!  I thought I’d make a short list of some gems that may still lay beneath the surface for a lot of people.  Here they are in no particular order.  All screenshots are from the respective game’s entry page.

One Cold Night

Play as a dog attempting to rescue survivors on a snowy mountain top.

Play One Cold Night

FuMeKuRi

Catch musical notes while you avoid being hit by the page turn.

Play FuMeKuRi

Burrow Down

Survive multiple dungeon floors while leveling up and gaining upgraded spells.

Play Burrow Down

Shovel Quest

Explore a “dig site” while uncovering lost artifacts from the world above.

Play Shovel Quest

Jelly Hugs (Android)

Help the jellyfish hug the exact number of friends they want.

Play Jelly Hugs

Well there you have it.  You can of course play my own entry Tiny Haunt here as well, if you so choose.  It would be greatly appreciated.  I’m still planning on rating more games, so if you have one that you want me to play, feel free to tweet it to me (@rojomojogogo), or leave the link to your game in the comments.

Tags: burrow down, compo, favorites, fumekuri, game, jam, jelly hugs, ld29, one cold night, screenshot, shovel quest, tiny haunt

Well, after some tuning and graphics updates, I decided to submit Tiny Haunt, my LD29 entry, to IndieCade.  While the LD feedback was vastly positive, there was one common complaint: the game wasn’t hard enough.  I intended the game to be fairly sandboxy, and to that end, fairly easy if you choose.  However, I ran out of time to implement the mechanics that made it more than that.  In the IndieCade build each of the four levels has its own optional challenge, which might be defeating enemies within a certain amount of time, or using only one ability.  I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far, but there is still so much to do!  A big part of the future experience will be enhanced interactions with enemies and more objects put at your disposal.  On top of that I have plans to add an exploration element that allows you to uncover the long lost secrets of your castle.  Exciting times ahead!

Here’s a preview of the IndieCade build.  If you’re interested in the game, don’t hesitate to follow me on Twitter (@rojomojogogo), or add Tiny Haunt to your watch list on IndieDB.

Tags: IndieCade, ld29, postcompo, tiny haunt, unity, video

This’ll be my 3rd time participating in the jam side of Ludum Dare.  And as it just so happens I turned 30 this year and this is round 30.  Truly, the stars have aligned!

 
As for tools, it’ll be the usual.  Unity (crossing fingers for a Unity 5 release), maybe a Unity plugin or two, FL Studio, sfxr, Audacity, Illustrator, Photoshop.

 
There are some great themes, as always.  Looking forward to seeing how things pan out!

Tags: in, unity

Eating well is good gamedev fuel!  I spent the time cooking thinking about what I want to do for this round of Ludum Dare, and it seems like those thoughts are coalescing into a solid idea.  Hope everybody else is having a blast with this theme as well!

Tags: gamedev fuel

My jam entry is rooted in board games, which makes it more complex than some people may be used to.  Since the in game help is limited I thought I would make a quick tutorial video.  If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Play Icarus Crisis

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=29998

Tags: board game, icarus crisis, jam, LD30, strategy, turn-based, tutorial

Well, it’s been a year since I started participating in Ludum Dare, and I’m just as excited now as I was then! I’m looking forward to another round of great games from everybody.

I’ll be using Unity again, almost certainly for a Jam entry. On top of that I’ve got Photoshop, Audacity, Blender, sfxr, and FL Studio at the ready.

Good luck, and I’ll see you all on the other side!

Tags: in, jam, ld31, unity

You vs. a small squad of silly slimes in Slime Spire Showdown, a mini twinstick roguelite a la The Binding of Isaac! Windows build is up, more platforms to follow. Have fun!

Play Now!

Get in touch!

@rojomojogogo on Twitter
www.youtube.com/rojomakesgames

Tags: entire game on one screen, jam, ld31, roguelite, screenshot, slime spire showdown, unity

Hey, folks! I’m in for what will be my fifth time participating in Ludum Dare. I’m glad to say that I’ve come a long way as a developer since my first entry. Now that I’m an adult and jaded on holidays, LD is my new Christmas that comes thrice a year! In between events I’ve been working on building a small YouTube channel, and due to fortunate timing, I’ve just started up an LP of an LD28 game: Titan Souls. Take a look and see what could be if you create something awesome this time around and stick with it, and congrats the Acid Nerve team for taking a great entry to the next level!

Tags: in, LD28, ld32, titan souls, youtube

I was thinking about this ‘friends’ of Ludum Dare judging debate.

What if we gave contributers to the LD community who aren’t contestants a special category to vote in. You can think of this as a separate “Overall” category for people who support this community, but don’t submit a game. Regular contestants (e.g. the developers themselves) would not have access to vote in this category. This special category could be opened up to the ‘friends’ of LD that PoV mentioned, as well as others.

Our category listing would look something like this:

• Overall
• Fun
• Innovation
• Audio
• Graphics
• Theme
• Humor
• Mood
• Community
• Coolness

It seems like some people are feeling like outsiders even though they’re an important part of what we do. We should do what we can to address that. If we want more people like them to take interest, we need to give newcomers a reason to spend time on us. Such a system would allow us to preserve the peer review element of the currently judged categories while allowing non contestants the ability to have their voices heard in an official capacity. I’m not suggesting we implement it for LD32 necessarily, but maybe for LD33 as part of our site rebuild.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this!

Tags: friends, judging, ld32, voting

Had a great time this LD, as usual! I took the keynote’s advice and went with something new to me: a music game. Enjoy!

Play Now!

Tags: hush, jam, ld32, music

I created a trailer for the intro to my jam entry, Hush. Take a peek!

Hush is a music / memory game where you must discover and play bits of songs in order to break the Seals of Silence and return the stolen voices to the creatures of the forest!

Play now!

Tags: hush, jam, ld32, memory, music, trailer, video, youtube

I updated Hushbert’s theme a little. It’s a relatively minor part of my game, but I dig it, and I thought I’d share this with folks. Have a listen!

If you haven’t played Hush yet, click below to give it a try!

Play Hush

Tags: hush, jam, ld32, music

Voting’s almost at an end! The theme ended up helping to create way more cool games than I ever expected. I’m still going to be playing some this evening and tomorrow, and luckily you can do the same! You can check out my entry Hush below. It’s a mini musical matching game!

Play Now!

Tags: hush, jam, ld32, music, screenshots, video