This will be my first Ludum Dare. I may have a 12-hour bus trip right in the middle of the 48 hours, but I’ll have my laptop on the bus, so I’ll do my best!

I’ll be using AS3 with FlashPunk in Flash Builder and making the art in Photoshop. I don’t know yet about music/sound.

Hello, friends! I’m a newbie here, but I thought I might be able to share a useful idea.

As far as I can tell, using Wolfram Tones to create music for your game is within the rules (as long as you don’t sell your game, which might go against Wolfram’s terms of service.) Since I have no musical talent, I will probably generate music for my game that way when the time comes.

So do all you non-musical LD participants know about this already? Is there a better version out there that I’m not aware of? Or is this against the rules somehow?

Edit: Thanks for the tips, everyone!

I’ve been too busy with actual life stuff to work on my game a lot, so I think I’ll submit it to the Jam instead.

Here’s a pic of my game:

The game is a bit like Pacman – you play as a king who has to stop all his subjects from bugging him so he can get some work done.

I still need get the movement working smoothly, implement UI and scoring, and hopefully add more people and rooms. I’m looking forward to getting it all working!

I just finished my first Ludum Dare, and it was a success! Admittedly I didn’t finish in time for the compo and my game’s still not totally done, but I’m still proud of what I did.

The Game

The gameplay of Busy King is something like Pacman, but a bit more strategic (for example, you can hide in other rooms, and you should probably avoid the wizard.) You play as a king who needs some alone time to get some work done, but his subjects keep seeking him out to ask him stuff. The only way to get rid of them is to bring them back to the room they came from.

If anyone is wondering what the characters are supposed to be: the pages (red) belong in the dining room, the advisors (green) belong in council chamber, the knights (blue) belong in the armory, and the wizard (purple) belongs in his tower. I would have added more characters (including kittens!) if I had more time.

The bad

Too many other things to do! All Saturday night was spent on a bus, and almost all Sunday was spent with my relatives. So it was not a good weekend for Ludum Dare – but I was able to get the game playable on Monday. There are still some weird bugs though (I like the one where a subject suddenly is able to walk through walls and escapes the castle.)

I also wish I had done the instructions differently. I wanted to be in the cool club and use integrated instructions but it didn’t work well, and I was out of time at that point. Since the instructions are simple, a single splash screen might have been better.

The good

The game turned out fun! The concept evolved over time: at first I was thinking of a time management game where you had to assign your subjects different jobs in order to get them out of your way (which would probably not be practical for Ludum Dare), but after discussing the idea with friends I ended up with this. (By the way, the king idea came from watching Merlin just before starting…)

I’m happy with the graphics too, and I think that using a scroll for the meter was a good idea.

I’m looking forward to the next Ludum Dare, when I can hopefully devote more of my weekend to it! In the meantime, I probably try to finish Busy King, especially if people think it’s fun.

Play and rate here

Tags: postmortem

I’ve updated my LD22 entry with bug fixes, better instructions, music & sound, and a timer. You can play the new version here. Of course, the original is still available for voting here.

I was very happy to hear that people enjoyed the game. I don’t know if I’ll ever add more content and levels to make it into a long game, but I was able to polish it a bit more. The two big bugs I fixed were 1) subjects who stop colliding with walls and just leave the castle and 2) the player not being able to turn exactly when he wants to. The only other bug I know of is that subjects don’t always leave and enter their rooms well, but that doesn’t affect gameplay, so I left it for now.

I’m very excited for my second Ludum Dare!

I’ll be using AS3 with FlashPunk in Flash Builder and making the art in Photoshop. I don’t know yet about music/sound.

Now I just need to finish all my schoolwork before Friday…

My game focuses on the “tiny world” of a small town where you have to deal with constantly shifting feuds and alliances between the residents by rearranging their houses so no one lives next to the person they dislike. At least, that’s the plan at the moment. I’m still working on a playable game so I can figure out whether this will be fun. But for now I’m going to bed so I can have lots of energy tomorrow!

Here’s a quick screenshot. I plan to redo the graphics, and probably make them a little larger than this. (And there will be more than 3 people!)

Once again I didn’t finish my game in time for the compo so I’ll be entering the Jam insteat. I’ve been working hard almost the whole time, but I made some mistakes like focussing on the details before all the general stuff works and trying to staying up all night, which only made me groggy for the whole day today!

Here’s a screenshot of the game. I hope to iron out all the issues, add some final details, and even get multiple levels set up tomorrow.

Play and rate

Tinyville Confidential is my submission for LD 23. It’s supposed to be a puzzle game in which you have to optimize the arrangements of houses in this small town, but with the dynamic element that the residents keep changing who they want and don’t want to live next to. Somehow this game ended up both less finished and less fun than my LD 22 game, even though I had more time to work on it. Here’s what I think went wrong, and what I learned.

Probably my biggest mistake was trying to make a complicated game (to create, not to play.) Ludum Dare is a good chance to try weird games, but only if you can actually finish them in time. For my next LD I’m going to try my hardest to pick a super-simple concept so that I can submit a complete game in 48 hours, instead of an incomplete game in 72!

I also spent a long time on the wrong things. I wasted a lot of time trying to make a complicated method for the people to walk around town, but choosing a direction randomly ended up working fine. The graphics also sucked up too much of my time, and I didn’t even get a chance to add flowers and other scenery. Instead of making each element look as good as possible, I should have made them all look pretty good and moved on.

I really learned a lesson about getting enough sleep. I stayed up most of Saturday night, since I wanted those extra 6 hours for my game. This might be a viable strategy for something that’s due in the morning, but the result in this case was that I spent all Sunday sleepy and grumpy, which made working on my game seem more like a chore than fun. So, I’m definitely getting enough sleep next during the next LD!

What went right? Well, watching the people in the game interact and reading the newspaper is pretty fun! If I do have a chance to refine the puzzle aspect (maybe give unlimited time for the puzzle part, and make it more clear where there are conflicts) and add multiple levels, etc, I think this could be a good game.

For LD#23 I tried to create a sort of fast-paced puzzle game called Tinyville Confidential. I wasn’t really able to finish it on time for LD (here‘s my entry), but I finally got around to working on it some more! Now featuring multiple levels, the ability to win the game, and (hopefully) a time limit that’s actually fun. Give it a try!

I probably won’t work on it much more, but I’d still be happy to hear comments and suggestions. I’m really happy that LD inspired me to make this interesting game, and I’m looking forward to LD#24!

I’ve participated in the previous two LDs and I’ve been waiting for this one ever since I finished the last one! I’m going to do a few things differently this time:

1. I’ll be using HTML5/Javascript for practice, even though I’m much more comfortable with AS3. I’m going to start with some base code I put together myself (it’s mainly to deal with animated sprites) which you can get here.

2. This time I’m determined to finish in 48 hours! My past two attempts dragged on into the Jam time even though I’m working alone. This time I’m going to make sure to finish the basic game and then have time to improve.

Good luck everyone!

My current idea is that bunch of creatures are running around having babies, and you have to get them to evolve into the form you want by wiping out ones you don’t want to reproduce via natural disasters and such. It’s not terribly original, but I hope it will be fun. Anyway, here are some of the creatures. Current traits: color, furriness, height, ears, and head shape (not sure if I’ll keep this one.)

This is Poggle Island! The purpose of the game is to breed a target creature. Doing that means eliminating creatures you don’t want from the gene pool, either by making the climate inhabitable for them or sniping them with lightning bolts. Play and rate it here!

Good

• I made a very polished game in 48 hours! On Saturday night, I had the gameplay down but was worried that the game wasn’t very fun. Should I try to make some big gameplay changes or stick with what I had? With just 12 hours left, I decided to keep the gameplay but focus on polish. I think that was a better idea than starting some whole new game features that might not be done in time.
• At the last minute, I added the pile of bones when a Poggle dies. I think that was a great thing to add, because it emphasizes the humorous aspect of killing off groups of small, cute animals.

Bad

• The theme. I couldn’t really think of any very interesting ideas. On the other hand, then one I did use follows the theme very closely. (Less fit organisms die due to environmental changes.)
• Not playtesting! I always think that I need graphics in order to test the game, so I spend hours on the graphics before I even know if the game is fun. In the future I have to use placeholder graphics and nail down fun gameplay before I get started on the art.
• If I had just a tiny bit more time, I would have tweaked when Poggles mate so that it was a bit more consistent and manageable…

Unexpected benefit: Reminiscing about some great old computer games, like Fripples and Mixed Genetics.

Tags: ld24, post-mortem

I’ve fixed some bugs/gameplay flaws in my LD24 entry! Lightning now loads faster and reaches the bottom of the island, and some issues with mating were fixed. It should be more playable now – you can try the new version here (or play & rate the original entry!)

Since my game is a bit confusing, I also made a quick playthrough video that shows one way to complete the game. You can see that I focus on the Poggles with features I want (round ears, long nose, and then long legs) and get rid of the rest.

I’m in for my 4th Ludum Dare. In previous LDs I’ve made a fun game, an innovative game, and a polished game. Can I excel in all three this time? We will see.

I think I’ll make my game in LOVE since I want some practice with Lua. I’ll also use Photoshop, sfxr, and autotracker-c.

I’m looking forward to it! See you next weekend!

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I’m excited for my 5th LD! But I’m busy on Friday and Sunday… so I’m going to try making a game on Saturday only. We’ll see how it goes! I’ll be using the engine I have the most experience with: AS3 with Flixel.

The themes look great! I can’t wait for Saturday!

The goal of Nod is to get a date with a cute girl. Unfortunately, you’re too shy to talk. Instead, you have to nod your head at just the right moments to succeed!

 The aspect I enjoyed the most was designing the XML schema and parsing the dialogue. But the thing I’m least happy about is that I didn’t have time to write more complex dialogue. Right now it plays like a choose-your-own adventure, even though the system allows for more complex scenarios. Still, I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish in very little time (~12 hours)!

Play and rate here.

I thought I had a conflict but it was moved, so I’m 100% free this weekend and I can’t wait! I love Ludum Dare! This will be my 6th time.

• Code: HTML5/JS with Quintus
• Art: Photoshop
• Sound: SFXR
• Music: Autotracker-C

In the past I’ve tried different approaches to LD and focused variously on fun, innovation, polish, or learning a new platform. This time my goal is to make a game with a future after LD. We’ll see how that goes!

I started working on a murder mystery game. This is almost definitely a mistake. I don’t know why I’m doing (another) dialogue-based game when I’m supposed to be practicing programming, not writing dialogue. Still, if I can finish the game in 48 hours, I think it will really stand out. Well, bedtime for now and I’ll consider starting over tomorrow.

Early character sketches:

My jam game is a murder mystery about a professor’s mysterious death during a 10-second blackout. It was a bit too ambitious for 72 hours, but I’m pretty happy with what we got done.

Here’s what the game looked like on Saturday:

And here’s the final look:

I’ll post a longer post-mortem later. For now, you can play my game here!